But Baby It's Cold Inside

46 degrees! Sounds quite pleasant for a spring morning. Unfortunately, that was the temperature at the head of my bed this morning -- INSIDE the boat. The temperature outside at 7am was 9 degrees with a wind chill of -6. In comparison, the inside temp was balmy.

The reverse cycle heat has been off for about a week now and the electric radiators are struggling to keep up. We have three radiators plugged in at all times -- one in each stateroom and one in the salon. The one in the salon and in our stateroom are set for 65 degrees. I swear they are like the little engine that could. They keep trying and trying and trying. Unlike that trusty engine, they simply can't make it to the top of the hill. In their defense, they are radiators (yes, I am defending an inanimate object). They do exactly what they are supposed to do - radiate heat. With nothing to circulate that hot air the heat only radiates so far. They do keep the boat from getting too cold but there are definite hot and cold pockets.

Before you get all worried, I'm not shivering in bed every night. Flannel sheets, a blanket, and a feather bed do wonders. At one point last night I actually woke up too warm.

Why don't we just plug in more heaters? Or perhaps turn up the heat on the radiators? Sounds like a great idea! One little problem -- the heaters use a lot of amps and we have a fixed amount available to us via our shore power. I'd rather add another blanket than get up in the middle of the night to figure out which breaker has tripped. The previous owners made sure we could plug heaters into the reverse cycle units thus protecting our ability to use other appliances at the same time. This helps immensely but there is still only so much we can do.

During the day, I do add a ceramic heater to the salon. I also sit on a heated blanket while I work. With all that we are pretty much maxed out. While it's windy out again today, I am grateful that the sun is out in full force. It really makes a difference. It's currently 61 degrees in the salon.

Looking ahead -- Tuesday is supposed to be above freezing all day! Woohoo! Break out the bikinis and tropical drinks!

And to all you landlubbers -- you may have lots of heat but I still love my boat lifestyle.