It’s about to get cold!

So far this winter we have been very comfortable, generally. Rainy days are the worst because we can’t get outside and the humidity skyrockets! High humidity gives us mildew and condensation under our bed, the dogs bed and other spots.

We have been blessed with a mild December and January so far. Today it will not get out of the 30’s but we’re ok. The dock freezes at night and is slick as ice in the morning so we have to be careful. Jan has some cleats she slides over her boots and goes slow. Scout just goes as fast as she usually does unless we hold her leash really tight.

At night we’ve started running a small space heater in the v berth up front where we sleep.

Friday night we had a gale force warning and besides a little tipping and bouncing against dock lines we were fine.

Hatch above V-Berth

We are fortunate in that our boat has a separate deck (outside of the boat/roof) and a cabin liner(ceiling of the cabin). This gives us a little bit of insulation to stop condensation. The forward hatch over the v berth is not insulated so we have a single layer of fiberglass that is warm on one side and cold on the other. This causes so much condensation it will start raining in the v berth. Ick! At night we dry off the hatch or leave it cracked an inch and we are fine.

My biggest worry about getting through the winter has been the temperature of the outside water. We have a heat pump that pulls heat from the outside water until it gets down to 40 degrees. It will go down into the 20’s the next two nights and I have been stressing over this.

Let me just admit that I am a moron and my wife is smarter than me. One of my Christmas gifts was a hand held depth finder that also has a temperature gauge. I did not realize there was a temperature gauge included and did not use the depth finder until this am. The outside water is 56 degrees and we are sitting in 5.4′ of water, we draw 3′ 10″, and it is 73 degrees in our cabin. I am happy😀