January 22, 2009.

The last time I wrote I mentioned that we were also being affected by this cold air mass hovering over much of the country. Last night the temperature plummeted to about 32° outside. The temperature inside the enclosure seems to stay several degrees warmer than that even at night. The lowest temp I saw inside the enclosure was about 38°.

So, with this round of low temps that meant that everyone on board would be spending the night below decks. Molly and Tucker usually spend the night topside unless the temperature is going to drop below 55°. So along with Molly and Tucker, boat plant Bob and the Five Spices were brought below for the night.

We lit the Candle of Warmth along with the Lantern of Incredible Balminess and watched in horror as the thermometer continued to drop. In a last ditch effort to keep from getting frostbite, I put on my pair of socks. I only have one pair of socks on the boat so when Christy saw them come out of the drawer she knew it was serious. Sock Time, it’s a lot like Hammer Time but without the entourage and the ridiculous pants. (<~obscure MC Hammer reference)

Since we’re not on a dock, connected to shore power, that means that we have no heat. We could run the generator to run an electrical heater but running the generator all night is out of the question. We did have a portable heater that ran on a one pound bottle of propane. A lot of boats have them and swear by them. The bottle only lasts for about 4 hours but it’s good enough to heat up the boat and get you through the night. We HAD one. I happened to walk past ours and spotted flames shooting up from the adjustment knob so we returned it to Home Depot the next day. Having a small uninvited fire breaking out on the boat was enough to cure us of wanting another Mr. Heater, Lil’ Buddy portable boat heater on board.

We knew that it would be really cold so we let the dogs sleep with us in the aft cabin instead of on their bed in the salon. In the past we’ve tried to cover them up but they end up with no covers, shivering uncontrollably. They can’t seem to grasp the whole concept of “covers good, cold bad”. So we tucked em’ in with us and they stayed warm all night in spite of the temperature dropping to 46° inside the boat.

The sun was brilliant once daybreak arrived. Immediately the temperature inside the cockpit started to climb, eventually making it into the seventies. Boat Plant Bob and the Five Spices spent the day basking in the sun along with the rest of us.

We have one more night of cold temperatures and then were supposed to have a warming trend. So I guess tonight will be a lot like last night but maybe just a bit warmer, maybe?

We were treated to a glorious sunset looking out over the mooring field.