Just Because

As I write this I’m being serenaded by the noise of a grinder with the vacuum cleaner singing backup. It’s the sounds of progress. What used to be a poor excuse for a galley has been gutted entirely and the new, “real” galley for our boat is starting to take shape.

When we bought Because the galley consisted of a two-burner alcohol stove on the port side of the companionway, and a poorly insulated icebox to starboard. The small, single stainless sink was under the companionway slightly to port and the placement of the faucet was such that on a starboard tack the water missed the sink. It was foot pump only; there was no pressure water system. There was plenty of storage space, but most of it was diffi cult or awkward to get at. You needed orangutang arms to reach anything toward the bottom.

One of our fi rst projects on the boat was to put in refrigeration. We tore out the old ice box, Mike did a wood mock-up of a new one, and he found someone to fabricate it out of stainless. We put in new insulation which was quite the adventure. It consisted of a two-part mixture which we could pour into the void around the new stainless box, and then it would harden into a super insulating foam-type substance. The fi rst batch we mixed erupted like a volcano and hardened before we could pour it. Once we conquered that, Mike built a new countertop with two hinged lids into the fridge and installed a 12-volt Adler Barbour system which worked fi ne. Some years later we upgraded to a Technautics cold plate system which worked a little too fi ne. Lettuce does not freeze well, in case you’re wondering.

On the cooking side, we weren’t quite sure what we wanted to do yet, other than get rid of the alcohol stove. We wanted to put in an oven, but the present confi guration of the galley provided no room. So, in the meantime we went through a series of propane camp stoves which used the individual cylinders.

Eventually Mike installed a propane system and we upgraded to an RV stove top that ran off our two new 5-gallon tanks. I had adapted well to cooking with only two burners, which was helped by the fact that Mike’s nickname is “Mr. BBQ.” He also installed a pressure water system and an instantaneous propane hot water heater which was highly recommended at the time. That’s a long story in itself and I’ll just say they are no longer recommended for good reason. A new, much larger faucet with pressure water made the sink more user-friendly and I fell back in love with my tea kettle.

And so, we were able to get along nicely with a minimal galley for a really long time and the “new galley project” kept getting moved to the back burner. But now, for full-time cruising we want a gimballed stove with an oven. It’s time for a new refrigeration system too since that technology has progressed immensely since we last upgraded ours. With all that in mind the deconstruction tools came out and so did the galley.

Now we’re in the process of building the new galley around a Seward two-burner stove with oven and an Engel drop-in 12-volt refrigerator. We’re still looking at sinks, and as for hot water, we’re not sure how we’ll address that problem yet. Maybe I’ll just get a new tea kettle.