Date: 8 July 2015. Chaos in the
Galley.
© janice142
In a small
boat it is necessary to stay neat and organized or chaos will reign.
Occasionally however a Good Idea comes to the surface and I will give
it a go. That is precisely what happened in June. Now that I have
*almost* recovered I shall tell you all about it.
The original
set-up:

The second row in the back of the bookcase behind
Skipper held the cruising guides.
The problem
is detailed in the
Heat Rises and Mildew
Grows (finding discounts on Amazon)
piece. To summarize, my bookcase originally was bolted to the galley
counter top. A small cube refrigerator was beneath it. The heat
thrown off from the reefer along with humidity caused many of my
cruising guides to become damaged.
Additionally, I have been unhappy with my execution (and that is the
proper word) of the canning jar locker. Cuts were perfect, except I
did not measure where the locker needed to be. That fiasco of my own
doing I might add is detailed in the
Building a Locker (Part 2)
article.
Thus, I
decided to fix everything all at one time. What was I thinking?!?
Doing everything simultaneously meant total chaos. First I shifted
the bookcase from its spot atop the
refrigerator. Mid-project, with the canning goods locker removed, I
placed the bookcase against the bulkhead.

Stuff is
everywhere, and it's a real mess. Ugh.
And too,
there is another problem with the bookcase placement. It's not
attached to the bulkhead, yet, so if the boat rocks it can move.
There are rollers under it, hidden by a piece of wood trim.
Before, it
was through bolted to the counter top. I did not want it to move, and
with six of these bolts it did not:

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Daddy built this bookcase back in the 1960s of oak. It
is
heavy. Even empty I have to remove the two drawers in order to
move it around.
On our
40'er the bookcase sat between the Captain's and Admiral's chairs. In the
following picture, it's just to the left of the open doorway into
the *saloon.
*Saloon:
aka salon. The equivalent of a living room on land.
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Next I moved the refrigerator. It went on top of the
galley counter where the bookcase used to be.
Then I realized I had no place to store my DVDs that
had resided above the bookcase. So, using a couple of the boards
leftover from dismantling the canning goods locker I put the DVDs up
there. This is not a good spot and I believe with any kind of
sea things will tumble.
Not only that, but I am back with
the same issue I was initially trying to solve. That being, heat and humidity
destroying books. Well, DVDs mildew too, so the more I think about
it, the less I am liking this Good Idea of mine. Argh.
This is yet another thing to deal with,
but not today. Today I want job finished. The mantra "Good Enough"
is humming in the back of my mind. Still, I am dissatisfied with the
results achieved thus far. I wish I had a dollar for every good idea
that was not-so-good. I would be rich!

It is better to have tried and failed
than to never try at all.
I still
have to deal with the canning jars. I used the boards leftover from
the locker and made shelves where the refrigerator had been. This is
not pretty. It is not done, but this is Good Enough in the interim
until I can build proper shelf supports.

Without *fiddles to keep the items on the shelves when
the doors open, this is a recipe for disaster. I'll deal with that
later though. For now, using a couple of the old locker doors from
the previous incarnation, I've got the jars put away. That's okay at
least in the short term.
*Fiddles are
small pieces of wood usually. They hold items in place when the boat
rocks.

Having a decent quantity and variety of supplies helps. I was able
to look in ship stores and reused the hinges from another project.
The wooden twist gizmo on the upper right is simply a long screw
with a piece of wood that holds the door from opening too far. It
rotates.
My power
supply for the refrigerator is under there too. That's what that
black cord is. And no, I am not happy with its position either. Still in
all, sometimes you have to live with something a few days before
decided what next to do.
The final
version after recovery from this Good Idea will guaranteed be
better than the stop-gap in place at present. Coffee will help the
process.

On the
dinette side of the cabin I added some 1/8" thick rubber between the
bookcase top and the dinette table. The weight of the dinette should
help keep the bookcase in place.
Also
because the table is now a few inches lower I needed to cut the
support leg. Attaching it was problematic, however I had a spare
pill bottle. Using a small screw I attached the bottle to the bottom
of the table. This will provide a temporary place for the leg to
attach. Simple, easy and it works.

And so I
shall live with this for a time and see if I like it.
Immediately, my first impression is, this is awful. But I will give
it a shot for a few days. Perhaps I might get used to it. And if not,
well, all the stuff will go back the way it was.
There are times when I wish my boat was bigger. Tracey has a
wonderful galley on her 47' Selene.
A gal like me could get a
serious case of Storage Envy. Lockers galore, a big
refrigerator, lots of lights and plenty of hand holds too.
Wow! Tracey is a lucky lady.
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As for me, I am woman. I am allowed to change my mind. In the
meantime, a lot of stuff migrated to the sink side of the galley and
I have more stuff to put away. Followed by a treat: reading on my
Kindle . Gosh it
is good to have a Kindle. Of late I am reading again
The Earth's Children Series
by Jean Auel.

Life afloat continues. Last
week the mechanic was here. On the 3rd he said one more day is
all it will be before sea trials begin. I am hopeful and excited.
I have so missed being able to
swim. Though it may sound silly, living on a boat does not
necessarily mean swimming where you are at. And I am not
fond of beaches due to the sand.
As for me, I prefer clear green water. And no jelly fish.
That white blob by the piling is a
jellyfish.→
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With this hurricane season of course I am more and more anxious to be
mobile. If a storm comes Seaweed and I are sitting ducks. That worries me.
Are you a furniture re-arranger?
And, do you ever change your mind and put it all back the way it was?
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Categories:
Boat Talk,
Books, Characters, Galley,
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