Getting to know you ....

February 3, 2015

Switches, hoses, AC panel, DC panel, thru hulls (a scary enough thought to have holes in the bottom of a sailboat but even scarier when you don’t know whether or not any particular one should be open or closed), clamps – one or two?, bilges, mysterious openings in the floor, storage behind and underneath cushions, water tanks, diesel tanks and that doesn’t even begin to deal with all of the lines (not “ropes”), sheets (also not “ropes”), anchors, chain and other stuff on deck. And I haven’t mentioned the engine, the generator, air conditioner/heater nor VHF, GPS, Chart potter, depth sounder, or compass.  Just give me a paper chart..after all I took a navigation class, maybe the chart will look familiar…maybe!  It is all very overwhelming…..so I thought I could start slowly by getting to know the galley first. 

I started with the sink.  Just have to turn a knob for hot water or cold water, right?  Only two problems.  If the  DC circuit is not switched on for pressure water….no water.  If the AC circuit is not switched on for the water heater…no hot water.  Well, there is a separate water faucet that has a manual pump.  Good, I like a little independence here.  If the water pressure is off, it is the only way to access the water in our tanks and it works like a charm, if I remember to open the right valve.  But, if the water pressure is on and I try to pump water, it leaks water all over the galley counter.  OK…I can deal with that.  Use manual pump only in the case of emergency.  I get it. 

Jim diving into the refrigerator

Marg using the "grabber"

Then I moved onto the freezer and refrigerator.  Find the circuit for the freezer and turn it on.  I’ll just cut to the chase here.  It made an impressive noise but did nothing…no cold air let alone freezing air.  This was clearly beyond me and thank goodness for Harry at Peterson Marine who knew what he was doing.  It is a cold plate system which basically means that the cold plate in the freezer gets really cold – cold enough to keep things frozen and a little fan blows air into the refrigerator where everything is kept cold and everyone is happy.  There are dials and gauges, but none of them has any markings so it is pretty much a guess as to where it should be set.  We have an infrared thermometer which I used religiously as I turned the compressor on and off and logged in time and temp. Turns out that running the compressor twice a day for an hour each time keeps the freezer/fridge behaving properly.   All of this is well and fine, but whoever designed this must have been at least 61/2 feet tall with very long arms.  Getting to the bottom of either the freezer or the refrigerator is impossible for me.  It’s way too deep.  I practically have to climb inside, you’ve heard of dumpster diving?  Same deal.  The prior owner was clever – he bought one of the grabbers that they give you after hip surgery so that you can pick things up from the floor!!  Works great for most things, but be careful what you let slip to the bottom!

Then I moved on to the cooking part of the galley.  There is a microwave – works just fine when we are at the dock and plugged in to shore power – there is that AC thing again.  But otherwise, it just makes a nice place to store bread.  Then there is an electric two burner glass stovetop.  It, too, is great while at the dock. Away at sea, one burner might work off of the inverter..oh yes, I forgot to mention that mainly because I don’t understand it at all. But speaking of inverters, I have one other option – a crockpot at the lowest power.  Can’t complain about putting dinner in, cooking it all day, anchoring and voila..dinner is ready.  Another wrinkle:  there is no oven.  

Omnia Stovetop Oven

And I like to bake!!  So I bought an Omnia Stovetop Oven which is pretty clever and I like it a lot…but it still needs a heat source…and now we have come full circle back to the electric stovetop.   Last but not least we have a grill, fueled by propane, which attaches onto a rail at the side of the boat.  Yeh! something I can use to cook with while out at anchor!!  And if it is really calm I can use the Omnia Oven on top of the grill!  A two for one bonus!!