Tag Archives: Tiny House

A Tour of Moonrise, Part 2

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When we left off on our tour, we were looking at the salon in Moonrise, a Cal 34.  It requires only a quick turn of the head to survey the galley, which is to starboard amid ship. Moonrise has a refrigerator/freezer (yes, the freezer works) , sink with a hand held sprayer, and a propane stove/oven combo. This description tells only part of the story, however.

The Galley, showing the old faucet. We have a fancy new one now with a sprayer. 

The heart of any kitchen can be said to be the stove/oven and a boat galley is no different. Originally, Moonrise was equipped with a Bristol Diesel Stove by Dickinson Marine.  When we bought the boat, we thought this was just about the coolest stove we’d seen. The stove is great for keeping the cabin warm, but cooking a meal on this stove was simply too much trouble for me. Yes, I’m lazy. That’s right. Let’s just call it what it is.  I never cooked a meal on this stove, and we never even tried to boil water on it. Why? Because 1) that stove takes a very, very long time to get hot and is difficult to light 2) that stove smells up the cabin with the smell of diesel 3) most of the time when we are cooking on the boat, it is warm outside and once that stove got hot enough to cook, the interior of the boat was sweltering. In a nutshell, if I wanted to sail in Alaska and keep that stove going all the time to keep the boat warm, it would be awesome. When we bought the boat, we thought we were getting a mighty cool stove.

Instead we ended up with a big hunk of metal taking up precious space and we used a propane camping stove, placed on top of the Dickinson, for cooking. Now I know why the yacht salesman looked away when I exclaimed, ‘What a cool stove!’ upon seeing Moonrise for the first time. I really need to learn to read salesman body language better. I recognize that these stoves are popular and I imagine that many people would jump for joy over that stove. So we kept it just in case the next owner wants it. It’s a great piece of equipment, hence the high price on the new ones. But it just didn’t suit our particular needs.

Mike removed this stove from Moonrise,  and it remains stored in the shed to this day.  In considering what to put in its stead, we came smack up against the cost of anything with the word ‘marine’ in front of it. Are you kidding me? They want how much for a ‘marine’ stove? Considering that the hunk of metal that now lives in the shed retails for over $2000 new, I shouldn’t be too surprised. So when I came upon something like this nifty little Camping Stove at Costco for about $100, I snapped it up without even a second thought. So maybe it will rust out on us in about 10 years. I’ll just buy another one and still be ahead of the game. This little stove runs on those portable bottles of propane you find in the camping section. They don’t take up much room, and one of them lasts us almost a week when we are cruising. We make coffee in the morning, cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Notice that removing the large diesel monster opened up storage space for our cookware.

Update July 2013:  We are in our third season with this little stove and it continues to perform great! No rust at all, and it’s been completely reliable.

Our cute little stove.

Enough about that. Now the refrigerator. The astute reader who has been following along on previous posts will recall that the door to the fridge is actually part of the counter top. Correct. In the photo, the flat wooden thing that looks like a cutting board is actually the lid to the refrigerator. This is where that fold down table has really come in handy. If you cook like I do, you don’t always know in advance what ingredient you’re going to need until you actually need it. On a sailboat, this is a dangerous way for a brain to work. Most sailboats, if they have refrigeration at all, have one like this one. It’s deep, not wide, so things stack on top of each other. The garlic I need is likely to be at the bottom of the fridge, and the sailboat will likely be heeled 15 degrees. Let the unpacking begin. Like I said, that table top is real, real handy.

The fridge holds a lot of food. It’s deep, and cold, and the freezer will make ice.

On the other hand, the freezer, though small, actually does freeze things. And the unit has a fairly large capacity.  The fact that it can freeze ice means that on our last trip, Mike and I enjoyed iced cocktails every night! Let me tell you something: that’s totally worth it!

Vew from the top. You can see the work space, and  sink.

Mike installed the hand held sprayer next to the faucet. It worked great but he wasn’t satisfied. So he installed a different faucet. It’s nicer than the faucet I have at home. As an added bonus, you can fill a pot with water while the pot is on the stove, just like in those fancy schmancy gourmet kitchens you see on TV.

New Sink

Our shiny new faucet from Second Wave Marine Supply. This makes hair washing a breeze. 

In terms of food storage, we do well on this boat. I stored watermelon, drinks, eggs, and a few other items in the bilge by the galley on the last trip and that worked out fine. The bilge has a flat bottom and three compartments. There is a lot of room there and things stay cool. There are also cabinets along the hull that run the length of the counter top plus stove. There is plenty of space for storing foods and dishware, and the 4 drawers offer more than enough space for cooking and eating utensils. In addition, with the removal of the huge table, we have easy access to the storage underneath the settee.

Next up on our tour: the head and the v-berth. I know you can’t wait for Part 3!

 

 

A Tour of Moonrise

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Moonrise is a 1975 Cal 34 that is perfect for sailing and adventuring in the Puget Sound and the Salish Sea. Over the years that we’ve owned her, we have fine-tuned her interior to make her perfect for 2-3 adults, or for a couple with 2 children.

After owning the boat for a few years, we decided that we’d had enough of the large, cumbersome and heavy table that took up most of the cabin space. The table made it almost impossible to use the settee to its full potential as a lounging area. Mike and I like to have a place that is comfortable to lay around and read or nap in the cabin and the table began to be our nemesis. Because of its size it made access to the settee very difficult. We decided to change that.

To replace the table we really wanted one of those cool Island Packet tables that double as a bookcase/liquor cabinet. Unfortunately we’d have to buy an Island Packet to get one. No can do. So our woodworker friend, Larry Simonds, built us a bookcase/table that would mount on the bulkhead. We use it for lots of things besides books, and we really like it. It folds up easily, making the cabin much more open and spacious, and the settee is so easy to access now. The table doubles as an extra work space for the galley. On a boat, most things have to do at least double duty.

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The table is also a useful work area for the galley. We love it. The striped cushion above the settee is a cushion we use in the cockpit. It is easily stored above the settee and makes a good head rest as well.

The settee is very comfortable with its new dense foam and pillows. I can lie there and read all day long. And the table works great. It’s one of the best things we’ve done for the boat. Mike put electrical outlets on the bulkhead below the table so we have a place to plug in our computers. He has built cabinetry to hide the electrical in that area. He’s getting to be very skilled! I like to sit there to write posts.

In the photo you can see a flat bungee cord. It is a simple way to keep the table in place when it is folded. There is also a hole in the side where you can use a pin to keep it in place. We find the bungee actually is quieter while under way.

New Cable Covers

Teak battens made great covers for the electrical cable running up to the mast.

There is a lot of storage underneath the cushions. Removing the bulky table also allows us to access those spaces more easily.

Next time we’ll look at the galley. Stay tuned for Part 2.

 

Craigslist Lament

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The Shabby Chic table: Sold for $50.

  So, it’s been awhile since I’ve updated this blog and I thought I better get to it. This is the time of year when I feel most like doing nothing; just laying around in bed eating bonbons all day or looking at boats on Yachtworld.com ( a personal weakness that borders on addiction).  But since I don’t eat bonbons anyhow, and I am supposed to be using this blog as the proverbial fire under the hind end, I’ve actually been making progress at home, even if not on the blog.  See?  It’s working!

When I last posted, I was commenting on the sheer number of pieces of furniture we’ve collected over the course of a 29 year marriage. I’m coming to terms with disposing of some of those pieces and now I feel the urge to comment about the use of Craigslist as a tool for selling unnecessary items.  To be more precise, I feel the urge to complain about my Craigslist experience.

The promise of Craiglist, that of easy, free posting of unwanted items which will soon be sold to people just waiting to buy, is a fantasy. At least the second part is a fantasy. Yes, the posting is free, and fairly easy, even if it does take some time. But the part about people waiting to buy said items really must exist only in my rather too-vivid imagination.  To date I have spent around 4 hours photographing and posting items on Craigslist and I have sold exactly one item, a little white Victorian table, for $50, which is $25 less than what I listed it for. That amount of work has earned me $12.50/hour and 1.5 square feet of floor space.  I think the only reason the table sold is that I used the term ‘Shabby Chic’ in the title.

We’ve had a number of emails asking if this item or that is still available, and then when I email back that it is available….. NOTHING! What is wrong with these people? Or maybe they don’t actually want the item, only to know if we still have it, like they need to be reassured that it will be there whenever they are ready.Or perhaps they email only so they can laugh as they expertly dash our hopes of an easy sale.  Or maybe they are  lonely people who email others just for the joy of getting an email back.

I wonder if the problem is deeper than that, however. I wonder if our sales problem lies more within a change that appears to be happening across the country, if not across all western nations. I wonder if the problem we’re having with selling our ‘stuff’ to others is because overall, people are getting tired of accumulating all that stuff in the first place. It’s no accident that there are so many books on downsizing, clearing clutter, etc. and that there is a movement to build smaller houses. It seems like collectively we have already ridden the crest of the wave that allowed us to collect and sell lots of ‘things’. I wish there were data that compared the relative ‘success’ of a garage sale now to one held 10 years ago.

And although many people do not have the extra cash now that they did 10 years ago, this ‘buying less’ mentality is not limited to the cash-strapped masses. CnnMoney published an article this month stating that even the wealthiest people in the U.S. (defined as those making more than $130,000/year) will be buying fewer gifts this Christmas. Maybe I’m not defined as ‘wealthy’, but I can assure you I am among those who will buy less. Patagonia recently announced they are starting a new campaign to get people to buy fewer things, focusing on buying better quality and making those things last. Why, that’s downright UN-AMERICAN! Frankly, it looks like just a smart marketing strategy since, according to a recent New York Times article  people appear to be holding onto things longer across the board; making them last; repairing rather than tossing things and replacing them. Our mothers and grandmothers could give us a lot of advice about this.

Putting two and two together leads me to believe that his evolution of values we are experiencing means that eventually there will be fewer items for sale on Craigslist. So you’d think that people would be rushing to buy our things in anticipation of the times of scarcity! Don’t these people prepare for the future? Maybe I should re-title my listings: THE END TIMES ARE UPON US! BUY THIS NOW BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE. ALSO: SHABBY CHIC!!!  I’ve heard that the more exclamation points a listing has, the more people pay attention.  No? Okay. But if that doesn’t work, we’ll have to have a garage sale in December.  Cash only, you pick up at our Lakewood location. Haggling cheerfully accepted.

 

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