Well it was certainly a challenge, but after 2 weeks onboard a ship in Scotland earlier this month, we got there in the end! This 17 year old galley revealed more obstacles and hurdles than we’d anticipated – from blocked scupper drains somewhere below deck, to oven fat-burgs. It took up to an hour for the fresh water and electric supplies to re-boot, which caused more delays each time. The fan wheels were so seized from 17 years of heavy use that they had to be ground off! We would not be beaten! Intricate internal electrical faults that were so hard to locate, we had to learn wiring diagrams like the back of our hand to establish where the faults were. Due to the time constraints and the scope of works required, we ran out of parts but to go from 30% working to nearly 90% efficiency was no mean feat!

The ship’s crew were fantastic and we learnt almost as much about the inner workings of a ship as they learnt fixing catering equipment from our team. What an absolutely amazing experience.

Bring on the next challenge!