Moondance's Galley aka Kitchen

As we all know, well those of us who cook, you need a nicely stocked galley aka kitchen on your boat. That means some thoughtful research and shopping for just the right supplies. To many things and you won't have room, too few and not much cooking will go on. So I have read blogs and looked at books and decided to do some shopping. Online shopping is my favorite way to shop these days. What I decided on was plates of course sail flag designed melamine, silverware blue handles to match the sail flag plates. :) utensils, some thought goes into that because Moondance has a small silverware drawer and a few wooden spoons, spatula and large spoon. Still trying to decide on cups??? Not sure what kind and how many we can have onboard?? Except of course coffee mugs, sailing mugs no less.

 We like the saying "keep calm and carry on", so when I found the coffee mug that said "keep calm and sail one" HAD to have it to go with Moondance's coffee maker. Coffee isn't as good in a glass or plastic cup, probably a psychological thing more than anything. Then there's the toaster of course. 
Not much but we still have a mental list of other things we think might be useful for our summer sailing excursion. Maybe a griddle, John loves pancakes. A crock pot is a possibility. These items will have to be stored in the starboard front cabin as Moondance's galley is compact. There is also the need for that new refrigerator and freezer. Since we lost the refrigerator when the batteries were left to dehydrate in Miami. We decided a freezer would be awesome. I decided a drawer type fridge and freezer is the best for us. Thinking about some type of oven and bread maker. More research needed for those items. It is all about space and electric capabilities. Then there are cooking pots. They sell pans that fit nicely into each other and the handles come off. They take up very little space. Then there the few decorations to make it homey.......baskets and nice sailboat and red kitchen towels. We also need to decide on where to put a paper towel holder that won't fly away when it gets rough at sea. We tried Velcro for a decorative wooden anchor we got for Christmas. That may work, will have to try it. We put the anchor on a shelf so far so good. This is kinda like that first apartment or dorm room when you leave home the first time :).....
Life Is Good, Sail On !!!!

Yikes, Lights on a Sailboat

Who would have thought the importance of light on a boat not to mention the cost yikes. Well let's see you need to have LED of course it pulls less power according to the latest research. How can you add light to the exterior of a boat without wiring duhhh.  There has to be light on the outside to guide us in case we are ever get caught off guard again watching the sunset while trying to find a marina.

Then there are the lights inside Moondance, the cabins and salon. That would be seven cabin and four salon lights.  Wow of course switch to LED and of course make sure the wiring is safe and good.  Then of course there is wiring to the pumps oh geeze who would have thought there would be three pumps on a 35' sailboat. Gotta make sure all that pump wiring is good too. I will say this is quite a good hospital, thorough for sure. No responsible boater would journey far without ensuring safety.

We will be safe on the water the next trip. John, the construction guy he is kept telling me, electric and water don't mix.

Moondance is on her way in a few short weeks she will be good as new and ready to head north.
Gotta post a few pics of some nice brass cabin lights of course. Perfect Moondance's teak wood will look great with these.

Oh my more electric gotta take care of installing a refrigerator and freezer.

Life Is Good, Sail On !!!!

Yoga on a sailboat

One of the things I was curious about when we decided to be boaters and live on a boat for months at a time was how could I do some yoga.  Over the past 10-15 years I have enjoyed yoga on and off and wanted to be able to do some if I decided I'd like to. It is healthful and I enjoy it although I don't do as much as I should. Moondance is a small boat with limited interior space, where or how was it going to be possible for me to do a little yoga on a boat?  I know there are lots of places on shore including the beach, or on the dock, but how about on a boat. While in Europe I did it in the train station waiting on trains :)...

Thankfully we picked a catamaran which means she has a trampoline :). Not sure why catamarans have trampolines, I'm sure it has a lot of uses. But for me I immediately thought ah ha... Yoga!!  So while out on the ICW during this holiday season I decided to try it out. So I did a little yoga on the trampoline while we were motoring. I am glad to say it was great, quiet, peaceful and calming being on the water. I didn't try any standing poses, only sitting and lying poses. Next trip I may try a couple standing poses, but I think I'll make sure John knows so he can warn me about the wakes from boats.

Inside Moondance is another story there isn't a lot of room for yoga. The only place inside would be in the starboard guest cabin. Maybe I'll try that on a rainy day.

Life Is Good, Sail On !!!!

Navigation and the Weather

We have been putting a lot of thought into preparing Moondance for living on her for the summer.  We have learned that having an outside chart plotter linked to our inside chart plotter as well as paper charts are necessary. We have also learned that tide charts are also important for several reasons, but mostly for anchoring.  Plotting our next stop is important, what marina will we stop at, what are the water levels, what anchorage and where and what are the water levels...
While playing in the ICW over Christmas we found ourselves once unprepared trying to dock at a marina after the sun began to set without lights on Moondance. This was not safe but thankfully it was uneventful. We did have a handheld spot light that I was able to hold for John as he navigated into Nettles Island Marina that evening. Moondance will not be without lights when she gets out of the marine hospital at cape Canaveral.

I think it is important to have radar to get weather forecast. As we now know from our first sail adventure all of our adventures / maneuvering on the water are planned and controlled by the weather. Waves and tides, direction of the wind, and when and where it is going to rain and for how long, etc..etc... One couple we met while on our journey said one rainy night. "I have never been so controlled by the weather in my life till I began to live aboard a boat."  Being safe is more important then being at a desired destination at a specific time or day.

Life Is Good, Sail On!!!!

Cape Canaveral, Florida  
Tide Chart 
Local time: 2014-01-06 2:32 PM EST

Weather:  http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/data/Forecasts/FZUS52.KMLB.html

Stripped Sailing Cloth

One of the things we are planning to change / update on Moondance is her salon cushions. So I am searching for the perfect fabric, sunbrella of course. Since I decided to decorate using sail flag patterns and colors I think I want a blue and white stripe cloth fabric for her new cushions, that would be perfect. John and I both like colorful..... I think it will match nice with the rugs and pillows she has so far. Ok that was easy found the perfect fabric I like it's called Lido Indigo. Lido which means beach in Italian sounds awesome, so I think it's perfect. Here is the link if you'd like to take a look and let me know what you think, will it go with the sail flag rug? Yeah I think so :)

http://www.sunbrella.com/showroom/?lang=en_us#submit=thumbnail&screen=detail&style=57004-0000&limits=111111
Life Is Good, Sail On !!!!

Pillows to match :)

Keeping her linens dry

I found while leaving for our first journey I was thinking about what to take. What to take and leave on Moondance and what to take and bring back home. I dont want to carry things back and forth. I wasn't sure how we could store stuff on Moondance while we were away. I read several blogs and found people used a lot of plastic containers. So I ended up buying a few to try them out. I considered what our experiences were, what we would be doing while on Moondance and keeping her tidy and clean. What I found that sticks out the most is......We are on water 24/7 ....... So I found I needed to keep her as dry as possible inside the galley and in the cabins. How to do that, we found that cotton machine washable rugs we great.  I could hang them out on the rails with clothes pins to dry if they got wet or I could toss them in a dryer at a marina.  So what I decided was rugs were important so all the rugs stayed. I will also take more rugs when we return to her in March.  About towels, absorbent towels were great, but took a long time to dry. So how many towels did we need?  I think I decided six is a good number for two people. We only had two and that was a challenge to keep one dry to use daily.....Sheets and blankets for our beds was another thing to consider to use and store on Moondance. But how and keep them dry?
 I thought that one large plastic container for sheets, one for blankets, one for towels and one for misc. other cloths would be enough to store stuff while we were away.  I'm not sure what we will return to find, but I hope everything isn't musty from the moisture of being on the water once she is put back in.
I also hung damp rid bags one in each of two of our cabins. I will also take xxlg airtight bags next time just in case.
We didn't have trouble with a lot of dampness in our main cabin, maybe because our bed was above the water level. However the spare cabin bed I made up just in case we had family on board did get damp, however that berth is below water level. Not sure if that's why.
Life Is a Good, Sail On !!!!

Stay tuned

We will be blogging about all of Moondance"s repairs/upgrades. So stay tuned as we share with everyone about all she is having done in the next couple months. From entertainment upgrades to band aides on the hole she sustained when hitting the dock in Sebastian. :) as well we will share with everyone where we plan to go when we return to her late March.
Life Is Good, Sail On!!!!