Getting Ready for Winter

This weekend, we finally decided to accept the fact that winter is nearly here and we should probably start preparing the boat for the long, dark, cold months ahead.  We’ve been procrastinating partly because it’s unseasonable warm here lately, and partly because we weren’t ready to let go of the summer just yet. However, there’ve been a few days where it’s been in the 30’s at night.  And it gets dark at around 5:00 now.  Looks like winter’s here and there’s nothing we can do to stop it.

The marina is consolidating all of the liveaboards to the two main piers for the winter to make it easier to maintain the piers and run water out to the boats, meaning we had to move ours from the spot we had all summer.  Instead of hopping right over to the next pier, we thought we’d take her out for one more sail for the year.

Coming back in, we headed over to our new spot on B pier.  It’s an easy spot right on the end and we had no trouble getting the lines on and re-positioned.  Very different from our first attempt at docking her when we brought her back up from NC! It’s amazing how much less intimidated we are of the boat now.  It suddenly doesn’t seem so huge and mysterious.  It’s our home and we love her and are 100% happy we made the choice we did (once the salon floor is fixed).  Being out there made us really wish we could point the nose south and just keep going.  Maybe next year...

We used a halyard running up our mast to pull the dinghy out of the water and store it for the winter.  We’re really going to miss running around on that thing.  The thought of having to drive a car downtown on the weekends is such a bummer.  My, how life has changed…

We’re getting the boat shrink wrapped this week, which will enable us to use our outside cockpit area in the winter months.  We’ll put one of those plug in radiator heaters outside, essentially creating a greenhouse effect.  Lately, because it’s been so cold, our only living area has been the salon.  Let’s just say that things begin to feel tight pretty quickly!  Love Matt and the girls, but we’re all very excited to be able to utilize this space in the winter months! We’ve asked to have clear wrap put on the very back so we can still enjoy the great view from our new spot.