In the history of our ownership of Galapagos, there have been two projects that have felt never-ending. One was the engine exhaust elbow drama, and the other has been the aft cabin remodel. For your reading convenience, clicking on the link takes you to the first post in the series, way back in February, and from there you can link to the next post, etc.

In our last episode of the story of the remodel, we had finally taken possession of the beautiful new mattresses: 8″ of good night’s sleep. My task was to find bedding for that space. If that sounds simple to you, you do not own a boat.

This is where we are starting as we begin this post.

The situation: three separate pieces of mattress in three different shapes and sizes. Two of the pieces are fairly large and heavy. In creating a ‘bedding system’ for this space I had several goals:

1. It had to be easy to use, and by that I mean that changing the sheets had to require very little ‘boat yoga’, and preferably I would not have to be moving the mattresses around much. I wanted something simple and fast.
2. The sheets had to fit snugly on the mattresses. I pretty much hate rumpled sheets at home, and I’m not very likely to enjoy them on the boat, either. Two words that describe comfort in the bed are cool and crisp.  It’s going to be hot enough in the tropics without having to mess around with too much sheet fabric that just holds the heat next to you.
3. It had to look good. When I walk into that aft cabin, I want to look at that bed and be happy. Beauty and function. I want them to play well together.

These are the kinds of design situations that can keep a boat owner up at night, staring at the ceiling, imagining all the possibilities and envisioning the final product. You’ll notice I said nothing about cost in my list of goals. That’s because I already knew, from previous research on the marine bedding industry, that I was absolutely not going to pay someone else to make custom sheets for my bed. You can buy ready-made ‘one size fits all’ cinch sheets for marine berths, but they run about $140 a set for a full size, and that’s on the low end. That’s for one set. I have three different mattresses, not to mention two other cabins. So that would be at least $300 just for two sheet sets. That doesn’t include mattress pads. No. Can. Do.

In the end, I bought two nice mattress pads at Costco, about 35$ each, cut them to fit the top, and bound the edges with extra upholstery fabric. I purchased a set of bamboo sheets at the Canned Food Outlet  for $30 (yeah, who knew? They actually feel like silk. Seriously.), and a second set of cotton sheets at Ross for $20. I cut pieces to fit the top, plus a couple of extra inches, hemmed them and they were good to go. To make duvet covers, I got two sets of microfiber sheets in cheerful patterns for $20 each. I cut them down to size, sewed them up, used plastic snap tape to make closures,  then cut our blankets to fit inside. Done. Nothing too interesting about how to do this stuff, it was just simply cutting and sewing. The total cost for two sets of sheets, pillow cases, and two duvet covers was $160. That’s how I roll.

Not totally happy with the edging on this, but it works fine and at least matches the upholstery.

As an aside, I’m actually thinking these mattress pads are going to be fine for living aboard in the marina this year, but when we go south, they are going to be too hot. I  have some ideas for  quick and easy replacements for these when I find the right deal. But for now, these work great and are very comfortable.

All of this is fairly straight forward. Where the interesting part comes in is in how I hold the sheets onto the mattresses. This research had me drilling down deeply into Google to find sturdy plastic clips that would hold tight, survive the marine environment, and not break under the weight of sleeping bodies, all without causing harm to the fabric. Oh, and they had to look good.

I started with tarp clips, but really they were just too big and bulky. I finally found the clips that saved the day at Hold Up Suspender Company. They sell some sheet straps that looked beefy and, in particular, I liked the clip they had. No one had clips like this place. They are 1 1/2″ wide, and heavy duty.

I put in an order for a set of their sheet holders, which were fairly pricey at 22$ for two straps, plus 6$ shipping. I knew I would need more than two straps for each mattress if I wanted a snug fit that stayed in place. I figured I needed two straps for the middle mattress, and three straps on each of the other mattresses, preferably 4.  If I ordered all 10 straps from the company, that would be over 100$ plus shipping. OK, maybe I should have just ordered them all but at the time, I was into money saving mode on this whole deal.

When the order came, they included an old-school paper catalog and thumbing through it I saw that they sold the clips individually. You can’t find them sold like that on line, only in the catalog. I placed an order for 18 of the clips at $2.75 each. Yes I was kind of in shock at the per/clip price, but sometimes you get what you pay for and these clips are unique.  I figured I would want to keep an extra supply on hand in case some broke in the future or if I needed them for another project. For this project, I used 10 of them, plus the straps from the original order. I have extras to make the straps for the middle piece, and then that will leave 4 extras.

Here’s a warning about this supplier: they have good quality, but I’m not impressed with their ordering. I called to place the order, and when it arrived, it was the wrong item. Completely wrong. They sent me metal clips. Um, can you say ‘rust’ on my new upholstery fabric?  I returned them, and they sent me the right clips in the wrong color. By that time I was just sick of messing around, so I kept the black ones.

I bought heavy 1 1/2″ elastic at Hobby Lobby on sale for 50% off, so that cost me about 8$. In all, the ‘tie down’s’ for this project cost me about 60$ plus change. So I saved maybe 40$ or so making them myself. Not sure that was worth the effort involved, but then I do have some extra clips in case I need them in the future.  They hold the sheet and mattress pad together on the mattress snugly, I don’t have to move the mattress to change the sheets, and I made a little covering for the ones that show so they would match the upholstery. My friend Carolyn over at The Boat Galley did hers sheet holders another way.

Making new sheets when we need them will be dead easy, as there are no seams or corners, just a flat piece, cut to shape and hemmed, that is held on with these clips. One could reasonable ask why  I didn’t go for the usual drawstring approach to the sheets, where you have a giant sheet that covers the entire mattress and is cinched tight with a drawstring. The answer is that these will fit tighter, and be easier to handle. With our mattress shapes and sizes, there would inevitably be a lot of extra fabric floating around the edges with sheets like that.

I didn’t have enough mattress pad material to do the middle section, but when I replace them before we leave, that will be done at the same time, with sheets and straps as well.

Heave a big sigh of relief. We have a cabin with comfy, attractive beds.  Now, do I have the energy to deal with bedding for the v-berth? Maybe I will just wait until we have guests and then figure it out.

Apparently photos are disappearing off the blog overnight and people cannot see the last three. I can’t figure it out yet. So meanwhile I’m posting the photos to our LCP Facebook page. Go HERE to see them. Sorry.

We are on board Galapagos at the dock this week for the first time ever, testing out this ‘new and improved’ lifestyle we’ve worked so hard to achieve. This morning I awoke with mixed feelings, which, I suppose, is natural. Having worked for the last week in a focused, almost manic way, to get our house scrupulously clean and move all of our personal supplies and thingamabobs out of the house, we are both just dog tired. And speaking of dogs, we miss our Skippy dog. We really do. He went to stay with Andrew and Jill until our renters are gone and we are back in the house. It’s weird how a dog gets under your skin. But seriously, you can eat off of any surface in our house if you wanted to. It’s that clean. It looks like a frickin’ hotel.

After our 5 day cruise, Mike worked on a list in his little notebook. Now the list is growing every day.

Today I’m just not thinking much about how strangers are living in my house. Instead I am looking around in this boat and reflecting on how great it is, but how very much there is to do, and also how very much neither of us want to move anything on board. We just like that it wasn’t junky looking on the inside. Past tense. We liked the clean, sparseness that is an almost empty boat. But that’s not going to last. Already I am irritated with the number of items that are out in plain view in the salon. And the aft cabin is just a downright shame. We are waiting for our mattresses to be upholstered so we are sleeping in the rumpus cabin (v-berth). This means I have to remove all the rumpusing stuff from that cabin, make the berth sleepable, then the next day I have to undo everything and replace it like it should be. So I’ll need to add that to my morning routine, which now goes from about 7:30 to noon. Half my day is already gone.

One thing about this week is that 6 days is really not enough time to bother putting everything away. We’d just have to get it out again in less than a week. So we are going to live out of containers for a week. Woo hoo. Even my containers are disorganized.

Why bother stowing this stuff? We’ll be back at the house next week.

This was Mike’s first day getting ready to go to work from the boat. Neither of us got much sleep last night since we are not used to sleeping that close together, we were both still running on adrenaline, we have never slept in the v-berth, and the boat was making a ton of noise because of wind. Sleeping at anchor is different. Mike’s preternaturally good hearing is not a gift when he’s trying to sleep and there are a million noises. Also, I realize how much light there is in the city, and in this marina. Tonight I will put something over the hatch in the forward berth. It’s too light in there for sleeping.

I will be working this week as well, but since clients come to the boat to see me, I better get up and put all this shit away. I can’t have people coming down to a boat that is in disarray. Maybe that’s another good thing about working from the boat. Lights a fire under my rear to keep this salon looking decent.

My alarm woke me this morning and the boat was cold. Seriously, it was warmer in the cockpit than inside the boat. This does not bode well for living aboard next winter, which is probably going to happen. I just don’t want to think about that because….cold…damp…. On to the next thing for now..

I have a few little projects to get done this week. We are remodeling the hanging locker in the aft cabin. Seriously, these are just huge caverns of wasted space right now. Mike will do a post on his part of that. My part, today, is Bilge Kote and some fabric headliner I need to use up. I need to get my butt off the settee and get started on that. I’m noticing a trend here.

This is in the salon. I used that thick fabric headliner to cover the walls. Clean appearance, and it absorbs sound also.

The aft head is a mess. I want to put everything away, but there is a leak in the deck drain above the aft head. I hate those deck drains. They are too small, and I don’t understand why water has to drain anywhere but immediately OFF the boat. In a perfect world I would pay someone to put drains in the bulwark. Why is it even possible for it to drain into the cabinet? We have a fix in mind. It’s on the list. Meanwhile, everything is out on the counter. It is chaos.

There are too many different places leaks can occur on this thing.

I do love having a hot shower inside the boat. I thought it was ridiculous when we bought her. I was wrong. It is luxury.

We are discussing the galley remodel. Seriously, it is LONG overdue. Take a look at what’s underneath those sinks. It’s a leak waiting to happen. Oh, wait, it’s already leaking. And those drawers have to go. They are narrow and deep. Just try finding anything in them without emptying the drawer. There is a lot of wasted space in that area. I want a cabinet with pullouts or shelves.

What do you think? Time to pull this out and start over? Love that big gob of silicone on the right? Excellent.

And this:

Narrow. Difficult.

This week we played ‘What’s That Smell?’.  On warm days, when you come to the boat, the cockpit has a weird smell. Then you open the companionway door and WHEWY! Until you get air circulating, it’s pretty bad. Of course, people always think ‘it’s the head, or your hoses’, but it’s not that. New PVC pipes. Excellent holding tank installation. No leaks. No smell. It’s the bilge. My nose knows. Looking down in the bilge we notice something that looks like transmission fluid, but it’s not. However, it is possible it is hydraulic steering fluid. Mike took the shop vac to it and cleaned out the bilge.  Problem solved. The smell went away almost completely. But these lines to the hydraulic steering are old and travel through fiberglass tubes so it’s likely there is a small leak, but enough that over time fluid collects in the bilge. They will be replaced. Pretty sure that’s the issue as the boat has always had that smell to some extent, and we’ve had to mess with the steering a couple of times. Just say ‘no’ to nasty boat smells.

That’s our boat in the South Pacific. Notice the Minto on the foredeck. Notice the double furling foresails. Notice how pretty she is.

Let’s see, what else? Oh, dinghies. Still considering options there. We’d still love the Portland Pudgy, but $$$ and also they are back ordered on the liferaft kits. We would have to order everything now to be sure to have it by next year. We don’t have the money to do that now so we’re looking at options.  A previous owner of this boat had two dinghies: an inflatable and a Minto sailing dinghy, both kept on the foredeck on passages. Hmmm. He emailed us his thoughts, having a ton of experience on this particular boat. We are strongly considering his views for many reasons.

On the Women Who Sail local page, a woman was selling her nice hypalon dinghy and a Minto that needed transom fiberglass work. We drove out and made a deal on both of them, offering her full price. She declined a deposit, saying she didn’t need one.  I texted I would pick up today. She texted ‘thumbs up’, which meant, to me, that this worked for her. Then she sold the inflatable to someone else the same day. Then she told me that the Minto was no longer available. Huh? Or rather WTF??  Karma will not be kind to her. That was a dishonorable thing to do. I’m still angry because this week is Mike’s birthday. That little Minto would have been a fun birthday gift. But it has got us thinking about our options again. So we’ll stick with that. I’m sure there must be a reason the Universe intervened on that purchase. Maybe the hypalon had a leak? Who knows? When the right combination of boats comes together, it will work out.

Random, fairly disorganized thoughts. Like my boat right now. Ok, procrastination through blogging over now. The aft hanging locker is calling my name and it’s getting irritating. I must bow to its wishes and make it pretty.

It will be a fascinating week! We are looking forward to it.