The U-shaped galley in our 34 foot sloop is small but pretty-well equipped.
Beside the stove, to the right as you face it, is the icebox. It is is a large rectangular box with a lift-up lid that doubles as a counter when it is closed. It has a refrigerator unit runs on the boat's battery bank. There is one layer of shelving inside it and when we are cruising, we keep ice on the very bottom in order to keep everything cold, and do not run the refrigerator. It saves battery power. The box is fairly wide and I have it pretty well organized inside.
There are cupboard with doors above the icebox, and a shelf behind it. These spaces are where I keep the things we use most often... spices, oils, vinegars, syrups, and some canned and packaged goods.
Above the icebox, to the right, above eye level, there is a shelf with stanchions that hold our dishes , mugs, and glasses. Only we don't use glass, we use nice plastics. The less breakage, the better.
There is a double fibre glass sink, one side larger than the other. Both sinks have covers that can be used as counter space, too, if needed. There is one faucet and the water pump also runs off the boat's battery bank. And the water heater runs on shore power so we must be 'plugged in' to use it. When we are cruising, running the boat's engine heats the water. If we are anchored and not running the engine, I heat water on the stove for dishes.
To the right of the sinks is a lid with a hole in it. Below that lid is our garbage receptacle. I normally wrap our wet garbage in plastic to keep odors at bay.
Below the sinks there is a cupboard with 2 shelves. And to the right there is a series of small drawers.
The boat designers creatively and cleverly built in adequate storage, but we don't keep lots of extras. Dishes and gadgets are pretty much only what we really need.
And there is ample food storage in the lockers under the settee cushions. We do try to keep the weight evenly distributed from one side to another, and forward to aft, and I keep a pretty accurate inventory of what is in the lockers. Nothing more annoying than looking for something that isn't there!
The battery charger is an electical appliance as well, so it needs to be plugged into shore power... or the boat's engine charges the battery when it is running. We are not doing any extensive long-distance cruising so have not made the very expensive investments into solar panels and the like, however we do travel with a small gas-fired generator, just in case we ever run the batteries down so low that we cannot start the boat's engine.
It all sounds very complicated but these are things you have to learn about in order to manage living on the boat.
We have a propane-fuelled barbecue on the back of the boat that can be converted to a burner, and we make good use of that, especially when we are anchored out and are trapping crabs, or it is too hot outside to cook below.
All in all we manage pretty well. And I find it challenging and fun to put together tasty and good looking meals while we are on board.
