Everybody Eats. The Laundry Doesn’t Do Itself.

Everybody eats. The laundry doesn’t do itself. And being the cook doesn’t make the deck work disappear.

Aboard the Aqua Service, I’m the deckhand-cook. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are my responsibility, alongside laundry, morning preparation, engine-room checks and helping with maintenance. That little hyphen in the job title has a lot of work hanging off it.

The jobs around the jobs

When I talk about working on a boat, it’s easy to jump straight to what happens on deck. But a fair chunk of my day lives around the edges of that work: getting food ready, running errands, finding tools and equipment for the crew, and dealing with the ordinary things people need when they live where they work.

A recent morning was a good example. I was cooking breakfast, running errands and getting equipment for the crew. Then cable preparation joined the list. That’s the sort of day behind the name The Curse of the Deckhand. You can have plenty on already, and there’s still another job to fit in.

Three meals keep coming

Breakfast, lunch and dinner give the day three very definite appointments. Whatever else we’re working on, people still need to eat. Cooking around deck duties means thinking ahead about what I can prepare and what will need my attention later.

Then there’s the laundry. It’s not much of a headline, but it’s part of the job. So are cleaning and preparation. A boat is a workplace and a shared living space, and those small jobs follow you into both.

Useful is a good thing to be

I like being able to turn my hand to different things. Teaching English, cooking, working on boats—different settings, but there’s a familiar question underneath: what needs doing, and how can I help?

The answer isn’t always exciting. Sometimes it’s getting the equipment somebody needs. Sometimes it’s making a meal. Sometimes it’s remembering the laundry while everything else is going on.

That fits the Grifter’s Code: Help yourself by helping other people more. There’s nothing abstract about it when you’re feeding the people you work beside.

The curse continues

These are the bits of boat life I want to keep telling: the work, the food, the ordinary complications and the humour that comes with trying to fit it all together. There’s plenty of story in the jobs nobody sees.

Everybody eats. The laundry doesn’t do itself. That’s enough to be getting on with.

To be continued…

Read the opening Curse of the Deckhand story →

Featured artwork is an AI-generated editorial illustration of deckhand-cook life.