Work has begun in earnest to restore SV Aphrodite’s original lustre. In the galley, this has meant replacing the fridge, refinishing the Corian countertops, and replacing the flooring and some cabinetry that had suffered water damage.

My husband took out the fridge shortly after we purchased our St Francis 50 catamaran. He discovered on a passage from Fort Lauderdale to Bradenton, Florida that the fridge was not working. Here is a picture of our newly installed fridge.

Previous owners of our St Francis 50 catamaran had sailed with the hatches open in the galley. This caused water damage to the wood flooring and cabinets. The photo below shows an example of the discoloration due to flooding.

Wood flooring in a galley looks nice. But, we wanted something that would stand up to the rigors of our young family. We will be replacing the galley flooring with Lonseal coin-embossed vinyl flooring.

We are using the Onyx with flecks colour to co-ordinate with our charcoal grey galley countertops.

The Onyx coin-embossed flooring offers good traction and the colour is forgiving in that it won’t look dirty too quickly. Onyx looks like the sample photo below.

Finally, my husband’s cousin – and marine cabinetry craftsman –  is drilling into our galley cabinets to locate areas of water damage. His work is bold and makes our hair stand on end. Here are some examples of what he has been doing.

Having worked on Disney cruise ships previously – and we’ve seen some of his beautiful work – it seems that my husband’s cousin knows what he is doing. It looks a fright but we remind ourselves this is just the storm before the calm.

So concludes this update on the refit on the galley – part of a greater effort throughout the boat –  to restore SV Aphrodite’s original sheen and performance. We are looking forward to living aboard, and sharing some photos of the finished effort. We plan to set sail on August 15th.