A View From the Shore - Baked Potato Island
So it's been sunny the last couple days here on the edge of America - a wonderful change from the dreary alternating rain and hail of the weeks since my last diary. It's also been very very cold.
Now I know in some places 30F isn't cold. But in the water with no insulation to speak of, two dehumidifiers and a small space heater don't do much to combat a constant wind out of the east sucking the heat right out of the top of the boat. Add a couple of stubborn leaks and it's just not fun.
However - my financial situation has improved and I took advantage of the sunny weather to take a trip to HomeDespot to purchase some insulation and install it. The result?
Baked Potato Island!
It wasn't expensive, half inch foam in foil about $10.50 an 8x4 sheet. it had been out of reach until my UI claim was extended to the next tier through a last minute vote. B'H, sometimes things work out. Getting it home tied to the top of a taxi van over the bridge was highly amusing, but we only lost one corner on the way back to the marina.
Best friend and I wrestled it down to the boat and installed a couple of pieces in the ceiling before it got dark - the first night was warmer but not warm.
The following morning I chased BF out and began the task of removing things and putting the insulation down the inside of the hull - lining the entire living area down to the floor and the hull to the waterline.
I put everything back in place and swept up the foamy crumbs sticking to the blankets on the couch/bunk that is the centre of my universe at home, set the heater for a reasonable 60F and went to take a shower.
I came back to the boat, opened the door and was greeted with the bliss of a toasty warm interior - so much so that the thermostat on the heater had turned it off. It hasn't done that for over a month. I put away my shower items and the clean laundry and settled in for my "grandpa nap" as BF calls it. Sheer roasty toasty heaven. All is right with the world.
This of course got me thinking about how miserable it has been up until I could do something about it. I go pick up my mail weekly at the County Services office downtown and they let me know about the warming stations set up and soup meals on Tuesdays.
I think about the guy BF introduced me to who lives in his van and writes at the local mini mart. I think about the guy who actually did shrinkwrap his boat and found it so cold and depressing he moved in with family on land until it warms up.
I talk to other people here and there on the docks, fishermen and longshoremen, captains and liveaboard retirees, and we are all fighting the same battles - cold and the drain of dreary weather. No matter how comfortable the boat when the water is stirred up its a wild night - and those big comfortable barges really move once they start to rock.
How lucky am I - starting the new year warm and dry in my baked potato island. The next challege will be sealing the top on and insulating the main draft source left - the door. I don't walk as much as I used to now because of a bone spur that has broken free in my heel, but the shortest way to where I need to go is up Bond St into town - past the shelters.
We have a family shelter, a women in recovery shelter and a men in recovery shelter, but along the road you see signs of habitation - folded bundles of dirty blankets tucked in the corners or shelves of open shed that might have been one car garages once upon a time, tucked in lean-tos under hedges, in abandoned buildings. These belong to the thin hard men who cannot abide the strict rules of the recovery shelter even for the warmth and the food. I cannot deny I am blessed.
This year of living on the edge has been educational and a profound growing experience in many ways. I see more. I feel more. I need less. I want less. I live more in the moment but improved in my ability to plan and adapt. I have learned to live simply and to seek even more simplicity. I am learning the basics of wiring, plumbing, engineering and more to control my environment in a way few homeowners ever do. If I'm going mad, I'm certainly mostly enjoying the ride.