Day 327, Year 6: Planning Ahead for the Cold Time
Date: Friday, September 16, 2011
Weather: Partly Sunny, Windy, and Much Cooler
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
It was a windy night and the winds continued on into the morning. We had a pretty steady 30-35 knot blow even in this little protected pond, so it must have been much windier outside. We didn’t get rain, however, other than a few sprinkles early on. By morning the outside temperature had dipped down to about 53 degrees F-not as chilly as predicted-but the dinghy ride to shore at 7:30 am reminded us of what is to come in the next few months. We have been planning on covering the boat in clear plastic and doing the shrink wrapping ourselves as we did when we lived aboard in Boston. That boat covering is the first step in fending off the cold when living aboard in winter. BUT while at the boat show yesterday, we stopped by the Kingman Yacht Center booth (Kingman is the marina where we will spend the winter) and picked up a brochure that very explicitly states that shrink wrapping must be done by them. We can’t do it ourselves or bring in our own contractor. And the cost for shrink wrapping a boat in the water there is $33 per foot. Waaaaaay too expensive for us, especially when we know we could contract with a reputable ‘wrapper’ and get the job done for $12 a foot if we do our own frame. From our previous winter liveaboard experience, we know that not putting a cover on is not an alternative. So we have spent this evening thinking up alternatives. We pulled up a vision of the best sun cover we saw while traveling around the world, found a photo of it in one of our albums, and used that as a starting point. This cover was made of Stamoid which is a super light-weight, vinyl-coated polyester material. It comes in the same light tan color of our cockpit enclosure. Sun covers only come down to top life line and we need something that will go all the way down to the toe rail, but we figure we can use clear plastic for that so we will have a way for light to get in and a way that we can see out when we are down in the boat. There is a special tape you can use with the plastic that holds up even in freezing weather. Mark works with a man at West Marine who does canvas work, so he will share our idea with him tomorrow and see if he has any further suggestions. The great thing about this idea is that it minimizes the use of plastic that just has to be thrown out at the end of winter. The Stamoid cover can be used as a sun cover in the summer and can be reused over and over each winter. It is expensive but at least we can do the work ourselves and we can reuse the product. So this is the route we will take.
Otherwise today was a work day for Mark and a Granny Nanny day for me. Jonah still has his cold, so instead of trying to lay him down for nap, I sat in the rocker and held him. This gave me a chance to nap to as well, so it worked out great for both of us. Tomorrow Mark works and I’ll stay on the boat editing recent photos. Then on Sunday, we will both go to Heather and Jed’s and finish the foundation for the shed. Hopefully on Monday and Tuesday, we can start building. It is going to be cooler for the next few days, but everyday is predicted to be sunny. It should be a great time to start the building project.
