Great Loop: Random Thoughts - Showers

Showers

Talking to other women on the loop I have discovered that I am not the only one who judges a marina by its restroom and shower facilities. I have seen all sorts of arrangements. On very rare occasions I find one that I like. Some I hate. Others just allow me to get the job done.

My captain does not approve of using the shower stall on the boat for showering. We basically use this space as storage for our shower bags and our clean, extra towels. The reason for this comes back to that whole size-of-tank issue. Our water source while on the boat is one water tank which holds 60 gallons of water. A very quick shower, including soaping up with the water turned off and only turning it on to rinse, uses about 1/4 tank of water. Just as Clark is in charge of emptying holding tanks, he is also in charge of filling the water tank. Thus, I use the shower on the boat as a last resort only.

Some boaters “permanently” connect the water hose to their boat when docked, so they have, in effect, running water and their tank never empties. Clark refuses to allow this setup on his boat as he says he has heard of too many cases where boats sank from this arrangement. A malfunction in the shutoff valve means that the boat can fill up with water from the hose and down it goes because the bilge pump cannot keep up. Okay, with that I am convinced that the convenience is not worth it! So we take the trek up to the washrooms with our bags in hand and make use of what is offered.

It can be comparable to playing roulette when making the walk to the washroom. Will one be available or not? Take for example the showers at the marina on Anna Maria Island. The sign out front of the washrooms says “Boat Owners Only”. Hmmm? I guess the workmen that come in to work on boat engines and electronics as well as those busy cleaning the interior and exterior of boats must own boats at the marina because this is where they go and not to take showers.

The building has three washrooms and each contains a sink, toilet, and shower. Most folks seem to dive into the first room they come to as obviated by the fact that that one runs out of toilet paper first. The third room in the row is clearly the newest with the nicest arrangement of towel racks and hooks. One would think that for showers the obvious choice would be the third room except for the very large sign hanging over the shower door saying “Cold Water Only”.

I took a cold shower once on this trip by accident in Kingston Canada. Given that very unpleasant experience, I am not voluntarily signing up to repeat it. So much for the nicely laid out shower room! In all the time I stayed there, I took my shower in the first room every time. Clark took the second. He said the water flow in the shower was good in the second shower, so I let him take that one. God knows he takes forever in a shower even with good water flow!

At the marina on Anna Maria Island,  when I walked up to take my shower I wore a shirt and long pants as well as a hat, scarf, fleece and raincoat that I needed to take off and put somewhere. This is where the showers at this marina were a fail – no hooks to hang up a single item. The arrangement had two towel bars and a chair, so my outdoor clothes got wrapped around one towel bar, and my towels got wrapped around the other. My shower bag went on the chair next to the shower so I could pull out all the miscellaneous paraphernalia I need for a shower, but then I had nowhere to sit to take my shoes off.

The toilet had no lid which is frequently the case in marina washrooms, so sitting there to take off my shoes was not really an option. In past marinas where they did have a toilet lid that I sat on, I frequently found them so flimsy that the plastic “collapsed” under my weight. Having the lid sink down as you sit down is not a comforting feeling.

On the plus side the shower in Anna Maria Island had a rack where I could place my shampoo and soap. Some other marinas have offered nothing except the floor as a place to put them. One place had rounded edges in the shower stall that I tried to put my shampoo container on and then had to catch it as it slid back off. Generally speaking marina showers are on the small side. Frequently bending over is not an option, so picking up shampoo, etc from the floor requires squatting down a bit to reach. Of course the small space makes shaving legs problematic.

In tight showers I have found that I must behave like I am on the boat and turn the water off to soap up; otherwise the soap gets rinsed off faster than I can apply it. The same applies to shaving legs. I must lather up and shave with the water off, or the soap is gone before I can apply the razor. The smallest showers we have found on this trip were in a marina in Orillia, Canada. Due to a fire that burned the washrooms to the ground, shower trailers were brought in for customers to use. Even my very thin Clark complained that he had no way to wash his feet as he could not reach them in the small space! I felt sympathetic that the marina had to use trailers until I learned that the fire happened over three years ago.

I have seen every possible arrangement of washroom facility imaginable. One of the worst, or maybe the worst, was at Turner Marine in Dog River, Alabama. The facility offered only one women’s toilet for the entire marina, and the room with the toilet also contained the one and only shower. Thus, if someone was taking a shower, no other woman at the marina could use the toilet. I told Clark that I knew of no women including myself who would not lock the door while taking a shower such that others could come in to use the toilet. I later found out by using then men’s room in desperation that the men’s room had two stalls with doors so that one could shower and others could still use a toilet.

Come to think of it, I did find one worse than that along the way. At another marina in Alabama, not only were the shower, toilet and sink all in the only washroom, but the washer and dryer were in there too. Worse yet, this washroom was the only one available for use by both men and women. Heaven forbid someone needs to use the facilities while someone is folding their clothes.

The nicer facilities have the showers separate from the toilets with enough space to reach your feet, hooks for clothes, towel racks for towels, and benches to sit on or put shower bags on. Of course you get what you pay for and since we are not normally willing to pay for the 5-star locations, we are not getting 5-star spas. Many of the places we stayed were ones where we had to stay because it was the only “game in town”, especially on the river system. A number of those would not even get 1/2 a star from me like at Hoppies on the Mississippi where we had no shower and the toilet was in a closet-sized room in the back of a barn-type structure. The toilet and sink were so filthy that I dared not touch anything – just use, flush, and run. I washed my hands when I got back to the boat!

The arrangement in Sarasota at Marina Jack is one of the nicer setups. At the cost per foot we are paying to stay here I am glad that the washrooms mostly come up to snuff. Two sets of four washrooms provide a private sink, toilet, and shower for each patron with hooks on the door and a lid on the toilet. It would seem, however, that even the more expensive marinas with the nicest shower arrangements have drawbacks. 

For example, two of the three provided hooks are at the top of the door into the room. Even with my 5’8” of height I have to stand on tiptoe to hang up my jacket. Also, the shower head is set way back into the shower stall such that I have to reach way in to turn on the shower and then get hit by the full force of cold water before I can spin the temperature selector around to get some hot. The real kicker in this marina in Sarasota though is that the washrooms all get dead bolted sometime around 10:00 at night due to a problem with homeless people in the area. Twice we walked up to use the head after 10:00 and found everything locked up tight.

I am still in search of the perfect shower arrangement!