Tour of Rover

Kay and I alternate use of the quarter berth on Rover. It's alongside the companionway on the port quarter (left rear corner). The head occupies the starboard quarter. The door into the quarter berth opens into a small space with a seat from where one can side into the berth. Extricating oneself feels a bit like, well... birth. As many English words have their origins in nautical use and visa-versa, it wouldn't surprise me if the word berth owes its origin to such sentiments. I write while seated on the small seat inside the quarter berth just described. It feels a bit like sitting in a phone booth.

Climbing up the stairs of the companionway to my right takes us into the cockpit and the outside world. Below deck, proceeding forward down the center of the boat we pass the nav station on our right and the galley on our left.

The nav station is essentially a desk surrounded by the electronic components used to navigate and assess weather. It wasn't long ago that the desk saw greater use. Nautical charts can be large, so the size of the desk was important. Lately, with more focus on electronic navigation, the work space has moved from the nav station to the iPad. Even so, like the size of a man's garage, a certain sense of verility can be displayed by the size of the nav station.

No so the galley. The galley is probably not much different than it was a thousand years ago. Unless you're feeding slaves gruel from a bucket, the essential components remain the same: storage, cooking, cleanup. That said, propane stoves have improved over the years. They're safer and easier to operate than they used to be, even twenty years ago. The galley is never big enough.

Proceeding forward we find the main saloon, pronounced like salon when it's on a boat. It's the communal space used for indoor meals, card games, storage and sleeping. The main saloon is the other place that Kay and I alternate with the quarter berth. It's more exposed to the clatter of people moving about the boat than the quarter berth, which can be closed off; hence our decision to alternate. Navigating through large seas, the boat can roll and pitch about, sometimes severely. To keep sleeping persons from turning into projectiles, we tie up canvas restraining walls called lee-cloths. It's marginally easier to sleep in such conditions when you're restrained from being thrown on the floor.

Forward of the main saloon on this boat is the forward berth and storage for sails, water maker equipment, and anchor chain.

That, my friends, is a quick tour of the sailing vessel Rover.

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