Every sailor will tell you that when you are preparing to cast off the lines, there is never enough time for renovation and repair. So with mostly technical and marine systems to service before we leave, it was a pleasant contrast to watch our galley and head remodel come together.
With a long passage ahead, albeit consisting mainly of one or two-day sails, we need SY Esper to be at her best. The area where we will be sailing is remote and sparsely inhabited, so it’s important to be self-sufficient and have reliable gear.
The galley
The galley worktop had been gradually wearing away for a while and was really unsightly. The lip on the overmounted sink was forever getting clogged up, and it drove Liz mad trying to wheedle out the bits of clogged debris. And since the lip was higher than the worktop, water didn’t drain into the sink which meant constant mopping. Time for a change.
In the heads, we finally got rid of the floor cover which we had installed over the teak grating (for Millie’s sake). Since we never use the shower, it hadn’t mattered. But with plans to sail north to Japan where it is colder, we might want to get showered below rather than on deck. The existing teak was in reasonably good nick but needed re-modeling and renovating.
The heads
But it was the heads basin that was really depressing us. The rust round the edges was gradually eating away at the ceramic surface and it looked a mess. So we took out the whole countertop with the sink and replaced it all.
Finding replacement sinks for both jobs had been difficult, they just don’t make them of similar sizes here in Sabah. So a bit of leftfield thinking from Liz resulted in changing the old oblong double sink in the galley to a single round sink, and the shallow oval basin in the head to a circular countertop version. We love them, what do you think?
But it wasn’t all glamourous jobs, Jamie spent days in his favourite place, the damp and dark lazarette. Find out what he got up to in the video version:
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