We have no lack of bedding on the boat. I keep one change of clean sheets, and several types of blankets and throws on board. I ditched the sleeping bag after the first summer as I figured we really didn’t need it as it was so bulky. I like a lot of pillows, so probably have at least 2 pillows/person as well as additional older pillows I covered with sumbrella fabric cases for outside or floor sitting. The dog has a little padded narrow pillow, that we just place on the floor or bed for her to curl up on. As the drop down table sleeping area, now taken over by Layton is not that comfortable with variations in the cushion sizes, I purchased a memory foam topper from Costco which gives the appearance of a wider sleeping surface and much more comfortable over all. One of my latest finds, were from a closing sale at a pet store with marked down dog beds. I purchased several large water proof square dog beds. They act as outside seating, as well as function perfectly fine as extra mattresses for the floor, or as a headboard for Layton’s bed. The one thing I learned over the past several years of sleeping on a boat. Use flannelette top sheets, whenever you can in our climate. They feel less damp at night. It’s all about the level of comfort!
Bedding was an easy problem to fix, as I either bought stuff from second hand stores (which had a nautical theme) or just brought stuff from home. I opted quickly for pillows with a satiny finish rather than cotton/polyster. The cotton coverings easily show mold stains and you can’t go an entire season without some type of dampness. Costco used to sell pillows with a satiny cover, but I can’t find them now. As V-berths are such a pain to make up with sheets, I used king sized fitted sheets, pinned them to the mattress at home one winter, cut and re-sewed the elastic to fit. Did this for two sheets, and making the bid is so much easier as I now have V-berth fitted sheets!
I found the first year that the dampness seemed to easily come up through the mattress and I always felt cold and damp. I fixed it the next year by cutting and placing children’s plastic/rubber puzzle play mats underneath the mattress! They come in a package of assorted colours and in this case it was blue and red. I ran out of red for the project, but the picture easily shows the pattern that I used. We thought the mats could be also used for their primary purpose, floor mats, but they turned out to be deathly slippery when wet. It does get wet a bit often on a boat. Comfort for sleeping is important to me. The cushions on the boat can never replace a mattress, so I purchased from Costco a gel memory foam mattress topper and cut it to fit the V-berth. Makes all the difference in the world. It has antibacterial gel, which inhibits mildew from forming.
Verona Leslie 