A reprieve at last and I’m back out on deck, Nikon in hand, shooting the proof of our impending doom.
The only thing protecting our ship from “Polar -Vortex 2014!!!” are those little pods of bubbles in the lower third of the above image, and let me tell you, that shit works! Everything that doesn’t have a bubble’r under it is frozen this far west in the canal.
The bilge froze up last week so I had to take one of our invaluable room heaters (we’ve graduated to two heating units) and point it directly in to the open engine hatch. By morning I could run the pump by hand and clear the bilge of packing drippage. No big deal really.
The drinking water has been freaking cold, but it’s not frozen… Yet!
The city is still very strange to me in the morning…
But even the cold, dead of winter somehow keeps me stimulated visually.
When we’re both on board we generate enough energy to keep the place warm and cozy but take one of us out of that equation and the boat is just a little too cold to hang out in.
The ride from the boat to the train station and back has also been a constant adventure and a true test of my stealthy, polar-urban-vortex bike riding skills but the salt on everything in the path of the commute is really putting my bike to the test! So far I’d say I had a good bike… Dena’s not so lucky, her bike sucks and this is why.
Sorry Dena… I wish it wasn’t true, but it’s true.
But, the sun did come out today and it got just a little warmer, that’s something, right?







What makes the bubbles?
you have a good deicing systm,works well.i can see it on you pictures
Heinz
@Kate:
Inside a little building, smack-dab in the middle of the marina, they have a pump, a really big pump, about the size of a Volkswagen engine, that pumps air through the water lines for the whole marina. They pump all the water out in the late fall so they can pump air in the water in the winter, via a hose with lots of little holes in it. It works… That’s all I care!
@Mr.Hinze:
It is what it is. The bubble’r is right under our bunk so when we sleep it sounds like we’re underway. I actually woke with a jolt not long ago thinking we were underway and I’d missed my wake-up-call for my watch! I’ve never missed a watch!