Prepping for Winter - Part 3

That title is a complete lie - there is no more time for prepping - winter is already here.

The almanac has predicted a wet and cold winter. Baltimore has already seen two snowstorms. The calendar may not say winter but the temperature and white landscape say otherwise. It's a good thing we had already done some prep work in November (Prepping for Winter - Part 1 and Part 2).

We returned home on Sunday to a frozen reverse-cycle heat system.

What the heater should look like.

What the heater looked like on Sunday.

So....no more "central heat" for us. This is normal on a boat. The reverse-cycle heat will no longer work once the water temperature dips below approximately 42 degrees. We were prepared for this; we had already purchased a combination of oil filled electric radiators:

And ceramic cabin heaters:

So we are sitting nice and toasty inside the boat. However, the radiators don't move the warm air around the same way "central air" moves air around. So, while the foot of my bed is a warm 65 degrees:

The head of my bed is a bit colder at 57:

But that's why they make blankets.

We are fortunate that the previous owners foresaw the potential challenges of winter life aboard the boat. They installed power outlets connected to three of the four HVAC systems which can power the electric heaters when the reverse cycle heat is off. This means that the large amperage draw needed for the electric heaters is distributed evenly through the installed HVAC breakers therefore not affecting the normal outlets and appliances. Before we plugged into these "new" outlets, our wonderful heaters were tripping breakers and causing headaches.

We also purchased an engine room heater to keep everything in that space from freezing during the winter. This includes the water pipes, the engines themselves, the hot water tank, etc. Imagine if your basement had absolutely no heat during the water -- disastrous! This heater kicks on whenever the space dips below 40 degrees. It then heats up until it reads 50 degrees and the cycle starts all over again.

All nice and cozy now? Good because marinas are gorgeous when it snows:

Still loving this crazy, floating life!