Thursday, March 28, 2013

Countertop Considerations Afloat

We’ve ripped out our old counters and will soon proceed with installing new, but what. We have a quote on installing a manufactured quartz and were a little shocked by the installation bid. I had a long chat with a professional installer of granite and quartz and he really opened my eyes to what goes into a bid. He also recommended we go with a solid surface instead of the quartz, even though he does not sell solid surface. The information below is what I gleaned from our conversation.

Why is that labor bid so high? Think about how the countertop installer will access the galley. Installation can easily be twice the cost (or more) that it would be for a home as the installer may have to travel a considerable distance down a dock (maybe with a locked gate and steep ramp) to get to your boat, then once there, access from the dock onto the boat, through the door and into the galley can be quite challenging. If the installer is not figuring this into the cost, they will once they come to your vessel to do the actual measurement!

What type of surface? You can easily find comparisons on the web that look at things like heat and scratch resistance of various surfaces and that provide information on care and maintenance. Granite and manufactured stone are quite popular and are being done on boats, but a solid surface, such as Corian, may be a more practical choice depending on your layout. Consider the weight difference. A square foot of manufactured quartz, like Silestone, is easily ten pounds and is about three quarters of an inch thick. A solid surface like Corian is about half an inch thick and that same square foot is going to be light, maybe a couple of pounds, and would be like picking up a cutting board. If your boat has any kind of hatches in the counter, this is a big consideration. Many boats have corner storage with the only access being through lifting out a piece of the counter. Not only would a quartz hatch be quite heavy, there is a good possibility of chipping the corners of the hatch of scratching the counter when you set the hatch down. Or perhaps even breaking the hatch or dropping it if you, since as we know sometimes the boat lurches when you are not expecting it, even at anchor if someone wakes you! Sailboats often have reach in refrigerators where large sections of the counter are removable for access. Imagine what that would weigh in granite. There is a reason a lot of sailboat manufactures are using solid surface counters these days.

All that being said, I am not sure whether we will stick to the Silestone we picked out or go with a solid surface.  We have to give it considerably more thought and see the Corian quote before we decide.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Spring has Sprung?!

Last weekend was incredibly beautiful. Spring definitely came to the Delta early. 

We were supposed to cruise over to San Joaquin Yacht Club with Ox Bow Yacht Club to celebrate St Patrick's Day but Matt and I were both sick and did not want to become known as "those people who got everyone sick."  But the day was much too beautiful to lie around feeling sorry for ourselves, so what to do?  Well we still needed fuel, so....

We were so out of fuel that we were not sure we could make it two hours to Village West for fuel... well we had enough to get there but it is always good to have more than enough just in case, etc, so we stopped by the fuel dock at Willow Berm for "some" fuel so we would have "plenty" to get us to Village West for the real fill up. 

Our fuel at Willow Berm was dispensed by Martin.  Matt asked if there were any fuel discounts and Martin said only for berthers.  Matt told him our slip number and then Martin saw the pineapple logo on the bow and said, "ah you are the pineapple boat, I pump your boat out every Monday."  One of the best things about being on the "new" side of Willow Berm, valet pump out!  Thank you Martin!

We ran into the Commodore of Ox Bow while we were at the fuel dock and gave our coughed excuses for the party.  I think they appreciated our quarantining ourselves....  we headed out for Village West and just could not get over what a beautiful day it was.  We kept commenting that it was like summer but we will be missing 70 degree days when the 90s come later this year! 

When we did get to Village West, who did we find at the fuel dock but our good friend Al of Flywright!  Unfortunately I hugged him before mentioning the part about being sick but they say germs spread more from handshakes than hugs.  So if he gets sick it is Matt's fault.  Al said he would take a Clorox shower as soon as we were gone.  We had thought we might get a spot at Village West for the night but turned out Al and his Bayliner club buddies had the guest dock pretty full so after we filled up we headed back for a wonderful trip home.  We took the scenic route past Herman and Helen's and through Potato Slough.  It is just as well we came back as we were both completely exhausted and I think we were asleep by seven pm and slept past 10 am!

We saw the Vice Commodore from Ox Bow on Sunday morning and heard they all had a great time at San Joaquin.  Next year, next year!  We needed the rest.  We saw some photos from the party and don't think we could have kept up, even if we were feeling well!

Out new smooth surface stove was delivered last night.  Sink and faucet should be here tomorrow.  Looking at the calendar, we don't think we are going to get the new things in until May but we have decided to redo the whole counter while we are at it so we will have a new galley in just a few months!

I almost forgot we took apart the windlass to install the new wildcat.  We decided we needed new friction plates as well so those are on the way.  We should have everything we need to have it all put back together and working for our next overnighter next month!  We are hoping this will solve our skipping problem.  If not, we will be rather disappointed.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

New Oven?

We received this beast yesterday and baked our dinner (almond crusted salmon) in it last night. Unfortunately we are both sick so can't really say how the food turned out. It was cooked all the way, which I guess is what matters. It preheated quickly in convection mode. The fan is a little loud but quieter than a microwave.

We had, of course, measured the space where we plan to put it (several times) and we know it will fit but man it looks huge sitting on the kitchen counter. The cavity (? is that the correct term, that sounds bad) is as large as the current oven, if not larger. So thanksgiving turkey feasts should be no problem! Though our boat neighbors were cooking chicken breast in their microwave convection oven and seemed to be having a hell of a time producing a cooked product. I think there may be a bit of a learning curve with this new fangled technology. Interestingly, it came with a cookbook written 19 years ago. Guess we're just behind the times.


Sunday, March 10, 2013

Galley Makeover Begins!

We had planned to take the boat over to Village West Marina this weekend to fuel up but it was not to be as I have been sick.  We actually still went to the boat Friday night but we came home Saturday morning as I just did not have the energy for the trip.  It's a shame because it is absolutely beautiful out today.  So instead we did a little on line resarch today for our galley!

We have been talking for months about redoing the galley.  It started with a thought of getting rid of the butcher block countertop as it is starting to come apart around the sink.  It was put down directly on top of the original laminate so I thought we could just take it up and perhaps relaminate if needed.  Of course nothing is ever that simple.  The old countertop must have started to fail around the sink so the old countertop is gouged out for maybe 1/2" to an inch around the sink.  So "simply" removing the butcher block was out as that would leave some holes around the sink.  So, if we are going to replace the whole countertop, why not redo the galley how we want it?

Currently there is a microwave over the refrigerator.  We have been looking at replacing it with a convection microwave but all the ones we saw were pretty pricey and didn't have great reviews.  Last weekend we were visiting on someone's boat and noticed they had a convection microwave and no oven.  They said they loved the unit and it works great as an oven.  We looked it up online and it was actually reasonably priced.  However Matt felt it was a little too small to take the place of the oven.  Some googling found the same brand and model in a larger size!  Of course the larger one was not quite so reasonably priced.  We pondered it for awhile, then ordered it from Home Depot while they were having a ten percent off sale on home appliances.  We figured we'd try it at home for a bit and make sure it actually works before we start ripping things out of the boat...

Our stove is a three burner Princess stove and oven combo. The stove has a vertical metal strip on each side which makes it impossible to place a pot on the burner properly. You have to have the pan scooted to the middle of the stove as the pan position is constrained by the metal strip.   Also there is no way to actually use all three burners at one time, unless you have kiddie play set size pans. Not that we have ever made anything on the boat that required us to have three pans going at once... So we decided to replace the stove with a two burner smooth surface drop in stove top.   With the convection microwave, we won't need an oven anymore.  Like I said, we were planning to try out the convection microwave at home before going further with the project, but since we were just sitting around to day with nothing to do... we ordered it from Defender.  The one we picked out was pretty pricey and we really felt like we were splurging on it.  Imagine our delight when we added it to the cart and the actually price was about 40% less!

We plan to put the new convection microwave on the refrigerator in place of the current microwave, and the stove top will go where the stove and oven combo is now... which leaves us the space where the oven is with nothing in it, just begging for something... so we plan to get a dishwasher.  Yes we are lazy, so what?  We come to the boat to relax, not wash dishes!  We had seen an "RV" dishwasher online that can be used on a countertop or built in and had found a store nearish the boat that had it.  We stopped by on our way home Saturday and the man at the store couldn't find any dishwashers in stock and he didn't think they carried them anymore since they moved locations.  This was a couple days after I called and was told they had them in stock.  Annoying.  So today Matt did some browsing online and we decided we'd get the stove top in and the figure out how much room we REALLY have below it and then decide what to get.  We may do the "RV" one or maybe a dishwwasher "drawer."  We will have to see.  We definitely won't leave a gaping hole under the stove.

So what about the counters?  Looks like they are going to be phase II, which will also include a new sink and faucet.  We can't decide what we want and most of the options are pricey so we don't want to rush into a decision.  In the meantime we can buy some butcher block from Ikea to mount the stove top in and just replace that section.  Funny how the thing that started the whole project isn't actually going to be FIXED in the project.  Though maybe I can convince Matt we might as well splice in TWO pieces of butcher block as long as we are doing one and we can replace the worst of the countertop sooner rather than later?  Again, I guess we will have to see.

Meanwhile we still have the wildcat to replace AND we still need fuel.  Soon, soon.  Very soon.

Friday, March 1, 2013

Wildcat!

No not kaepernick's offense (go Niners!). We got our new wildcat from Ideal Windlass today. The current wildcat is not the correct one for our rode so it had issues raising our anchor. We sent Ideal a chain sample so this wildcat should be correct. Hopefully we will be able to install it next weekend! We are going to Stockton for fuel but should have time for a project as well. Though we aren't really sure how to get the windlass apart!? Just makes things interesting. ;)