Don't get mad, get even!

It sounds silly, but when we started living on shore, after several years at sea, I felt really quite grateful that I could put something down on the side in the kitchen and know it would stay there. I remember getting really quite cross with the invisible bully who seemed to wait for the most inconvenient moment to push me and my belongings around - the galley was where he tended to strike! I do realise that getting cross is a really bad approach, will only make things worse and the only sensible thing to do is make your galley space as user friendly as possible. Fortunately, I'm not the first person to come across this problem and a UK company have come up with some very clever design concepts aimed at making cooking at sea a pleasure. GN Espace is run by two guys, one a sailor and product designer and the other a chef. The idea is that everything fits - so the trays from your cooker and storage boxes from the cupboard fit perfectly into the sink, the hot water comes from the Quooker, so no unnecessary kettles flying around and taking up space. The gas cooker, made in Essex, is a beauty and 30% more efficient than a regular cooker. Suddenly, I'm quite looking forward to cooking on Calypso. Bring it on bully.

The hybrid donkey arrives

Much excitement this week as the hybrid engine arrived courtesy of Graeme Hawksley at Hybrid Marine. As we come to terms with how much power our system (including propeller, wind turbines and solar panels) should be able to pump out we are realising that we have to rethink the whole way we develop Calypso. The latest debate has involved how to cook, now we're thinking of ditching the idea of gas and going electric instead. We can boil water efficiently using a quooker (a clever little immersion heater) and we're even thinking of having a microwave! That might sound extravagent on a 32 foot boat but if we're creating the energy ourselves it could be the way to go and certainly electric is a lot safer than gas on a boat.