More Cold Weather

We're in the middle of another cold snap. It's 17 right now, and will drop to single digits tonight, then slowly warm back up to freezing over the next few days. I was trying to avoid spending another cold winter on the boat, especially after freezing up in Marion a few years ago, but the transmission failure did me in. Luckily it stayed above 50 in the cabin last night with just the little electric heater.

The diesel heater parts arrived a couple of days ago, but I haven't finished installing it yet. The biggest problem is that I need to cut a 5" hole in the deck for the flue, and with all the snow and cold weather, I just haven't gotten to it. Even so, I'll have to wait until spring to properly finish the hole. The deck has a bit of a camber, so I'm going to use modeling clay to make a mold and fill it with epoxy to make an elevated level platform for the 7" diameter deck fitting.

I'm not sure how high I'll make it, but the idea, in addition to making it level, is to help shed water and cut down on leaks. I'll look at a bunch of other boats before I decide. I also want to do the same sort of thing up in the bow with the windlass and hawsepipe. Both are flush mounted now, and although they don't leak, the chain doesn't fall well into the hawsepipe and gets fouled up whenever I weigh anchor.

I'm planning to raise the hawsepipe about 1/8-1/4" and the windlass at least 1/2" if not more -- it all depends on how the chain falls. I'll try it with wooden shims first to find the best height. I think part of the problem may be that the deck has a pretty good rake that far forward, and the hawsepipe is forward of the windlass, i.e., mounted somewhat above it, so it has a tough time making it over the raised edge.

Hopefully, raising and leveling the windlass will fix it. The last time to weighed anchor, it was 20 degrees with 20 knots of wind -- not the best time to try to unfoul a wet chain by hand. In fact, I ended up pulling it up by hand with soft cotton gloves. It was cold, but the work of pulling in the chain against the wind warmed me right up, and I even had to take off my jacket half way through -- I only had out about 120'. However, I'd still rather use the windlass next time and not have to touch the chain.

I'm also thinking of building up a lip around my new chainplates, which I haven't started working on yet. I already know I'm going to have to make the holes bigger and get new covers, but if I can make some nice custom lips that are easy to caulk, I might not need covers at all, which will help clean up the deck, keep them dryer, and make them easier to inspect. I've been thinking of adding a lip along the toerails as well, but haven't made any decision yet. If I did, I'd want to pull and reseat the toerails at the same time, but since the toerails are such a big job, I won't do it here.

I'm still hoping to get out of here in April or May -- unless of course I take a job that lasts longer, perhaps much longer. We'll see.

Zoe watch:

While I think I've seen enough snow for a lifetime, Zoe can't get enough. She loves to run through it, bite it, and roll in it. The only problem she has is the salt on the sidewalks, but as long as I remember to coat her paws with "Mushers Secret," essentially a soft wax something like snow seal, she's fine. I got some while we were in NYC because we couldn't walk anywhere after a snow without wading through salt, especially around subway entrances, and she spent about half the time limping.

I'd have to stop, take off my glove, and use some fresh snow to clean her paws with my bare hand -- not a lot of fun in sub-freezing temperatures. It's not nearly as bad out here, but there are a few places, like schools and parks, where they throw out a lot of salt, so we try to avoid them.

So far, she's only had a problem once since we've been here, which of course was last night, the coldest night yet.