Week 2 (days 47-53) was (mostly) stinking cold. No drama, though, just endurance.
I'm lifting the panel under the starboard side berth in the aft cabin. It's packed full of yarn. This is CA's "craft room".
Many retired folks have rooms or basements devoted to crafts and hobbies. We have a bin under the berth.
Day 47. Tuesday, January 21
Rainy, windy, and cold. Have I mentioned the cold? We puttered around restowing and organizing.
CA made beans to mix with fish, zucchini, and “fire-roasted” tomato chunks (really livens it up.)
We lit our brass lantern that burns liquid paraffin. It generates some heat. It's more for the very cozy feeling.
At night, the wind died to nothing. A real relief for a few hours. Then it picked up later as more rain arrived.
Day 48. Wednesday
Colder still. Have I mentioned the cold? Blew like stink all night. Wind chill warnings in the morning. 8°C (46°F) and blowing in the 20’s; feels like 4°C.
It’s sunny, though. Solar panels are charging. Plenty of time to read: we're not going anywhere.
Mostly, we did approximately nothing. Knit. Read.
Day 49, Thursday
Cold. Less wind. Some cold rain. Finished The Wager about a British Navy ship wrecked on Isla Wager on the coast of Patagonian Chile. The ruthless imperial exploitation and pointless foreign wars was nicely presented as the ruin of many lives.
Patagonia is harsh. Anchored in a river during a record cold snap where it’s (barely) above freezing with heaters, food, water, and a rugged vessel is no comparison. I can still complain that my feet are freezing, but, it sounds empty after reading about Patagonia.
Still doing essentially nothing. Kniting. Working on preserving the content of the Whitby Brewer Sailboats website. This is a tricky technical problem. Some details are here in slott56.github.io.
Day 50, Friday
More cold. Sun pushed through the clouds for the first time in days. Maybe a little warmer. The sun changes things. Even if it's not actually warmer, it feels like it should be warmer.
Expecting gusty conditions with hellacious cold overnight. When it drops to 2°C with a 20Kn wind, this could leave frost on the deck.
We have a "Mr. Buddy" propane heater and 5 pounds of little propane cans. We only use the heater for a half-hour here and there when it's really cold, so we've barely used one pound.
Since we're not really doing anything, we can bundle up.
Day 51, Saturday, January 25
Very cold in the morning. 3°C. During the day it rapidly warmed up to 18°C. It was sunny with light breezes. It turned into a delightful day. Well worth waiting through the cold, wind, and rain.
Day 52, Sunday
Cold in the AM. We stowed everything for serious travel. We started for Punta Gorda around noon -- we wanted it to be warm-ish. We had the anchor down by 14:00 at 26°56′13″ N 82°4′0″ W.
I wished we could have sailed, but we elected to motor. Running around on deck in the cold was too much. The idea of wrestling the mizzen sail cover off was daunting. Getting the anchor up was right cold work.
High eventually got to 22°C. By then we had the anchor down and could relax in warm sunshine.
Day 53, Monday
Laundry. We launched the (patched) dinghy. Scout's slow leak is acceptably slow.
We started the outboard for the first time since I changed the oil last year. It took dozens of pulls to get enough propane through the carburator for it to finally start. Once it started, it only stalled out once before it had warmed up.
There's a free dock at Laishley Park. It's a 12-minute dinghy trip. The park is only a few blocks from the laundromat. And the Celtic Ray bar and grill.
We managed to get the laundry done just in the nick of time, I was out of boxers.
Our alternative is to get out a 6-gallon bucket and a plunger that servers as a laundry agitator. It takes a bit of water for wash and rinse. And it's tedious work. But. It gets us past laundry day in a pinch.
I also discovered I’d misplaced one of my credit cards. Maybe as far back on Jan 7th. (That was the last transaction.). Ugh. It will be months before we’ll be back in NC.
Tomorrow will be grocery day.