Author Archives: Melissa

Galley Product Wins, Plus Cheap and Easy Trick

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We are on the home stretch in this dang galley/navigation station remodel and before I write up the final Show & Tell post, I wanted to share some of our little galley product wins with you. These are items we bought with the new galley in mind and that we’ve been particularly pleased with.

The color is actually lime green.

Let’s start with this nifty and colorful Bistro Knife Holder by Bodem. This replaces a big, heavy teak knife holder that not only had seen better days, but also did not fit our knives. I like this for its sleek look, ease of use, and the fact that I didn’t have to drill holes in my new Formica on the bulkhead in order to install it. I don’t like drilling holes in Formica unless I am jolly well sure I’m not going to be sorry. This is made of a heavy plastic, holds the knife blades between two brushes, and comes in this fabulous lime green color that I love.

While I’m at it, take another look at those knives. See the two knives with brushed aluminum handles? They are my favorite knives and are made by Rada Cutlery right here in the United States of the blessed America.  My friend Teri gave me a small paring knife a couple of years ago for Christmas. She told me it was her favorite knife. It quickly became mine. Lightweight, sharp as a razor,  it became my go-to knife for almost everything. For Christmas this year I bought Andrew the French Chef’s knife, like the big one in the picture. I was so impressed with it bought one for the boat, then got the bread knife as well, even though we don’t eat much bread. These are very reasonably priced for good knives. I also bought their nifty knife sharpener and it works great! Don’t let the cheap prices of these knives fool you into thinking they are low quality. They aren’t. They are excellent. You can get them on Amazon, but I like to order directly from Rada so they get more of their money.

I guess you could also use this as a cooling rack for baked goods. So really, it’s useful for more than one thing!

Next up is a little gadget I found while shopping for a sink. This is a stainless steel over-the-sink drying rack for dishes. Placed over half of the sink, it gives you a place to put dishes to drain directly back into the sink and It extends your counter top space as well. The best part, however, is that this is easy to store because it rolls up. The stainless tubes end in a removable silicone sleeve that keeps the unit in place. The unit was a little wide for our countertops, but Mike was easily able to cut the tubes to the correct length and replace the silicone sleeve. Perfect fit! We use this every single day and when we get underway it will be easy to store in the cabinet.

Rolled up and ready to put away.

If you’ve looked under my sink lately you’ll realize I collect cleaning things. I like cleaning products and also cleaning supplies. You might say that I have an unconscious, sort of, belief that if I own enough cleaning supplies and products, my house will be clean all by itself because I don’t necessarily love USING these things, only having them on hand. Except for these Catch Mops, which I do love to use and use many times per day. The tag says ‘Made in Korea’ and, in fact, I found mine at the local Korean household good store in Tacoma, ShinShin. I love ShinShin. This is the Korean equivalent to Ikea when it comes to cool little home gadgets you can’t find anywhere else. 

Unfortunately, I can’t find these Catch Mop kitchen cleaning thingys anywhere on the interwebs for you to buy. QVC apparently used to sell them, but no more. And you can find them on the Korean wholesale sites. I found this offering on Amazon, and yeah, this set includes two of these little beauties. But $143.90 for some cleaning supplies is a little much for me, even if they DO give you free shipping. I think I paid maybe $2.50 for my pair at ShinShin. So if you have a Korean home goods store near you, maybe you’ll find them there. They are microfiber, but really GOOD microfiber. One side does a perfect job of drying out and polishing the new stainless steel sink. The other side is great for catching crumbs from the countertop. They are thick and cushy and frankly terrific. So terrific I will be going back to purchase more of them. So if you see them around, grab them quick.

And finally, what we have here is a Cheap and Easy boat trick. Awhile back I read a recommendation for these Lunatec Travel Washcloths. They are said to be quick dry, smell free, and self-cleaning. With that kind of advertising, I was hoping they would also scrub the dishes for me without help.  I paid $9 for two of them on Amazon.

When they came I thought, ‘Huh. I’ve seen this scrubby fabric somewhere before.’. And, indeed, I had. It’s the same stuff that they use at the Olympus Spa in Lakewood,  known locally as the ‘Lady Spa’. You can go in there and get a body scrub and they will use these little mitts that exfoliate the heck out of your skin and leave you with a wonderful pink glow.  It’s the same stuff but a finer weave. They also use these long ‘towels’ made out of a coarser weave that you use to scrub your own back. (I’ll wait while you figure out how you do that.) Those ‘towels’ are exactly the same thing as these washcloths.

A little trip to ShinShin, again, found me buying a couple of those Salux ‘beauty skin cloth’ towels as shown in the photo. They were $1.25 apiece and about 45″x12″. Cut into large pieces, I will get at least 3 washcloths from each one. I’m not even sure I’ll have to hem them.  I’m going to give you this Amazon link, but I’m kind of ashamed to do it because look at that price! They want $11.46 for three of these towels. I got three for $3.75 plus tax. Still, if you don’t have a ShinShin or other Asian home goods or dollar store near you, it’s better than the $9 for two washcloths I originally paid for the Lunatec ones. These things are really great in the kitchen. Plus, you can use one to wash your face and body and get great exfoliation. What’s not to like about that? Your skin will positively glow!

Okay, that’s all for now. I’m on the home stretch with the painting and I have to go to the house to use the miter saw for apiece of sea rail to fit right. Then we’re done! Hurrah!

 

Morning Coffee

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Toay I awoke in my usual way, wondering where the hell I was and what time it was and whether I could get out from under my heated blanket without freezing; looking forward to my first cup of coffee. I checked the phone. 7:00. Two hours until Doyle comes to work on the nav station/galley remodel. I check Facebook. Behold!! Paul Bryan over at Lat43 has posted one of his famous ‘Morning Tea’ posts! Excellent! Those are my favorite posts of his. He rambles on a bit with all the stream of consciousness thoughts that kind of move in and out of his head organically. Those posts make me laugh out loud and want to meet him and Deb in a nice anchorage sometime. This morning’s post was great.

The lovely Uig Hotel. There will be a quiz later.

I was having some good chuckles over my eggs until he started dissing on my coffee. And now I am compelled to respond. Some people are religious about religion, some people will argue about anchors or whether to solder or not to solder electrical contacts on a boat.  I can take a lot of crap, but when people start putting my coffee down, well I have to draw the line somewhere. I can no longer be politically correct about coffee choices. Here’s what he said, and I quote verbatim:

“Yes, I said I was drinking instant coffee. How low I can go?”

I almost snorted my Nescafe right there.

You’ll need a bit of history to understand what has led me to my position on this topic today, as I sit here with my steaming cup.

My history with coffee is a straight line trajectory to full blown addiction. I started drinking it for the same reasons many start smoking: To fit in. I was the new therapist on the block. I was young. I was not yet  hip to the jive of the clinic where I worked. Everyone else looked jaded and world-weary. They all knew the secret handshake. I was the young, fresh, hungry outsider. All the other therapists stood around drinking coffee during the weekly stafff meetings. What else could I do?

My choice made, I went over to the coffee urn and filled a cup with the dark, acrid, smokey liquid, added some non-food creamer and a packet of chemicals. I took my first sip. The watchful room went silent. There was a brief but profound intake of breath; a meeting of eyes.  I smiled, acted natural-ish,  and said, ‘AH! Deliciousl Nothing like a little mid-morning pick-me-up!”. Smiles, nods and exhales later, I was one of them. My career was off to a great start.

Surreptitiously, I poured the rest of the nasty stuff down the drain in the bathroom during a sneaky break. I return, empty cup in hand.  “Can I refill that cup for you, Melissa?”.  “Oh, no thanks, Bill. You know, I have to limit myself to one cup. Otherwise I can get those ADHD symptoms!”.  Smiles and nods and understanding chuckling all around. This was going to be so easy.

That afternoon, I noticed I was a little more on top of my game than usual, considering I had already seen 5 people that day. Hmm. Maybe there was something to this coffee thing.

Time moved on, as time is apt to do. I was a fair weather coffee drinker at work. Then came the second child in our lives. Mornings got to be more complex. Kids started school at two different times. They both needed to be driven to schools in way different parts of town. I look back on those days and wonder how I ever found the energy to do that five days a week. Oh, right. Mother’s little helper. Those were the days of the programmable coffee pot; ready when I stumbled out of bed to rouse the troops.

As time went on I discovered Starbucks. We live in the Pacific Northwest. Is there anyone who hasn’t discovered Starbucks? I think Starbucks is the equivalent to the old Coca Cola that had real coca to give you that special little lift. Their coffee has real caffeine. The real deal. I began to look forward to my trips to the coffee shop more than is natural.  I learned how to go into Starbucks and order coffee, which, if you haven’t ever been in a Starbucks (REALLY? WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?) is not as easy as it sounds. There are lots of words you have to know. Like the difference between a latte and a cappucino. And whether you want ‘skinny or full’, ‘whip or nowhip’. And there is the grammar of ordering as well. You need to describe your desired beverage qualities in a certain order. If you say ‘skinny nowhip mocha with one pump’ you are going to look like the rube from out of town that you probably are. It’s ‘one pump nowhip skinny mocha’, you fool. Get it right.

Then I made my first trip to Scotland to visit Claire. We were stuck in the lovely little Uig Hotel in Uig on the west coast, waiting for weather to abate to catch a ferry to the Isle of Lewis. (Note: weather on the west coast of Scotland in mid March never actually ABATES, as it were.)  Claire slept in and I wandered to  the hotel dining room for a cup of coffee and breakfast.  When I saw the size of what the Scots consider a ‘cup’ of coffee, I upgraded to an entire pot. I mean, why should I make the delightful waitress serve my table over and over, even though she offers a bottomless cup? When I can already see the bottom of the cup before drinking, it’s too small. Everything is bigger in America. Even the coffee. The waitress checked herself before she could question me about needing a full pot when I was clearly dining alone, although she did seem confused. Flinging sidelong glances my  way, she brought me my full pot and I began what was destined to be a life long love affair.

Well named, indeed.

After the second cup I gestured to the waitress. “What kind of coffee is this? It’s really delicious. I’d like to purchase some to take home.”.  She made that dismissive sound Scots make when you’ve asked a question that has an obvious answer. “Ach, it’s just Nescafe.”.  “Nescafe?”, I said, still not really understanding, and it wasn’t her heavy accent that had me confused. “Did you say Nescafe? Isn’t that instant coffee?”.  “Oh, aye.” (Or something on that order.) She was too polite to add, ‘Ye daft American. What else would it be?”

Stunned. That’s what I was. Just stunned. I poured a third cup, added a splash of cream from the sweet little cream pitcher, and a naughty pinch of real sugar. I sipped it slowly, savoring the flavor, rolling it around my tongue; feeling the ground under me give way. My world was rocking. Instant. Not brewed. I’ll never forget the revelation.

I reflected back on the time Andrew traveled to Turkey with a friend who had family there. She was instructed to bring a suitcase full of Nescafe because it was so much cheaper here. At the time, I laughed at this. Silly woman. Now who is stockpiling Nescafe? Now who has a special cabinet on the boat just for those big things of Nescafe, which, by the way, are carried by COSTCO! I mean, if Costco sells it, then many, many people buy it. So there, Mr. Lat43 with your instant coffee dissing. Take that!

I’ve been drinking Nescafe ever since. I’ll still drink whatever coffee is offered (Except Farmers. It’s awful.)  I mean, I’m not a TOTAL coffee snob. (Yes, I am.)  But at home, I’m a Nescafe convert and let me tell you my other little secret: it makes a damn fine latte-ish beverage when combined with my fabulous little milk frother, which I will use with an inverter when at anchor even if I have to turn every single other thing off to do it. Just buy this model. Don’t even bother trying to look at others. I’ve already done that and wasted money for you. And compared to the cost of a real espresso machine, or buying lattes at Starbucks, $40.00 is dirt cheap.

Be ready my Lat43 friend. Should we meet at a lovely anchorage somewhere in the future, I’ll be serving you Nescafe. Or beer.

My lovely Latte-like beverage. Pretty cup for the win.

 

 

 

 

 

We’re in Such a State!

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Yesterday, after days of constant rain; the kind of rain that makes every tiny leak show up and shout for attention, the sun came out. It warmed up, we turned the heat off below. It was feeling like spring was just around the corner. Mike said it was the kind of weather that made him want to cavort and kick up his heals. He’s such a lamb. It was also the kind of weather that puts us on notice that we are really short timers at this dock. Good thing we are making considerable progress with all the interior projects we need to finish up before we leave. Exterior projects await our time, attention, and $$.

MIke and Melissa, thinking about summer.

We are smack in the middle of our navigation station/galley remodel. Long-time contractor and friend Doyle Lewellen is guiding us through this bit and doing the part of the work we don’t have the skills to do, such as cutting formica neatly and correctly and building drawers in a space not quite square.  Doyle was the contractor we hired when we remodeled our 1964 rambler 16 years ago. He’s a skilled contractor with an artist’s sensibility and eye.  If he does something, it will be done right. Doyle is responsible for many of the design features in our home that we still love to this day: the plaster walls that glow in the light, the deep window seat and picture window in the kitchen, the big soaking tub he was able to squeeze into the master bathroom by using creative thinking. We’ve never grown tired of those things. So it’s his eagle eye we wanted for the galley and nav station remodel.

The galley/nav station re-do includes being able to access the storage space in by way of a nice sliding drawer that we can pull out without lifting the top. We retain the ability to lift the lid when we want to, but the addition of the drawer means we don’t have to clear everything off that area to get to a pencil. It’s been one of the aggravations in living aboard, that desk area.

In addition, a storage space in this area, seen in the photo below,  has been expanded and is now the home to our brand new baby Engel freezer. I am dead excited about having a separate freezer as it will lengthen the amount of time we can stay at anchor away from the amenities of grocery stores and still have fresh meat. I am reminded by Donna Rohwer over at SV Denali Rose that we can also keep ice cream on board this way. Donna is a caring friend to want me to have ice cream. But clearly she doesn’t understand my relationship with that cold, creamy goodness. It will never see the inside of a freezer for very long on this boat.  But the thought was a nice one.

Doyle takes careful measurements for the navigation area.

In our galley, our sink has seen better days… days that date from 1974 when this boat was built. Frankly, I don’t think the drains will survive a Pacific crossing. It wouldn’t surprise me if a drain breaks off in my hand as we pull the thing. But finding a sink to fit in that space was like looking for a unicorn. The problem, for those unaccustomed to boat interiors, is that the countertop is only 19.5 inches wide. Go measure your countertop in your kitchen. Go ahead. I’ll wait. You’ll see that it’s much greater than 19.5 inches. And that’s why almost every ‘normal’ sink of average size is 22″ wide. To get one much narrower, you also have to go much shorter. I wanted to maximize the size of my sink because on a boat, a sink is a useful area.  So, after leaving room for putting in faucets, I had a need for a sink about 17″ x 31.5″, a long, narrow rectangle. It does not exist. I could find 18″ sinks, but even though they would fit, there would be no room for faucets.

After a week of constant looking, measuring, and remeasuring,  sinks and measurements were swimming around in my head. It began to look as though we needed to have one made. What innocent babes we are about some things. I drew up a sink I would love to have and we took it down to the local stainless fabricator. After all, a woman who has a Whitby 42, which is the little sister to our boat, got a great looking sink made in Chinatown in New York City for 400$. How much different could it possibly be here? The answer to that is a lot different.  Like $2,500. Uh. No. Just NO. We have way too many other things to buy.

The sink looks large, but there is a lot of wasted space in those rimmed areas and the second sink never gets used for anything but the dish rack. Effectively we use 1/2 of this sink for sink duties. Forget rinsing clothes out in this sink. It’s too shallow. And that drawer unit to the right? A lot of wasted space.

So I got creative with my search and eventually I branched out to laundry sinks and I found this one for less than 100$. I think Mike actually loves me a little bit more since I’ve found this sink and decided to compromise a bit on the length of the thing. Do I wish it were 31.5″ long? Yes. But will it suffice? Also yes. No, it’s not marine stainless. Yes, we’ll have to care for it. Yes, in 5 years maybe we’ll have to replace it again. I. Don’t. Care. It’s easy to install, it’s really deep, and it’s bigger than the sink I’m currently using by a lot, since I only ever use 1/2 of the double sink we currently have.  I can do laundry in this sink. That’s what I need. I can’t wait for it to get here so I can stroke its silky finish. Maybe by the time this sink rots on us we’ll be somewhere we can afford to have people fabricate things.

Of course, you know how remodeling goes. You start one project and suddenly it has mushroomed into several. Since we are replacing the sink and faucets in the galley, Mike will take this opportunity to replace all the water lines (he’s using Pex). And since we are replacing all the water lines, this is the time to replace the water heater with a new one that has a heat exchanger that will allow us to get hot water at anchor. (Shout out to Sure Marine in Seattle for giving us a good price.) And since he’s replacing the water heater may as well get it out of his precious engine room and put it under the sole in the aft cabin where it will fit snugly in a little cubby all its own. And, again,  since we’re replacing all the water lines, we may as well replace the leaky faucets in both heads. And since we’re replacing things in heads, may as well rebuild both toilets (post to follow when one is finished. He’s doing one at a time for obvious reasons.)

Galapagos is not ready for guests right now. Guess how much I love having a toilet in my salon. Just guess.

I think that’s all, except for the new anchor, which Mike is writing a post about. Oh wait, no, there’s one more. Since we are tearing up the galley anyhow, I may as well get rid of those pesky drawers that are a waste of space and drive me nuts and turn that space into a cabinet. That one’s on me. I think I have the skills for that one. Cha-ching!

You know, we’ve lived through years of remodeling houses. Two houses, to be exact. Now we live through remodeling a boat interior a bit. It’s just like doing a house, only smaller and everything takes three times as long and feels four times as messy. I do my best to keep the mess to a mild roar, but really I’m looking forward to this all being done so I can go back to my tidy boat. This boat is in such a state!

We’re this far. It’s going to be great.

Time is skipping along. While our trajectory is still to haul out in June, in reality we need to have the boat ready for that haulout and almost ready to leave the marina for good by the first week in May. Claire is getting married in Scotland in May and the entire extended family is going over. It will be like herding cats, but it will be a lot of fun. We’ll be there for three weeks and when we get back we’ll need to hit the ground running.

After the haulout? We will sleep for a month.