Practical Things on Board: GALLEY.

 

A list of practical things onboard for the galley

Stainless Steel Non-Stick Nesting Pots – 4 pots and one pan, high quality, with ceramic interior is better than stainless, because it’s easier to clean (less water) all need just a wipe down and quick rinse.  link here

Pan with folding handle – easy to stow and clean in small sinks.  link here

Pressure Cooker – easy to use, 4 quarts is big enough for 2 people and small enough for a small boat.  link here

Silicon (Baking) Mats – prevent things from sliding around on counters in rolly anchorages and on passages.

Taste Neutral Glasses – water to wine taste great like out of real glass, also unbreakable.  link here

Square Dinner Bowls – if you don’t have precut dish racks. These have non skid rubber on the bottom, made of recycled plastic in the US by a fellow sailor. The plates are not knife proof.  link here

Square Melanine Plates, Trays and Bowls from Target  (in store only).  link here

Vacuum Containers with Pump – keeps perishables longer, don’t leak.  link here

Spaghetti Storage Tubes – useful in top-loading fridges and iceboxes, because they make good use or the vertical space.  link here

Plastic Bags with Zippers – take little space, we re-use them several times and later for smelly trash.

Collapsible Dish Tub – silicone, great space saver.  link here

Trash Container with Seal – we divide trash into: dry trash (cans, plastic, packaging), smelly trash (food packaging) and organics (peels, tea bags, paper). Only organics go overboard, the smelly trash we keep in a recycled zipper bag in the airtight trash container. If we are in a shallow anchorage, nothing goes overboard, as decomposition takes long, especially lemon peels, and it might wash ashore and soil the beach. So we keep then keep organic trash also in a recycled zipper bag in the airtight trash container until we are again in deep waters and we throw it overboard there.  link here

Food Hammocks with Brown Bags – dry vegetables and fruit off condensation on a towel for about an hour and separate into brown bags, as some ripen faster next to others, bananas especially exude a ripening gas and need a bag for each or hang separate around the boat. Heard a sailors’ saying ‘No bananas on the boat!’. Veggies stay as long fresh outside as inside the fridge, or longer!

Vacuum Sealer – We didn’t have one because of space issues, but heard they are great to prolong food freshness for long periods and storage in fridge, freezer and pantry, so we bought a small and inexpensive one link here extra non-cut bags on a roll link here.

Wax Paper – Some wrap cheese into wax paper and not refrigerate it. Haven’t tried that yet.

Cheese In Oil – I heard that some sailors put their cheese in a container and fill it with oil to preserve the cheese. Haven’t tried that yet either.

Sodastream – we love sodas when it gets hot. We make refreshing sparkling lemonade with 3 tablespoons of lime juice and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Syrups are available. One carbon cartridge makes 60 liters or 13 gallons of sparkling anything, without the trash of cans and bottles. The carbon cartridges can be refilled/exchanged in the US, there is an adapter to refill yourself at sports supply stores, but we haven’t been able to refill in MX.   link here   extra bottles link here

Frosted plexiglass sliders keep all in place even while heeling. Key is to stuff things tight because we don’t have spacers. Yes, that is a toaster on the right, just after we moved on board and had ample electricity in the marina, we now use a pan to toast the bread in.
Small but it works. We have a two burner Force 10 stove which has a gimble for cooking under way or in rolly nachorages. Here cooking on board is in full swing. Under the baking form is the nesting pot which usually lives in the oven propped in with fresh kitchen towels to reduce rattling.
Food prep also in the cockpit. We throw food scraps over board when we are in deep anchorages or far from shore. Exceptions are lime, orange, grapefruit, banana, water melon and avocado peel and everything else which takes very long to decompose. For that we use a container with a sealing lid and wait until we are two miles off shore.
Square plates are super practical and take less space. We use ceramic mugs, they sometimes break, but plastic glasses not to walk over glass shards with our bare feet. And we are always barefoot on the boat.
DISCLAIMER

This list of practical things onboard is of things we found that work for us. We researched, listened to hot tips from other cruisers and tried them out the last two years while cruising in Southern California and Pacific Mexico.

We have not received sponsoring by these companies, nor do we suggest these particular items. We don’t suggest buying them from the links, they are meant solely as a reference.

We will be updating this list as we go along.

Written May 2017/ Latest update November 2018