Docking Lessons

Sharon had her first docking lesson today. Our friend Ivan was kind enough to spend time with us to do this. He will be back tomorrow for lesson number 2. She docked the boat eight times today. It is difficult for a husband to teach a wife something like that and still have a place to sleep that night so I appreciate Ivan's help. Things are going great. She backed the boat out of the slip and then backed it all the way down the fairway and turned around just before leaving the marina. Our goal is for her to be totally comfortable handling the boat and for me to handle the lines. This just makes the most sense as sometimes the line handler needs to be strong and she is after all a girl (I wouldn't have married her if she wasn't).

Sharon and Ivan.

Approaching the dock.

Keeping the Boat Warm

We have a few different ways to keep warm during the winter. In the keys it is pretty easy as it rarely gets below 55-60. We use a couple of flower pots on the stove top while anchored out or on a mooring and this works pretty well. We also have a Mr. Heater if we get a real cold snap.

Even with a very low flame the pots heat up and radiate a lot of heat.

We only use this one when it gets really cold, like in the 40s.

Since we have been in Seabrook it has gotten down into the mid forties at night quite a few times. We bought a small electric radiator heater that we put in the aft cabin to keep it warm at night. Even on the lowest setting 600 watts it will roast you. We also have an electric fireplace in the main saloon that can be used as a heater as well. While we are plugged into shore power we use the radiator and fireplace.

It has three settings 600, 900 and 1500 watts. I hope we never have to use the 1500 setting.

We use the fire only setting quite a bit even when at anchor but this winter we are using the heat setting as well.

It is cold and windy out right now, but we are warm. Sharon is watching the Rose Bowl in Spanish and I am playing online.