Bits is bits ...

As you might be aware, Deb is an excellent cook, baker, and all around galley guru. Unfortunately the oven in her galley gave up the ghost. Actually the heat control corroded through and the knob fell off. This would generally be considered a full blown emergency on Kintala since, without an oven, homemade cookies are out of the questions.  Stuck as we are in Florida in the summer however, adding more heat to the inside of the boat - even for some of the world's best cookies - is a tough call. Still, summer is waning away and store bought cookies, even Double Mint Oreos, are getting, shall we say, stale.

We debated replacing the stove with a new unit, but the weight of such a purchase would have the budget braying like an overloaded pack mule. Deb wanted to try and score some used parts first and has spent several weeks in full out search mode. Today the effort paid off and we headed off to Sailor Man to pick up our bits.

First though, the old bit had to come off the old stove to be traded in as a core, “old” being the theme here. Two bits actually, since John at Sailor Man (Hillerange and all around boat stove guru) would not sell a rebuilt control without also selling a matching valve thing that goes inside the oven itself. He got tired of people changing one only to have the oven stop working again (and him taking the blame) when the other unit failed a couple of days or weeks later. 

 No hay problema. With care, a little PB Blaster, and some heatage applied as necessary, the bits came out with only minor trauma. I even remembered to tie a string onto the old thermostat before pulling it out.  This allowed the replacement to be snaked through the holes with less abusive verbiage than might, otherwise, have been required.

Old bits and $260 in hand to trade for overhauled bits, off we went. Alas, much to John's surprise, the overhauled bits were not exactly the same as the old bits. “Never before”, he claimed, “have I seen such a thing.” I understood. He hasn't tangled with Kintala before; had no idea he was trying to source parts for the Wicked Witch of the Western Atlantic.

So another couple of hours went by as we searched out alternate bits that could be added to the overhauled bits so they would work with the old bits still in the stove.  Even at that one of the stove's old bits had to be hacked off and replaced with a new bit that would fit the alternate bit.  Which, in the marine industry, is exactly what one expects to do after forking over $260.  By mid-afternoon, only 6 hours or so after shutting off the LP valve and taking wrench to stove, soft blue flames licked out of the oven burner. Not bad so far as boat projects go, and all is well in the homemade cookie world once again. (My guess is even Kintala likes the aroma of Deb's cookies fresh from the oven. Thus was this mechanical thrashing toned down to a minor bruising.)

With the galley at 100% and a few hours left in the day, some work went into a minor mod to our work station / parts bin. That didn't quite get done before the engine parts arrived, and it was also pretty late in the day. So the plan is to finish the mod job mañana in la mañana. Then, fortified with a deep breath and maybe a cold beer, square off with the WesterBeast once again.

100

Warm white LEDs look just like incandescent lights

After a couple of weeks of procrastination the last of the lights in the galley got changed to an L.E.D. bar today. As far as boat jobs go it was pretty straight-forward; a half hour job that only took two hours. For a moment it did appear a trip into town would be required as the bar came without a switch - a trip that would make it an even more normal boat task.  As it turned out the old switch could be cannibalized off the original light and mounted into the side of a galley cabinet, making for a rather neat installation and saving a road trip.

The switch just where your hand wants to find it

It was job #100 on my "Maintenance Completed" list. True, that list is more than a little arbitrary. For example job #10 "Install screen on anchor locker door" took about 20 minutes. (The anchor locker door is at the foot of the V-berth. Winged six-legged creatures would find their way into the anchor locker, buzz through the louvers on the door, and nibble on my toes during the night.) Item #97, "Replace damaged V-drive / tranny / test run," took about 8 months. There is no good reason to keep such a list going, and it isn't an exhaustive list by any stretch of the imagination, but old airplane mechanic habits die hard.

It was pretty much the first job completed since the V-drive repair was finished. A month ago just the thought of going into the aft cabin to get a tool provoked a sharp pain that hit me right between the eyes. "Kintala" as "project" had just about sucked all the joy out of heading to the lake. When it was done we had two weekends of easy sailing with a couple of raft-ups, and then spent last weekend in the city with new grand son youngest. (A one-month-old and lake temperatures nearing 110 seemed a poor mix.)

Light bar looking from below - that's a lot of LEDs!

We thought about heading out to spend this weekend off the pier but (as you might be aware) there hasn't been a lot of water falling from the sky in these parts lately. The lake is short of summer pool making "shallow" the word of the day. Last night a boat full of the assembled went out for a late sail that turned into a stop.  They were the last ones up, no one answered the phone when they called for aid, so they spent the night coved out without bothering with a cove. They did leave a message however; first thing this morning help was dispatched to pull them back into what passes for deep water around here.  Of course there is more to the story - an engine that failed on the way out preventing them from trying to power out of the mud - a shallow spot were none of the experienced assembled on board had ever grounded before - and enough Captain Morgan influence to make having the whole bunch jump into the dark water near the middle of the lake to push seem like a bad idea.  Wisdom prevailed and they settled in to wait for the dawn.

Deb's bright galley - all these lights for a fraction of the draw of the one old one.

Changing a light seemed a better option to digging furrows in the lake bottom.

Job #100.

Missing Pieces

In the process of looking for interior ideas for the boat, we've been looking at pictures of other Tartan 42s listed on yachtworld and sailboatlistings.com.  There aren't too many for sale so the pictures are few between, but on looking at one of them we discovered that we were missing a piece in our galley, a piece of counter that slides over the stove when not in use and stores down behind it when the stove is in use. The original one that came with the new boat was made of the same countertop that was in the rest of the boat, with mica on it. I wanted something I could cut directly on though, either a butcher block type of top or something similar. After a whole lot of unsuccessful searching for cutting board or butcher block we happened on a piece of cast-off corian that a contractor friend of ours had at a good price.  With a little cutting here and a little sanding there and some teak trim added, we had a replacement for the missing piece only much better. With the completion of this project I believe I can declare the galley finished. Oh wait...there was that new light bar over the spice rack to install...

Corian countertop piece that slides back and down behind the stove on a track.

Showing the counter stored down behind the stove on the track.

Tick Tick

That's the sound of projects being crossed off the list.  Tim finished my most excellent spice rack yesterday and we installed it today after arriving at the boat a day early. Where the spice rack is now located there used to reside a group of really terrifically ugly placards that have since been moved to a less obtrusive location on the fronts of the companionway stairs. Now I have adequate room for all my spices (I cook a lot as you know from the Cruising Comforts blog). This frees up room in the glasses rack over the galley sink for, well, glasses.  Imagine that. 

After installing the spice rack we turned on our new light and, being the first we'd seen it at night, we just stood there open-mouthed.  It's amazing the difference it makes in the galley. The pictures don't do it justice, but here's the without light and with light pics:

Without light on

Voilá!

It's amazing how much difference it makes. It makes the galley feel twice the size.  I think we're going to get another one and replace the flourescent light over the spice rack as well.  In addition to saving a lot of amps (the light bar is LED), it should give us even more light and not so much glare. This is one seriously happy galley wench!

Cruising Comforts

If you check out the tabs above, you'll see a new tab titled Cruising Comforts.  Since I cook so much on the boat, I've been asked a good many times about the food I prepare, how I do it, and the recipes for it.  I was initially going to do a page only for recipes, but I decided to start a new blog for all things related to cruising comforts and to link to it on that tab.  I've only started it today so there's only one post, but keep your eye on it as there will be many recipes and cooking tips there as well as other tips to help you bring the comforts of home to cruising.

Enjoy!

A Shameless Plug

OK I'm going to take a break from all things boat buying and house selling and give you all something I rarely do on this blog - a shameless plug for a truly amazing boat product. They're called Lock and Lock containers (not the most original name I agree, but it does get the point across).  They are airtight and as far as I can tell, watertight as well.  They have a silicone seal around the top edge of the lid and you snap down 2 handles on each long side and then snap down 2 handles on each short side.  The one I have has a lift-out plastic grate on the bottom and with the grate in place you can fill the box with cut vegetables and they will be exactly as fresh a week later as the day you put them in there.  They also work great for cut meat and cheese and cut fruit and a whole host of other things that cruisers are always trying to keep fresh on a boat.  They also stack, a rather handy little feature in volume-challenged boat refrigerators.  I highly recommend them to both land and water based galley workers.  Lock and Lock are the best!