end of november update

After two nights on the boat with outside temperatures of around 25ºF / -4ºC, we have realized a few things:

  • It isn't as bad as we had imagined. Yet.
  • Everything goes with just the right amount of clothes on. 
  • The electric heater works fine as a hair dryer, too. Must use something in order to not have the hair freezing to ice and we'll save on electricity if I use only one electrical device instead of two. 
  • Wool socks are our best new friends.
  • Must invest in more warm base layers and underwear.
  • Four layers of blankets and staying very close to one another is well enough to go through a night with a room temperature of 57ºF / 14ºC. We're trying to get the heater to 60ºF but it's just not happening, boat is too badly insulated so that is something we need to get working on too before it gets too cold and snowy. Watched The dark knight rises late last night from underneath all those layers and it was pretty cozy in all the bizarreness that is our new situation.
  • The hot, clean, modern showers in this marina are what probably will save us this winter. Not to mention the heated swimming pool they've got! If only they were a little closer. Walking two minutes is normally a piece of cake, but what about when the temp hits below -0ºF/-20ºC? We have a shower onboard naturally, but no hot water tank, ha! Never really planned on sailing this far North as you might remember, but now that we're here… we've got to do what we have to do.
  • Making dishes in cold water isn't really an option when it is this cold in the air, so boiled up water on the stove works fine when it's been cooled down for some time.
  • Slow cooked stews, hot soups and homemade wholewheat breads will probably be the main diet of the season. All in an attempt to warm both us and the boat in any way it is possible, as often as possible.
  • Almost every live-aboard in this marina have their boats covered with the super cool clear plastic wraps with real doors that we had heard about, must find a place that sells the plastic so we can get it installed on Duende too. Shouldn't be too hard of a job to install ourselves. Just some plastic, wood and pvc tubes…
  • Probably need to get one of those electric oil filled heaters too.
  • Luckily the water in this marina never freezes due to the river locks that are in constant use just next door. So the water in our water tanks shouldn't have to freeze either, or? Can some coldblooded souls enlighten us please. We're still so new to this type of winter living..
This is how it looked when we sailed towards/arrived in Boston the other day. Ahahaha… poor Alex, the cold weather hater #1. For real! 

It is somewhat interesting when you have to do certain painful things in life, just to gain something greater at the end, don't you think? We are so happy to have found this superb marina in the city that is so near all the places we need to be near this season, but it comes with quite a heavy price somehow. We're obviously willing to suffer a little, but it's funny the way that nothing really ever is hundred percent perfect. Life is life is life and we have to do what we can the way we can do them in order to reach the goals that we have in mind. 

We'll be able to continue staying in our friends house in the forest 30 miles away from here whenever we wish, but staying there makes the commuting a serious hassle. That is why we have opted to have the boat here in the city to minimize frustrating time on trains, subways and buses. Nothing more annoying than having to waste four hours  per day of ones life in traffic or on slow, cold overfilled trains. I'm sure this will be the best possible option for this winter, only fourteen more weeks to go now anyway and then it should all start getting lighter and warmer again I hope.
And this is what helps Alex going through this long winter despite his sincere hate for cold. Will tell you more and show you some of the phenomenal music he's been working on lately as soon as I can..