Lately we have been noticing these little white flakes all over the cockpit and on the surfaces below. What the hell is this stuff, we want to know. It looks like latex paint that has flaked off but we cannot find the source and it is all over everything. Life on a boat is filled with little mysteries like this. The stuff was driving us crazy and also all I could think was how much work we were in for refinishing whatever was going bad. But why suddenly and why now? That made no logical sense.

Since the winds have calmed enough for me to move around the cockpit safely I spent time this morning cleaning the floor and surfaces, determined to once more have a boat that wasn’t covered in fine white powder, worried that Homeland Security might suspect us of being drug mules. Despite my best attempts I could not figure where this stuff was coming from. But at least we had a clean cockpit.

Then Mike poked his head up and said he had discovered the culprit. It was his foul weather gear. The rubberized, probably latex, lining had gone bad. He discovered this when he was putting on the coveralls and realized a virtual cloud of tiny bits of rubberized stuff was making him look like he was either standing in snow or had a terrible case of dandruff. They just don’t make things like they used to. I mean these coveralls are no more than 15 years old and for the last three years they have been stored in the ideal conditions found on a boat in a blistering hot climate that breaks down plastics faster than fish can fly. How dare they go bad right now as we prepare to sail north? I have a burning desire to call West Marine and give them a piece of my mind while I am buying Mike another pair just like them.

If you are wondering why Mike was wearing his foul, foul weather gear it’s because it’s cold. Someone forgot to tell the weather gods that we had expected a warm and sunny passage. I only hope they will arrange warm weather for Hawaii. We are about halfway there! Come. On. Sunshine.

Now that we know Michael needs new pants I should probably locate and check mine. If they have also gone bad I am hoping to find some new ones with chickens on them. I will call them my ‘fowlies’ .

(Sorry, Jill. Had to do it. ) 😹

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