Jingle sails, in all seriousness

I'm writing a barrage of posts in an attempt to log all the things that have made me laugh and cry in the last couple of weeks. It's my day off and my hands aren't hurting too much today so I'll take advantage and type like a demon.

The other morning, I was thinking that it really should be cold, rainy and overcast as it was December. Here in South Africa, it's the height of summer with 32-34 degrees celsius the norm. I thought to myself, 'I should be wrapped up in my winter coat, singing Christmas carols,' and thus, Jingle Sails was born. Here are the lyrics, to be sung to the tune of Jingle Bells:

Jingle Sails, jingle sails, jingle all the way,
oh what fun it is to sail in a gaff-rig schooner yeah, hey!
Jingle Sails, jingle sails, jingle all they way,
oh what fun it is to sail in a gaff-rig schooner yeah!

Splashing through the waves,
in the pouring rain,
over the swell we go,
laughing all the way! [ho ho ho!]

Tacking in the gale,
reefing in the storm,
it's even more fun when being soaked becomes the norm!
oh~

jingle sails, jingle sails, jingle all the way [etc etc]

I was cleaning the engine room one day (called the bilge - now symbolically loaded with all connotations of getting grimy, dirty, greasy and generally yukky) with Milhouse and to make a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down, I made up a song to sing. It's called The Bilge Song and is sung to the tune of the Yellow Submarine.

In the quay where I was born,
lived a deckhand who sailed to sea
And he told us of his life,
in the bilge that was never clean

We all live in the bilge that's never clean,
bilge that's never clean,
bilge that's never clean,
[repeat]

My subconscious must be funnelling all my excess creative energy into song-writing. On a more serious note, I've found that the second biggest challenge (after the obvious fact that I will never be as strong as the guys who are on average about 6 foot and I don't know how heavy, but are certainly very big and tough) is being taken seriously as crew. I suspect it's a universal problem, for I've read about the difficulty women have in being viewed as competent/serious/capable in their jobs. I've often thought women would have to work three times as hard in sailing as men. Twice as hard because it takes more effort for me to lift/carry the same things as the guys. And twice as hard again because of the psychological impression that many guys (and women) carry that women just aren't as capable. Like the bilge that really is never clean (there's always oil, diesel or random gunk oozing onto the bilge floor), I sometimes feel the battle to be taken seriously is a neverending uphill struggle, in the tradition of Sisyphus. But sometimes, you just have to laugh and make up a silly song to mock it all.