Day 369, Year 6: Down Right Chilly Here
Date: Friday, October 28, 2011
Weather: Partly Sunny and Cold-Daytime 40’s, Upper 30’s Overnight
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
In last night’s log I said, “But soon the water temperature will begin to drop and the nighttime temps will be lower.” Well, the water temperature didn’t change drastically overnight, but the air temperature did. The thermometer dipped into the 30’s for the first time this fall. And it was windy. So today when the thermometer read 45 degrees F, it felt more like 38 degrees. That wind chill factor really does make a difference. Since we still don’t have our heater/air conditioner working, we were relying solely on the oil-encased heater to keep us warm. It’s a good heater as a back-up, but not great as the only heat source. So it was 52 degrees inside the boat this morning. Thank goodness for our down-comforter. It kept me toasty overnight, but Mark had to add a polar fleece blanket. We brought home another space heater from Heather and Jed’s tonight, so it should be a little warmer in the morning. The forecast shows that the temps will then slowly get back up into the upper 50’s during the day next week, so we’ll have a bit of a reprieve. But we are supposed to get winds gusts up to 55 knots tomorrow night with a 100 per chance of precipitation. Yuk! Our friends Heather and Jon who left here on Tuesday for Block Island have now had to move to Montauk on Long Island because of the impending high winds. And snow is in the forecast, so they are wondering if they will ever get south. They will. Next week actually looks good, so hopefully they will make it to Norfolk and maybe further.
When we got back to the boat tonight, there was a young man on the dock. He introduced himself and said that he and his wife are going to be living aboard here this winter. They brought their trawler in a couple of days ago, but I assumed it was just another boat to be stored for the winter. We were delighted to find out we have neighbors. Chad and his wife Victoria have moved to Woods Hole fairly recently. He is in charge of marine operations for Woods Hole Oceanographic and Victoria works for SEA (Sea Education Association). They also own a houseboat that they keep at Shipyard Quarters in Boston where we lived aboard before heading around the world. We’re getting together tomorrow at 5 pm at the Captain Kidd to share stories.
