Sovereign virtual tour
Click on this picture for a larger version of Sovereign's layout (floorplan).
It may help you to tie all these pictures together.
Let's start in the cockpit (click on the picture of the cockpit to get
a more detailed picture). This picture is looking forward. To
the right (starboard) of the companionway (entrance) are the instruments:
boat speed and distance, depth, wind speed and direction, and electronic
flux-gate compass. Below the companionway is the bridge deck, a small
(6" wide) deck that is designed to keep big seas from coming down below.
Below the bridge deck is the instrument panel for the engine, and the
magnetic compass. Above the companionway you can see the canvas and
vinyl dodger that keeps spray and waves from dousing the cockpit (and us)
on offshore passages.
As you
come down the companionway steps, this is what you see. The galley
(kitchen) is directly ahead. There are two sinks. They are nice
and deep so that water doesn't slosh out of them when the boat is heeling
(leaning). The extra faucets around the sinks are for filtered water
and salt water. To save fresh water we use salt water for rinsing dishes
and other tasks that don't really need perfectly pure water. To the
left in the picture is a fan to keep things cool. The smaller picture
to the right shows the rest of the galley. You can see the 3-burner
stove and oven. To the right of the stove is a lid that is the top
of the refrigerator.
Still standing at the base of the companionway, if you look left (to
port) you will see the head (bathroom). There is a sink, with a hand-held
shower head. We pull a shower curtain around (and shut the door, of course) to keep water from spraying
all over the place when we are taking a shower. 
Still standing at the base of the companionway ladder, if you look to
starboard (right), you will see the quarter berth. We don't often sleep
here, because for just the two of us there are better berths, both at sea
and while in port. This is the berths that our visitors sleep in. There
is a filler board and cushion that make the berth wider at the head (which
is the bottom right of this picture). In nautical terms this is a "double
berth", but as is the case on virtually all boats, it's a lot smaller than
any double bed ashore. When we don't have guests aboard we often use this berth as a handy storage area for big items.
Still
standing at the bottom of the companionway, if you look just forward
of the quarter berth, you will find the nav station. This is where
all the navigation is done (hence the name "nav" station), and it is also
Sovereign's "office" at anchor. The large picture to the left shows
how the table top lifts up, and how we store the charts (maps) we need for
a cruise. Mounted on the bulkhead (wall) are most of our electronics.
The white radio is a marine VHF transmitter for short distance (about
25 mile) communication with other boats, bridgetenders, or the Coast Guard. The gray box just to the right
of the VHF is the GPS receiver. The GPS takes information from satellites and automatically
figures out our position. It is accurate to about 100 yards, which
is a lot more accurate than we usually need. The black radio with the orange
display is the amateur (ham) radio for long distance communication. We
have talked to people all over the world using this radio. The gray
box below the radio is the e-mail modem that lets us send and receive e-mail
through the ham radio, from anywhere in the world.
If you
stand next to the nav station and look forward, you are looking into
the main salon (living room). You can see a settee (sofa) where we
spend a lot of our time in port. Above the settee is a narrow berth
(bed) called a pilot berth. The white cloth along the edge of the berth
is called a lee cloth, and is used to keep you from falling out of the berth
while at sea. The settee (as well as the opposite settee) has lee cloths,
too. These are the best places to sleep while at sea because the motion of the boat is the least here. To starboard
(right, shown in the small picture) is one of the two leaves of the table, set for an elegant dinner.
(We don't normally use crystal, except for special occasions.)
A better view of the starboard side of the salon shows the bookshelves, stereo,
and drawers for cassette tapes. While we are cruising, these shelves
are normally full of books, but these pictures were taken after our recent
refit, so our normal complement of cruising gear is not aboard.
This picture shows the main salon, looking aft from the forward stateroom.
The red fire extinguisher is just by the seat of the nav station, and
if you look closely, you will see our backup world band radio receiver at
the foot of the quarter berth. Basically this picture shows the entire
length of the interior.
This picture of the stateroom (master bedroon) was taken from the foremost
part of the vessel looking aft. This is the berth that we use while
in port. It is the biggest and most comfortable berth on the boat,
and it even has an inner-spring mattress (like beds on land do) instead of
being closed-cell foam like the rest of the cushions.
This is the starboard side of stateroom. There are five drawers where
we store all of our normal clothing. Abaft (to the right in this picturee)
is the door to the hanging locker (closet). Anything that needs to
be hung up goes here. We usually keep our foul weather gear in here.
For a while when we had business jobs while we lived aboard, this is
where we kept our work clothes. There are shelves in the back of the
hanging locker to make use of the extra space provided by the flare of the
hull.
This is the forward bulkhead (wall) of the stateroom. The door leads
to a locker that stores spare sails and the anchor chain. This is the
forward end of the furnished living space.