Do not boil water or make soup while doing this. |
I meant to write this post a couple of years ago, but the Islands captured my attention and I never did. So, at last, here ‘tis.
Personal safety below decks onboard:
I am not a professional sailor
by any means. We’ve been living aboard for 4 ½ years now and so these are my
thoughts and observations from that limited experience. If you are new to
cruising or are thinking of cruising perhaps these may be of some interest.
There are many potential ways
to injure oneself below deck on a sailboat. I think the most likely and most
damaging ways are by falling onto something, or having something fall onto you.
First of all, there are some
things that just should not be performed while under sail, unless perhaps
you’re going flat downwind and it’s a very calm, flat sea. How often is that
the case? Not so often.
So, things like boiling water
for pasta or making a big pot of soup? Probably not the best things to do while
the boat is making way. Do those while you’re at anchor.
Does your boat come with one of these? |
The stove is gimbaled and level. I am not. |
Another safety feature on a
sailboat ought to be a stainless steel bar which extends out from the stove and
across the entire front of it, to prevent one from falling onto the stove. I
used to think that was overkill but have since changed my mind on the matter.
The bar also serves as a place to attach the torso brace to prevent one from
falling backward away from the stove. Again, at one point I thought that was
overkill, but have changed my mind on that as well. All it took was one time of
the boat lurching the “wrong” way unexpectedly in chop and me pedaling
backwards to remain upright and then slamming through the open door to the head
and landing against the sink. I was, shall we say, surprised to say the least,
to find myself in the bathroom while cooking. I suspect that most people would
be.
Another pair of safety
features which we have never had to use: fire extinguishers and a fire blanket.
Does it go without saying that one should not store the fire blanket so close
to the stove that one can’t get at it if there’s a fire at the stove? We have a
few fire extinguishers below decks. One is close to the stove, which possibly could become inaccessible in the event
of a fire at the stove. Also, there is one in the aft cabin which is farther
from the stove and next to the door to the engine “room.” (Quotation marks
indicate that to call the area housing the engine on most sailboats a “room” is
totally ludicrous; as ludicrous as calling the area surrounding your car’s engine,
a “room.”)
Other galley considerations:
Anything that is left on the counter will fly around while the boat is under
sail, or under motor in big waves. If the items don’t fit inside a cupboard,
then tie them down in some way. A person can install little eyehooks in order
to run bungee cords to contain things like a thermos or bowl of fruit. Teapots
are always left on the stove. It’s gimbaled, so that’s pretty safe. Otherwise,
I tuck anything that’s loose on the counters into a sink where it’s contained--
including the dishwashing liquid which really makes a mess when it falls onto
the floor and seeps over a rug or really any surface. Very, very slippery as well. So, wedge that, plus anything else that
won’t go into a cupboard in the sink so they don’t bang around against each
other. Perhaps a comment about breakable things on a boat. We tend not to use
glassware made of glass, nor do we use breakable dishes. I don’t think that our
cupboards lend themselves to a snug enough fit for those items, but many boats
are designed so that dishes and glasses can’t shift around much at all. We do have things like vinegars and oils that
come in glass bottles, however, and we are able to stow them snugly so they don’t
clink together. Just about everything else that I use in the galley is
unbreakable.
The ring is something I attached to the handle on refrigerator to make it easier to grab quickly. |
Ceiling handholds run the length of salon. We're tall so we can easily reach them. Make sure you can reach yours. |
Spills. There will be some.
Wipe them up before someone slips in them. I think it’s a good idea to have
some kind of mat at the bottom of the companionway. If you’re going below from
on deck and it’s raining or you’ve gotten wet, your shoes or bare feet will be
wet. When you hit the bare sole, it will be very slippery.
Handhold at the entrance to companionway. |
Well, there, those are my
observations and opinions about safety below deck on a sailboat. Next up,
safety above deck. Won’t that be exciting?
2 comments:
Hi, Ardys. Mark here, AKA TLB. Nice post. I would take exception with your comment about a stove needing to be gimballed, though. There are those, including me, who prefer the stove to be mounted athwartship, and not gimballed. The benefits might not be obvious, but there are several. For one, it's simpler. But more importantly, it's safer. The cook is now standing fore or aft of the stove, whereby any pots flung off will miss him or her. More than one cook has been hit with a pot flung off a gimballed stove, but none that I've ever heard of from an athwartship stove. You might think that a pot would slosh over then when heeled. Sure would, if it weren't a pressure-cooker. We use one routinely at sea. If conditions are too boisterous, we tie it down to the stove. No problem.
Wow! It never even occurred to me that a boat might be designed with the stove athwartship! Good point.
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