Yes, I know it’s blurry. No, I’m not going to stand about in the wind and the rain attempting to get a better shot. Suffice it to say that after several hours of perching precariously on ladders at various positions on the boat and using many of those high-line rescue techniques adapted especially for hanging lights (thank you, JM!), plus one really long and heavy pike pole (if anything nearly sent me into the river, it was that effing thing), my boat is a sight to behold. I couldn’t get a good shot tonight of the white lights that go up the stays of the masts, but it was a bit of an engineering feat to get them there. They’re all LED lights, so they add next-to-nothing to amperage draw (since I only have 20 amp service here, this is a critical plot point).

And of course we were having a windstorm today. Which is the only acceptable time to put up lights, as far as I’m concerned. A) It makes it all the more exciting B) You can be quite certain that you’ve secured the lights adequately if they don’t blow down in the next squall crossing the river. Ha! Zip-ties, my dear reader, it’s all about the zip-ties.

I’m never taking the lights down across the top. That’s all there is to it.

And then there’s Floyd, dear Floyd. I’ve only known him a matter of weeks, but he is the most wonderful old shipwright, full of knowledge and deep, pure wisdom earned from years around the water. Today’s gem was him pointing out how good it is that the winds are blowing us against the docks rather than pulling us away and straining our docklines. That’s the spirit! We’re two Pollyannas in a Pod.

On the heating front, we have a part ordered. I’m quite excited about the potential of having things working again, although I’m getting quite used to running my little borrowed propane heater. I go through about 4.2 gallons a week and have so far been able to convince big strong men to haul the 10 gallon tank to the local co-op for the refills.

Jeff and I were able to run the diesel heater in the bypass mode for 5 minutes the other day (that mode switches off some of the safety features, but lets you know that the bones of the system are functioning). Current theory is that the flame sensor module is inoperative (the light which should go on to tell us it’s working doesn’t go on at all). This would make sense, as the system shuts down without a thumbs-up from that piece. Or something like that. Meanwhile, the stacks are in good shape, all of the insulation is back on them, and we’ll see what the next week brings!