Deep Freeze and The Deal With The Heat

  By far one of the most common questions Jill and I get about life aboard is, "What's the deal with the heat?" This question comes from worried moms and dads, friends, boat neighbors, and even others who can not seem to mind their own business. It's okay though because we love telling just about anybody about our rag-tag-jury-rig of a heating system.

  Good news first because good news is better than bad news. We have air conditioning! This is very useful in this frozen wind swept river where waves crashed six feet high over the docks last week. I honestly wonder if we'll ever use it. It came with the boat and is part of a non-existent heat system that was supposedly part of the boat as well. The previous owner did mention he never used it. It is basically a heat pump manufactured by a now out of business, Eastern Marine Manufacturing. The heat is extracted out of the ocean water...I think. It's been a few months since I tried to fire that bad boy up and investigated any potential solutions. The bottom line is there no heat coil in the heat pump nor is it wired to the controls for heat. So bum deal there...but there is AC and we're able to run the fan on the system for air circulation. 

  

  With this great news...Jill and I started looking for alternate heat solutions throughout the fall. Apparently an Espar heater is like the Rolls Royce of heaters. Does anybody else have a Rolls Royce in their basement? Seriously? We got quotes starting at 8k and it just seemed liked a huge investment given our cruising plans (i.e. places where the bathing suits never come off and they put an umbrella in your drink)  They are nice and they are the best...but just not in our budget...not this year!

  

  We had an old Lasko electric heater from our old house. This got us through the fall pretty good on those cool nights, but knew it could not handle the deep freeze like we find ourselves here in January. Enter the world of balancing electric loads on the boat's 125v/30 amp shore power service. I could bore you all talking volts and amps...but here's the the quick version...volts is potential energy and amps is the energy being used. 

  

  I bought 3 West Marine electric furnaces  all 1500 watts. I still do not know what a watt is, but I was able to convert it to 12.5 amps. 

                 Okay folks...quick math...3 heaters x 12.5 amps = 37.5 amps

And we have 30 amps available to us...again good stuff here Jill and I are learning our first winter. After blowing a few breakers and talking to anyone who would talk to us, we got this all figured out. We can only run two heaters. We still needed to have power to run a the fridge, cell phone chargers, TV, computer, etc. Note, we actually have to unplug one heater to run the coffee pot in the morning...once cruising the coffee pot will most likely be deep sixed(sent overboard) in favor of something more efficient. 

  

  The heaters work well and surprisingly keep up with the demands of this harsh environment. We have one in the main salon/galley and one in the aft cabin. They switch between a heat and fan setting and have a heat selection dial for low-high settings. Do not let their size fool you, they crank some serious heat. 

  Finally, we picked up a propane "Mr. Heater Big Buddy". Besides the heat, the surly looking camper on the box is the best part. We use this to help the electric heaters catch up and for heat during my nightmare scenario of the power going out. This is pretty new, so I will keep you posted on how it works out. 

  

    We miss our fireplace at the old Dupe, but our boat is warm and cozy even as we head through our first deep freeze aboard.

  Does anybody know what the #1 most common question about living board is?

  

We may have found her!

So like I said last week, there is A LOT to update on! The biggest thing is that we may have found our floating home! A few weeks back we went up to Southern, Maine to check out a boat we'd found on Yacht World. A 1978 43' Gulfstar Mark II. She was just listed at the beginning of June and she meets everything on our top 10 "must have" list. She's bigger than we'd been looking at, a lot bigger, about 7' feet bigger. She's got the center cockpit and aft cabin we want and she's got the heavy displacement (think stability) and rugged craftsmenship that we like. She's a ketch rig which we like for heavy weather. She's in our price range AND she's local - only an hour or so north of Portsmouth! 

She's BEAUTIFUL, in great shape for her age, no visible water damage anywhere that you'd expect it, warm teak interior, brand new sails and a full cockpit enclosure (think warmth and safety). She's currently "on the hard" because her current owners bought her to be their floating, cruising home and did some work to get her ready to cruise and then last winter the owner suffered and accident and is now unable to climb on her. It's a sad tale but it also bodes well for us because the current owner is the commodore of the local yacht club so he's probably not going to buy a crappy boat!

Aren't her lines pretty? And we love the ketch rig. 

She's got a lot below the water line - stability! 

Galley with fridge & lots of natural light

Some good instruments at the helm

Relatively good size cockpit  with full enclosure

Checking out the windlass - note the full dodger enclosure. 

Warm teak interior which we love

2 leaves that open up - I will be recovering the white cushions, need cozier colors

Super long navigation station & fantastic headroom leading to the aft cabin

So, after seeing this boat which was next to perfect for us we got pretty serious about our next move. We went to have beers at Joe's Boathouse in South Portland - because you can't look at a boat and not have "debrief beers" after and there were all these locals sitting around having come in from their boats talking about their days and we thought, "this could be us, on THAT boat!" 

It's like we're at this moment where we either talk about doing this for another year or we make a move and move aboard before winter sets in. Are we rushing it? Maybe. But if we wait we are one year older, one year behind the Fall '14 departure plan, one more year of rent goes in someone else's pocket, one year of "learning" is lost. And we all know all the things that can come up in a year - there's expenses that happen, trips that must be taken, family and friends who need help, etc. There are a thousand things that can and will happen between now and next spring that could deter us from our plan. Not to mention this boat might be sold! We've done A LOT of learning and research in the past 5+ months since we started this journey and though we don't know it all or have all the answers we are accepting the fact that we might never have it all figured out. Inherent in this plan is uncertainty - will we survive January in New Hampshire in the middle of a river? How will Jill, Tim and Toby dog all fit into a small cabin of a sailboat without killing one another? Will we lose power when we try and run an electric heater and the microwave? Will we misjudge the current in the river and overshoot our dock? Where will we fit our record player :) We just have to be smart enough to minimize the amount of uncertainty and the severity of the ramifications of mistakes. This is truly living - accepting uncertainty, learning from mistakes and taking risks! I feel myself taking very deep breaths these days, my heart races sometimes when I think of all that is ahead for us and though that could be looked at as stress, I see it as being alive. Feeling my heart race, taking that deep breath, my mind racing with questions in the middle of the night - to me, that's the beauty of being alive and living life fully of embracing the uncertainty and exhilaration of our life right now. Without exhilaration - what's life?

So in the past month we've done all the myriad of things that have to happen to buy a floating home. Trust us there is SOOOOO much to get in order. It's not like you just write a check and then sail away. I keep telling myself that this (stressful) part of the journey will be a distant memory once we're aboard and sitting on deck with a cold beer and the sunset. 

So in the last month:
- we have secured a boat loan (aka mortgage) for the amount of the boat
- we did a lot of comparison shopping to be sure we have a secure idea of what we'll   offer

- we read the last marine survey done on the boat in 2009 - ALL GOOD!
- we got quotes on on the land survey, the launching, commissioning and sea trial
- we read countless blogs, forums, reviews and tutorials on the Gulfstars, on sea trials, on surveys, on boat - negotiating, on boat insurance, on marinas....

- we talked to trusted 'boat people' in our lives (thanks Doc Rynne & Dad!)
- we talked to the marina about rates to move in, parking and electricity
- we talked to Town Clerks in 2 different towns in 2 different states about registration, taxes and residency - (hello Kittery, Maine!)
- we got quotes on boat insurance
- we got tutorials and quotes on shrink wrapping for winter (stay tuned, this should be fun!)
- we planned out where we'll store stuff (thanks to our parents!)
- we had numerous moments of "holy sh*t what are we doing?!"
- we worked out our down payment and our drop dead highest offer
- we had drinks overlooking as many marinas and harbors as we could to keep up the inspiration and motivation
- we figured out the price difference from mooring to slip to compare for next summer (we are most definitely slip dwelling our first winter!)

-- Oh, and we still worked full time plus some, made 2 trips to Cape Cod for family reunions and work, 1 trip to the White Mountains for Farrell family fun, and all the other life stuff that goes on daily...WHEW!

(In all truthfulness, this all wouldn't/couldn't have happened without the amazingly organized and determined Tim at the helm -there's something so great about having a cost estimator for a husband -he gets it done, done well and done fast! He is phenomenal!)

Inspiration for all this stress! September 1 maybe???

It seems these days when Tim and I are together it's all boat all the time - we are constantly talking about the logistics, the plan, the move, the details. Every time I open up a closet in our house I have a small panic attack thinking, "oh my god, all this stuff has to find a place or be sold or thrown out!" But that part of the journey is a ways off, next up comes THE OFFER. We are heading up this Saturday at 5pm to look at her again, this time look in more crannies, lay in the bed to test out our sleeping arrangement, count closets and drawers - look at her with a much more discerning eye in terms of truly living on her in under 6 weeks! In our pockets we will have a down payment and an offer letter. If all checks out this second time we will submit our offer - HOLY COW!!! 

The next step will be for the broker to take the offer to the owner and there'll be negotiating but if we can come to deal then it's on to the marine survey...

So folks, STAY TUNED it's about to get real interesting around here....

"The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live." - Leo F. Buscaglia

The Value of Learning What We Don't Want

Well the last time we wrote was a WHILE ago! With the start of summer means the start of Jill & Tim's travels all over New England soaking up the good weather while it's here. So blogging has been harder to get to but we'll get better about it because though we're busy doesn't mean there's not a lot to update about the boat search and the bus!


Today I figured I'd finally get around to reporting out on a couple of boats we looked at up in Portland, Maine back in April. We figured that we'd start to look at as many boats as we could just to get familiar with the process and to better solidify our "must-have" list and our "what we don't want list". These 2 boats were both in the territory of what we want - over 35', affordable, large living space below. They differ in that they're both rear cockpit, not a lot electronics and not really considered "blue water" boats meaning they are not built to withstand high seas and heavy winds associated with ocean crossings. An ocean crossing is not in our 3-5 year plan but we want to have the proper equipment (i.e. boat) if and when we decide to do so.

She's been on the hard for a year now, she needs some TLC 

First up was a 1976 36' Pearson 365. This boat was on the hard at Eastern Yacht Sales and the best part of this visit was meeting the broker, Pat. Pat was a delight, an older, kind, easy gentleman who was wonderfully patient with us, explaining the whole boat buying process from the paperwork to the delivery. We'd done A LOT of research on this process but it was nice to hear more about it from a pro and to ask questions without fear of judgement. The boat was nice, really nice especially for her age. It was kept up impeccably and it had a lot of great options that we liked. The living space below was roomy & definitely could be a live aboard - in fact, the owner lived on her for 6 months a year. 

Not a "Toby approved" companionway -- ladders no good. 

Spacious Salon Area

Nice Storage 

The Pearson was a really nice boat, good space below, lots of storage and extras (microwave, flat screen TV, food saver, stereo) and a virtually new Perkins diesel engine. But we both missed the feel and look of a teak and holly sole (i.e. floor) and there was just a lack of 'substance' to her construction that was noticeable. She seemed to be a bit more of a weekend coastal cruiser than a strongly built, live aboard cruiser that we ideally are looking for. The reviews online in the various chat room forums also have very mixed reviews of Pearson 365's. Also we were reminded of how the center cockpit layout that we ideally want allows for that aft main cabin. When looking at the V-berth we both wondered how we could make that work as our full-time bedroom. We're filing her as a NON CONTENDER for now...Pat as our buyers' broker on the other hand -- he's a contender! 

Second we went and saw a 1986 34' Catalina. This was a funny experience because the broker told us where she was located on the hard in South Portland, left a ladder at her stern and gave us the combo to the lock on her cabin. So we had the chance to explore her all alone without a broker. We immediately could tell this boat was not meant for blue water cruising at least how it is set up currently. Just her outward appearance, substantial standing rigging, small tight cockpit, fin keel, plexiglass portholes and velour salon upholstery tells you she's a family weekend cruiser not meant for the hard wear and tear of living aboard and sailing in heavier than anticipated conditions. However, if only looking at the layout you'd think she'd be wonderful. She's VERY roomy below deck, almost go as far as to say 'spacious'. It's by far the roomiest we've seen, which I guess is a calling card for the Catalinas. But roomy below doesn't really equate to safety and seaworthiness.

Aft Cabin - better than a V-berth, by not ideal 

Looks wise she was more along the lines of what we like in the interior - warm teak everywhere. She had an aft cabin, sort of, it was laid out around the cockpit so under the cockpit benches was the headroom with portholes looking out to the cockpit (or legs if someone's sitting there) and then your legs go into a cubby under the cockpit.

You can definitely get carried away reading the forums on cruisers world, sea net, etc. and we have. As they say with all advice - take it with a grain of salt. For boat buying newbies like us we are like sponges and all advice and opinion is soaked in. The Catalinas get a bit railed on in the forums as being factory mass produced with a lack of substance or utility in a lot of the design and layout leading to a lot of replacement costs and breakage. Again, this is worrisome to us being that we're going to be hard on any boat we buy - we're going to live on it full time with 2 adults and a large dog and maybe a little one someday and we're going to be sailing it A LOT. The first few years it's going to be in the water, in New Hampshire year round. So for us substance, craftsmenship and solid utility is very important. We're OK with buying something that's older and less "fresh" if it's got solid bones we're willing to work on it. We need something that will withstand the lifestyle we are entering into so that being said the Catalina 34 is a NON CONTENDER.

We have had numerous conversations about the 'looks' of a boat or the 'utility' of it for our lifestyle. We are acutely aware that there are a thousand more things with a boat that we need to be concerned with - engine, mechanics, electrical, sails, rigging, etc. But if we don't like the layout and don't think we can live on it then what's use in exploring the rest of it?

We have come to realization that we may have to 'cast our net wider' in our boat search. Boats around the New England area tend not to be live aboards - apparently living on a boat in NH is not super popular - news to us! So the boats are used a max of 4 - 5 months out of the year with the owners living aboard a week at a time and don't have the electronics or simple modern conveniences that living aboard full-time requires. Adding these things to refit a boat can get pricey. No matter what boat we buy we'll be adding some customization but if we can control how much, that'd be ideal. Plus the market for center cockpits is limited as is and especially so in New England. So we've been eyeing up boats in the South Florida area as well as the Carolinas. Using a buyers broker will also help us narrow down which boats might be worth buying a flight for. Potentially later this summer or fall we will take a weekend down south to do some more hunting. Buying a boat is a BIG decision for us so we can't expect that it'd go easily and quickly...but we are still very much determined.

"Between you and every goal that you wish to achieve, there is a series of obstacles, and the bigger the goal, the bigger the obstacles. Your decision to be, have and do something out the ordinary entails facing difficulties and challenges that are out of the ordinary as well. Sometimes your greatest asset is simply your ability to stay with it longer than anyone else." -- Brian Tracy