Date: 8 July 2015. Chaos in the
Galley.
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'll give
it a go. That's precisely what happened in June. Now that I've
recovered I'll 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
didn't 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.
So, I
decided to fix everything all at one time. That meant removing the
bookcase from it's 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 didn't want it to move, and
with six of these bolts it didn't:

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Daddy built this bookcase back in the 1960's of oak. It's
heavy. Even empty I have to remove the two drawers in order to
shift it around.
On our
40'er she 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. It's not a good spot though and I'm afraid with any kind of
sea things will tumble.
Not only that, but I'm back with
the same issue I am trying to solve. That being, heat and humidity
destroying books. Well, DVDs mildew too, so the more I think about
it, the less I'm liking this Good Idea of mine. Argh.
It's 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'm not satisfied with the
results thus far.

It's better to have tried and failed
than to never try at all.
And 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. It's
not pretty. It's not done, but this is Good Enough for the meantime
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'm not happy with it's position either. Still in
all, sometimes you have to live with something a few days before
decided what next to do.
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'll live with this for a time and see if I like it.
Immediately, my first impression is, this won't work. But I'll give
it a shot for a few days. Perhaps I'll get used to it. And if not,
well, I'll put stuff 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'm allowed to change my mind. In the
meantime, a lot of stuff migrated to the sink side of the galley and
I've got stuff to put away. Followed by a treat: reading on my
Kindle. Gosh it's good to have a Kindle.

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'm excited.
I've so missed being able to
swim. Though it may sound silly, living on a boat doesn't
necessarily mean swimming where you're at.
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'm more and more anxious to be
mobile. If a storm comes I'm a sitting duck. 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?
COMMENTS:
Categories:
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