Category Archives: Boat Living

A Finished Galley, By Golly!

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There is light at the end of our Galley/Navigation Station remodel tunnel. We’d say we are nearing the end of this refit, but really, does anyone ever finish a refit? There is always something left to do.

The original look. That fiberglass is almond.

It’s taken about 3 weeks longer than we thought and cost about double what we hoped. Fortunately this is not our first rodeo, as they say, when it comes to remodeling houses or boats. We know that fast, inexpensive remodels, especially when you involve outside labor, are the things of dreams. So we aren’t surprised. We take these things in stride (after I freak out a little bit). And in the end, it’s all worth the time, effort, and money. We are as finished as we need to be for this post to go out.

Here’s a list of what we accomplished:

  1. The navigation desk, while an awesome flat space upon which to work, had storage that was accessible only through lifting the desktop. This was a major annoyance, just like that old workshop top used to be. We wanted to have a drawer created so we could access storage without disturbing everything on top of the desk. We wanted to keep the ability to lift the top as well.

    We retained the ability to lift the lid as there is extra storage under there we didn’t want to waste. We added an inexpensive LED light from Costco to the lid to help light the space. Notice the barrel lock on the end of the lid. That keeps the lid from bouncing up and down while underway. The drawer remains firmly tucked behind the sea rail trim.

    The most expensive drawer ever. But worth it.

  2. In the galley, we were unhappy with how our fridge/freezer combination was performing. Both of us got frustrated trying to get things from the refrigerator and keeping things like produce from freezing. On paper, our system should have worked. But translated into the physical world, it didn’t. We added a small Engel freezer and remodeled a cabinet to the left of the navigation desk to hold it.

    This freezer is excellent. Only wish it were larger. It is secured against movement underway and we plan to put fan in the cabinet for more air circulation in hot climates. We will also wedge foam insulation on each side, just because.

  3. Our double sink was from 1974, when the boat was built. We both kind of hated it. The sinks were shallow, and one side was always used for the dishrack. We wanted an extra deep, larger sink. In addition to being a ‘want’, changing the sink was a ‘need’ because the drains were just about ready to give. Indeed, when Mike removed the sink, the drains broke off in his hand. We knew that was coming. The sheer magnitude of the amount of silicone that had been used to extend the life of that sink was astounding.After recovering from our shock over the bid we got to have a sink made for the space (just say NO to $2500 sinks) I found this excellent sink on Amazon for less than 100$. It’s a beauty and I’m very happy with it. This also gave us a little more countertop space to the right, so that’s a win. This sink is technically an under mount sink, but we have trouble following rules. At 21″ x 15.75″ x 9″ it’s also larger than it looks in the photo.

    Don’t tell anyone but this is actually a laundry sink. That’s where you’ll find the deeper sinks. In the laundry section.

  4. The drawer unit to the right of the sink gave me fits. Sure, drawers are very secure underway and blah, blah, blah. These long, skinny drawers were also a pain in the #ss when it came to finding what I wanted. I avoided opening them. In that area they were also a huge waste of space. I wanted to remove the door unit and put in deep shelves. We now have room for the crockpot (yes, it’s going with us) and the saucepans as well as all the utensils and kitchen gadgets.

    I still have trim work to do on this cabinet, obviously. And a cabinet door to have made. You can see the lovely new grey color of the fiberglass in this photo.

  5. The formica was delaminating in many areas of the galley. It was also just plain old ugly. I can live with ugly for the most part, if it’s neutral, but it doesn’t make me very happy, and the whole counter had to be replaced in order to put in a new sink. So, new formica. (Ok, no, I don’t do well with living with ‘ugly’. That was a bold faced lie. But I try not to be a princess about it. Yeah, that’s a lie, too.) After bringing home literally hundreds of samples, we decided on a Greek Key pattern in pale grey and creamy white. Galapagos was pleased since she is built in Greece. This was ‘special’, more expensive Formica, but the word ‘expensive’ used here means still less than 200$ for the entire job with enough extra material that we can use it a number of other places. And it’s so much heavier than the cheap stuff I got for the bulkheads at Home Depot for about 45$ for a 4×8 sheet. That stuff is flimsy and would never last on a counter top. This stuff will still be going when we are dead.

    Close up of new Formica.

  6. The deep cabinet to the left of the sink opened in such a way that it took up almost all of the bulkhead space, which otherwise could be used for storage. I wanted to create a different kind of opening that would maximize the amount of bulkhead available and increase our options for storing dishes.

    Not sure yet how we will use the extra space. We’d like to be able to store dishes and flatware that we use all the time.

  7. We had three faucets in the galley, all of them unsightly and close to end of life. We had the regular faucet, a drinking water faucet that was hooked up to an ancient water filtration system, and the salt water faucet which did not work. We wanted an updated faucet for general work and a salt water faucet with a hand pump. I wanted the ability to rinse out the sink and fill pots and kettles with water easily. We chose this faucet from Delta because it fit the space, had the features we wanted, and a finish that wouldn’t show fingerprints. We love being able to rinse the sink out easily. 
  8. All the water lines in the boat looked original from 1974. You see where I’m going with that. Once you’re into the replacing of things like faucets, you don’t want to be hooking them up to old, tired waterlines. Mike used Pex fittings to replace all the waterlines and I’ll let him tell you all about that in another post.
  9. Kind of related to all this was Mike’s desire to get the old  hot water heater out of his engine room and have a unit that could use the engine to heat water. That way we can have hot water at anchor. We bought a new Isotemp Spa 15 unit from Sure Marine at the boat show. Mike will talk that water heater up in his post.
  10. Galapagos was built at a time when that almond colored fiberglass was all the rage. Now it’s all the tired and homely. Plus, over the years it’s been scuffed, people have put various holes in it, and in general, well, if a boat is going to have new countertops, new sink and faucets, a new freezer, and even a new knife rack, then she deserves a new coat of paint as well. I’ll do a post about how to accomplish this fine thing of painting fiberglass later. But it’s part of the overall picture. Galapagos now sports new pale grey fiberglass that matches the grey Greek Keys in her fine new countertops. She’s pretty spiffy looking, all dressed up and ready to go.

So what’s left to do? That cabinet door, for one thing. And we still need to get the sea water pump. Mike thinks he has located a small, inconspicuous unit. But there is also some finish carpentry left.  I’m not happy with the sea rails on the nav station. Since we changed the size of the cabinet door where the freezer is stored the original trim didn’t fit. We’ll be on the lookout for a better piece we can use, and a rounded corner. Meanwhile, I have a little sanding and touching up to do to what’s there. But, I mean, what else am I going to do with my time?

 

 

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.