And yes, I’m entirely too stubborn to leave my boat. I do have offers from friends with warm homes and cozy electric blankets. Instead I dress like a Polar explorer and pretend that 50 degrees is warm (the oil-filled heater helps a bit, as it’s only 36 outside). We’re working on the heater currently. Will keep you posted, of course.

Wouldn’t be so bad if another round of snow weren’t predicted for tomorrow morning. Sort of increases the urgency, doesn’t it?

Had a lovely trip down the river the other night for Danny’s 12th Bday ~ it was absolutely gorgeous out, if a bit cold. We went and played on the beach at Jetty Island ~ and yes, I docked her myself, with very little hyperventilation. Just putting miles on her and practicing is going really well.

There was a dredge in the river with buoys all over the place. It required quite a bit of attentiveness in the dark on the way back up, but all was well. Brock (my captain friend) did put it on the dock for me that night, as the current was fairly strong at that point.

On the down side, the heater is acting up again ~ ARRRGHH! Starting with a fuel filter this afternoon to see if that works; after all, we’ve had 1300 great hours since the last breakdown. Of course, it’s the week that hasn’t been over 38 degrees during the day. And you all know how I love to wake up to 42 degrees in the salon!

Nesting instinct is evidently taking the form of wanting to clean the engine room. I spent an hour down there this morning just wiping down the engines so they’re all sparkly and white.

Under the category of “Who Knew?” (which is a very large category as far as boats and I are concerned!), I present to you:

The Gaggenau Oven

Basically, it hasn’t worked since we got the boat…I rather suspected it was operator error as opposed to anything really wrong with the oven itself (we don’t have a manual and I’ve tried unsuccessfully to acquire one), as everything else about the boat is so ship-shape. But the former captain couldn’t figure it out either, so I resigned myself to not having an oven and just working around that. It just wasn’t getting power and we didn’t have any electrically oriented brains on board.

Yes, well, hrm….I should probably not even post this as it’s just a bit humbling, but since my job is to entertain you people out there, I’ll give you the reason it wasn’t working.

Wired directly to the generator. That simple. It’s 220, there’s not enough shore power, but if you fire that genny up and flip on the oven breaker ~ bam! Works great. Flashing electrical display comes on, voila!

I now have an oven on board.