Coldest Winter in Years

The temps continue to hold in the teens at night here in Asheville and in the low 20's in Washington. It seems though the weather might break a bit this weekend and actually make it up into the balmy 50's during the day. So with some extra blankets and a second space heater, I think I will go down on Sunday morning to start on a few more projects that need to be done. As well, John might come down and take a gander at the boat for the first time. If we are really lucky, we might be able to get out for a few hours, but we will have to see how it goes. And if we are really luck, maybe we can take a cruise down to Indian Island and toss the hook for the night.

This weekend, I would love to get through a few of the never ending chores that need to happen before we go. All of us are getting antsy for the trip to happen, but of course no one is interested in sailing with temps in the teens...especially me...forget it. Might as well take advantage of the extra time though and get some more stuff done. And if it gets cold, a bottle of Glenfiddich will be along...just in case of course, so please..relax, it's OK.

On the agenda, I want to install the new bulkhead Richie compass that came in. Change out all of the 110 outlets to new 110 GFI models. As well, I want to add a second deep cell to the house battery bank. Also want to test the portable generator I found on Amazon and see if it will keep the house battery bank charged while we are away from the dock. It should work well. Eventually, I plan to install solar panels to keep the batteries charged while on the hook, but for now, the portable genset should do nicely. In addition to keeping the batteries full, it should run one of the portable heaters so we can keep the cabin warm while underway. A good thing, especially if we leave before the spring. There is an alternator on the engine that will also charge the house batteries, but if something would happen to the engine, we are completely covered with the genset. Something I feel good about since we are using the laptop as a chartplotter and need juice one way or another. System redundancy is always a good thing.
The previous owner had a dodger, but it was in pretty rough shape so I had taken it off the boat. I have done some repairs and want to get it back on and secured. Any protection would be helpful in the winter. If nothing else, it should give some resistance from the wind.

That's it for now. I am sure there will be a dozen other things to do once we get there. I can only hope we can sneak out of here in the next month or so if this weather ever shapes up. Not that it's much warmer in Florida...