Winter Made Easy ..

Die hard New Englanders love winter; they love the first snowfall and discussing the next Noreaster barreling up the coast. They love reading news websites from all over the world declaring them storms of the century and looking at pictures of cars buried in snow even if they still have to go outside and shovel their own car out.  

Growing up in New England you definitely have to be tough when it comes to surviving a long cold winter. You are usually cooped up inside with the wood stove cranking, drinking hot chocolates, watching you're yard get buried… it's all great fun until February rolls around and it's still snowing. Then they start asking if it will ever end?! Spring never comes quickly enough, Punxsutawney Phil always sees his shadow and bolts back into burrow giving us 6 more weeks of brutal winter.

 Living on a boat definitely exacerbate the low points of wintertime. You are in a cold dark underwater space and the only time you see the sun is when you are at work sitting in your cubicle. You are wearing thick socks just to keep your feet slightly above freezing. Every heat source is running; electric space heater, diesel heater, electric blanket, oil lamp, and the propane oven. With all these running the area below sea level is still at 50 degrees but dry. All moisture is sucked right out of your pores. Through all this you somehow survive and once the weather warms up you are on a natural high, tearing down shrink-wrap, planning something every single weekend to take advantage of the warmth, sun and sea.

Hearing about all the snow back home, makes the New Englander in me miss walking through the snow covered streets, visiting our neighbors boat with the wood stove fired up and reminiscing about the last big blizzard. But the normal person in me is glad to have escaped winter in Boston this year. 

Us at our low point of winter last year. How miserable.

 Sarah under wraps. Note the Pineapple in the corner (a sign of good things to come!)

Mr. Neilan, tear down that shrink-wrap!

Fair Dinkum, the self steering windvane, is still in that box at this point

When telling cruisers on the way south about how we lived through the winter in Boston under a shrink-wrapped boat the standard response was "You guys are sick!" - Nope, we're just New Englanders.

"Justing thinking about winter puts me in the mood for a rum runner. Then another for my homies at home." -Al