Cooking and Entertainment on a C-Dory

We have been asked what sort of stove and galley we have on board.  I am not the cook, but I usually complain anyway about the lack of facilities on our little boat (we were spoiled on our Hunter sailboat..complete with a microwave and regular oven)   We doubt that the big boats around us are having more fun that we are, but they may be eating better (or at least more easily)!

We have a one burner stove, called a Wallas, which also has a fan contraption on it that will blow hot air and heat the cabin in the winter.  It is run by diesel fuel (or kerosene).  It takes forever to heat up and forget trying to boil water.  And we do need to boil water, because we have no running hot water.  So, we have added a few modern appliances:

I went shopping at a truck stop looking for 12volt appliances that truckers might use.  The first thing I bought was a little hot water pitcher so that I could have hot water almost instantly.  It comes in handy for tea or coffee, hot chocolate, and washing dishes.  I also purchased a 12volt slow cooker (like a crockpot) which has really improved our menus.  We end up eating earlier, though, because it smells so good cooking throughout the day.

Generally speaking, in nice weather, Rob cooks on a two burner Colman propane camp stove or on the propane barbeque that hangs off the stern.

We have a small refrigerator (like a dorm refrigerator, except the freezer is even tinier) where we keep our meat and produce... and a cooler in the cockpit holds overflow groceries,beverages, condiments and, most importantly, ice for our drinks.

Regarding beverages, I also have packed our Soda Stream which has saved a lot of space and a lot of garbage waste.  We "gas up" a few bottles each day and keep them cold.  We aren't big soft drink people but we do have assorted "trial size" flavor syrups so that if I want cola and he wants rootbeer, we aren't buying sixpacks of both.  Usually, though, we just like the sodawater with ice and maybe a slice of fruit or dash of lemon juice.

The strategy with regard to grocery shopping and meals along the ICW has been very simple as compared to when we boatcamp at Lake Mead or Lake Powell for example.  We only carry enough for a few days and if we get sick of camp food, there are always restaurants along the way.

So for cooking we need a little propane and for refrigeration we need electric... when at marinas we have all the electric we need, but we also have two house batteries, a solar panel AND a generator in case we anchor out.  We've not used either so far... but we need our electricity!  Or at least we think we "NEED" it.  We can only "rough it" to a point, but never can we "unplug"!  Mostly we need electric to keep our various devices charged... its a sad state of the world, isn't it?

We are also asked: what do we do at night?  Our Kindles are our primary source of entertainment, although surfing via phone, tablet or computer still occupies our time when we have wireless internet (the quality of internet at marinas varies).  Rob downloads podcasts which keep him entertained and we listen to the radio at times.  We also have a plethora of movies and TV shows recorded on the laptop, however I'm proud to say we haven't watched a TV show in over a week.