Liane’s Galley

If the kitchen is the heart of any home, it follows that the galley is similarly of equal importance. Add to that, I come from an Italian background and so for us, whether it’s on land or water, food is not just fuel, it’s a reason to come together and share life.  There are few things better than ‘sharing life’ while eating some lovingly prepared food at some breathtakingly beautiful remote anchorage or moored on an iconically famous Mediterranean island, but in truth I love the whole process. The anticipation of what food I might find at the local market or trying to replicate a dish that I’ve tasted at a little humble Taverna or family owned restaurant, bringing it back to the boat, popping some bubbles while the tunes play and putting my version of the dish together…I actually love it all. 

So eight years in the galley, a lifetime of being around food and for the majority of those years spent in the kitchen with my Mum, sister and la famiglia where I learnt to appreciate, taste, combine and refine food are what might be considered my qualifications.  But what I really hope happens here is not just that it will be of practical use but that it might also inspire some new food directions, a new skill or just give you more confidence in bringing your people together to share life whether it’s on land or water. 

First things first – Setting up the Galley

I put a lot of time and thought into how I would set up the galley.  It’s important to get any kitchen right, and on a boat even more so.  Easier said than done when you factor in that a boat has to be constructed a certain way and because of that, there are some significant restrictions that simply can’t be worked around – constraints on where you can and can’t put things, (like actual walls, power outlets, appliances etc) and the reality that every decision involves a compromise or an adjustment to another decision.

In terms of layout, I adhered to the triangle theory – that your fridge, stove / oven and sink should form something that resembles a triangle.  My other big rocks in terms of galley decisions was to; 

-      Give pride of place (actually, more like the easiest point of access) to the most important appliance – the coffee machine

-      Include a freezer and a dishwasher

-      Get in as many fridges as possible (even in areas that aren’t directly located in the galley)

-      Design in as much bench real estate as possible

Now I know that it seems over the top for me to insist on a freezer and a dishwasher on board a boat but there’s method to my princess-ness.  Having done a bunch of extended trips on boats over the years (our own boat as well as chartered yachts…for which we are now completely ruined given this beautiful girl…), I’ve learnt a thing or two about food provisioning and how it affects your route and your anchorage decisions.  There have been a bunch of times when we’ve pulled up at an island after a day or two at remote anchorages and made a mad scramble to the local store (sometimes well stocked supermarkets, but often times just a couple of dinky little general stores), to find one of two extremes:  Either I was overwhelmed with choice and menu planning opportunities, but limited in terms of how much cold storage I had on board, or I was the last of many yachties who had got there before me and I was only able to walk out of said dinky little general store with a couple of limp lettuces, some frozen hamburger patties and some soft potatoes.  Enter the critically important freezer – capable of storing many days / nights worth of delicious food (some cooked ahead, cooled and frozen for later convenience) and thus changing the game on where we’re able to go and for how long. Happy days. 

Re: the dishwasher –  flat out because it’s actually a storage cabinet for dirty dishes.  I hate the way dishes seem to pile up and kick about the boat endlessly…it totally ruins my ‘gonna read a book and sunbake vibe when the galley’s a mess so for me it was a no brainer.  Plus,  the capacity of this boat in terms of space allows for bigger tanks (and Glenn spec’d in a water maker as well), so running a dishwasher on the short cycle and then hand drying the dishes just makes sense.

As for setting it up for the day-to-day servicing of the hungry crew it took me a couple of days to settle in and get stuff right.  I moved a few things around into different locations until I had something that seemed logical and workable and like I said earlier, due to the in-direct locations of some important galley-mates (our second fridge, the blizzardly-cold drinks fridge which I love so much, and the freezer, which are all separate to the actual galley), decisions on how to divide up food also played into the mix. 

My hot tip: pack, send or make a bee-line to a store that sells loads of non-slip matting in rolls that you can cut up and custom fit to each shelf / in each cupboard.  It’s cumbersome work and elongates the moving in and stowage process but super important that those cans, jars and cups stay right where you’ve put them under passage. 

What we didn’t get right…

Nothing’s perfect and unfortunately there are a couple of things we didn’t get right - but luckily they are all very fixable.

1.    I wasn’t super prescriptive about shelf height in my cupboards and I wish I had been.  I figured that boat cabinet makers have figured out the most practical and workable shelf height to house things like sauce bottles etc but no….apparently not.  My tip would be to spec into your galley at least 2 shelves (they can be located in different cupboards) that can accommodate bottles that are at least ? high, larger cereal packets and the all important spaghetti storage container.  I know it seems like we’re moving into obsessive-compulsive territory here but these things are important people! I might rip the guts out of one of the cupboards when the boat gets back to Australia to house one of those pull out shelf storage pantry systems…or I might not. 

2.    They built me a galley without a single drawer!  Yep, you read right.  No cutlery drawer or drawer for all the cooking implements that you need, just cupboards.  We went through a design that included drawers, but nope…none actually manifested. I hope to have this rectified either at a later point in this trip or once we get Baruch back home.  Either way…Mamma needs some drawers!