Holy Mother! It’s hot. We’re in the middle of a heat wave in Sacramento. It was only 106 yesterday. Today’s forecast: 108. Tomorrow: 111! Geez, how is Rich supposed to be working his butt off on our long list of projects in this heat? All he’s been doing is trying to make the boat cooler. Yesterday he fashioned a tarp over the cabin aft of the mast that extends over boom to the cockpit. Today he moved the AC unit to the middle overhead hatch so the cool air might actually reach the V-berth.
Sinks
The spending spree continues. This week we bought a sink and faucet for the galley, a sink and faucet for the bathroom, and two new water tanks. The sinks we ordered online because neither Home Depot nor Lowe’s carried small single basin stainless steel sinks. The galley sink we ordered is 14¾” x 17” x 8” deep (interior dimensions are 13½” x 15¾” x 8” deep) with an offset drain.
The sink is supposed to be mounted with the short side along the front of the countertop, but since the width of our countertop is short, we’re going to turn it 90 degrees so it will be longer side to side and the drain will be closer to the through-hull. This configuration should free up some space under the sink too. The bathroom sink is 13⅝” round x 5¼” deep (interior dimensions are 11½” x 5¼” deep). I would never have thought that finding sinks that fit would be such a hassle, but everything is odd-shaped on the boat so standard-sized anything just won’t work.
Faucets
The faucets weren’t any easier. We bought the galley faucet at Lowe’s and the bathroom faucet at Home Depot. The bathroom faucet was pretty easy because the only obstacle is the cabinet door. We’re going to mount the faucet off to the side so the door will open properly.
The galley faucet was a lot harder. We wanted something simple, but completely opposite of what we have on the boat now. We also don’t like the kitchen faucet in the condo we’re in so that model was out too. In our last house, we had a single handle, pull-out sprayer faucet with two spray patterns and a nice arch so it doesn’t block the use of the sink.
Our limitations on the boat are the upper cabinet is 19” above the sink; the countertop is 22” front to back, 1¾” of which is unusable because the tray along the back overhangs the countertop, so really the countertop is 20¼” front to back; the handle of the faucet has to work in such a way so it won’t hit the back of the countertop tray. We thought with 19″ from the countertop to the cabinet we would easily be able to find a faucet that would fit.
After looking at every faucet we could find, we realized they’re all really tall! The shortest was about 15 inches, so we decided 16” was the maximum height we could have and still have room between the top of the faucet and the cabinet. We wanted a single handle with a pull-out sprayer. Right now we have a separate plastic sprayer and it sucks. We found a Glacier Bay model at Home Depot and seemed like it would work but when we took it to the boat we found out the angle of the spray-end was not straight down but slightly out. Basically, the water would probably end up spraying whoever was standing in front of the sink right in the belly; so back to the store for a refund.
Our next attempt was a nice simple Peerless from Lowe’s. It’s about 16” high, has a pull-out sprayer with two spray modes. The handle is on the side so it can be installed at an angle to avoid the back tray. It seems like it’s going to work great, but we won’t know until we get the sink and countertop installed.
Water Tanks
For once we had a pleasant surprise when ordering something for the boat. Typically we’ve been finding that everything we need is twice as expensive as we thought. We thought the water tanks from Ronco were going to cost us about $1,000. It’s an expense we weren’t anticipating now, but since our stainless steel tank is leaking we figured we might as well fix it now. Rich calculated which Ronco tanks would fit and where the fittings and hatch should go. He filled out the order form and faxed it to Ronco. They were mightily impressed with his drawing. I’m not sure if that had something to do with it, but they gave us a huge discount on the tanks. Instead of a little over $1,000 for both tanks, they’re going to cost us about $500 and that includes shipping and tax! Amazing!
We also received the new electrical panel and propane monitor & control from Port Supply today. All we’re waiting on now are the hinges and latches for the refrigerator.
