Is Your Bed Sweating?

So, I had been warned, through blog reading and by other live-aboard cruisers that come winter time, condensation would become a real problem.

But for some reason I didn't worry about it, it wouldn't happen to us. We have all heard the stories of moldy matresses, soggy seat cushions and weeping walls, but I figured those people just didn't take the time to do things right, they weren't as vigilant as I would be. Didn't they know that with two space heaters, a wood stove, an air purifier and dehumidifier and fans and strategically opened hatches to keep it all circulating, there would be no way condensation could hinder us? Sorry it is just an impossibility. 

Uh hum, well not quite as impossible as I had hoped. 

I had done pretty good though, all those things keep condensation from getting on the walls and into the tricky corners, and from five people two pets breathing and cooking three meals a day in this small space, that is an accomplishment, however... I had nothing implemented for the matresses and just hoped all the other safeguards would prevent that being a problem. It didn't.

While Mark was installing the water tank under the v berth, he needed to lift up our mattress only to find lots of lovely black mold all over the bottom of it and it was soaking wet. Literally dripping, I was shocked and horrified, we shoved the thing up through the hatch and onto the dock to dry, thankfully there was no mold growing on the bed itself or any of the walls around it so we just had to figure out what to do about the mattress.

Out comes Google, what do other sailors do? You know, those other sailors I thought knew less than me? Yes I am humbled. 

So the solutions ranged from incredibly complicated, like building sub flooring and drilling holes and running drain tubes, to incredibly expensive, like buying hypervent, a specially made product for sailboats for just this reason. Its a meshy mat you lay down under matresses and cushions that allows air flow underneath them.

Hypervent is on our to buy list, but we don't have the funds for that right now so we needed something creative and we found it. 

Another cruiser used the hard, pink, foam insulation that you use in houses, placed it under his matress. We were skeptical at first, this is too cheap, too easy, would it actually be effective? It is, works like a charm.

We placed a complete layer of the pink panther hard insulation under our bed and it has been dry as a bone ever since. How it works, unlike hypervent and drilling holes in the bed, it doesn't let air circulate underneath, but it creates a barrier between the cold of the bed and the heat of the matress so, basically insulates it, perfect, so simple.

Since our mattress was moldy on the bottom we couldn't use it as it was. Thankfully our mattress is just a memory foam mattress from walmart that we cut to fit the v berth. It's just a cheap one, which had four inches of regular foam glued onto the bottom of the memory foam top, thankfully the mold was only on the bottom of the regular foam, which we pried away from the top memory foam and are now just using that. The first time sleeping on the insulation, it creaked and squeaked every time we moved but that only lasted one night, once it seemed to have gotten compressed down, it doesn't make any more noise. 

Water Tank.

Coming off of our first weekend trip on the boat we got a better idea of things we needed or things that could be fixed to work better (ex. Stove) but one of the biggest things I missed was having running water. It was a pain not to be able to properly wash dishes or fill a pot. We have been avoiding installing out flexible water tank for over a year. Firstly we had no clue where to put the blasted thing.

Once we went through the whole rigmarole of buying two rigid water tanks only to discover we had no way to get them in the boat, they were too big, measure twice people. So we had to rearrange our schematics and plans for where we would fit the bladder tank. We ended up deciding that under the V berth would be best.

The next problem was that the v berth had no fill fitting in the deck. We have three fresh water fills on the deck, one in the cockpit, one in Aislinn's room and one in the head. Of course none have ever been hooked up to anything and none of them really worked for where we were putting our tank.

This picture above is of the fill fitting in the head, which is the closest to the tank. Of course we couldn't have it permanently set up to that one, or there would be a giant hose running right through the head, makes things a bit awkward. But we came up with the solution that we would leave the hose coiled up on the tank and plugged when we were through filling it and only attach it to the deck fitting when we needed to actually fill it. Works so far.

                                    

Mark had already had all the plumbing done and run for the tank to the faucets and shower all he needed to do was run electrical wire to the pump and we were off and running. Miraculously everything worked perfectly, first try too.

Now we are all set for our next overnight trip.

Hope Island

It's been a year since we bought Sweets and four months that we have been fulltime liveaboards and we figured it was time to have our first overnight trip at anchor. We have spent so much time working on the boat and making it liveable that we really haven't had any time or opportunity to actually sail.

We decided to stay pretty close to home for the first time out, we dug out the old moldy charts the previous owner had in the engine room and picked Hope Island as our weekend destination.

A small island just inside of Deception Pass. It's a State Park run island, no one lives there, they have some mooring bouys and campgrounds on the island which cost $12/night.

We are discovering that Whidbey Island really isn't the greatest place to sail, the wind is so extreme, in the summer, it is almost always becalmed, not even a breeze causing a ripple and in the winter its a constant 35 knots, there is no happy medium. So this trip we had no wind and didn't even put up the sails, so we motored for 3 hours to get there. 

Instead of using the mooring bouys we dropped anchor beside them. It was a gorgeous weekend, the weather was beautiful, a bit cold, we had our skippy wood stove going the whole time, which was a bit of a hassle, all the kinks aren't worked out of that whole system yet, but it did keep us warm even if the smoke alarms were constantly going off.

We baked a gluten free cake while underway. 

Skipper

Our reluctant sailors.

Winter crabbing season opened up that week, the whole anchorage was littered with crab pots, so we added our own.

Once we got the anchor set, we hopped in the dinghy to go explore the isalnd.

The tide was out and we discovered a little beach close to us.

A rope swing, kind of high though.

Skipping rocks

Sea shells 

Sunday at sea, we made a church pennant to fly. 

We figured since we were at Hope Island we would focus on hopeful verses.

The next day we sailed around the island and stopped in at another beach on the far side.

Found some caves. 

Cool drift wood.

Dug for treasure.

The first night was good, Mark slept in the cockpit for the first half of the night just to keep an eye on the fire, one of the reasons we had trouble with the wood stove was that if the fire burned down too much it would choke out and smoke would start coming through the stove and chimney, so wood needed to be added almost every hour.

The next day we went to the main beach across from the mooring bouys. We found a usuable tree swing. 

Some camp sites.

Made a fire and roasted some marshmallows. 

SweetHaven through the trees.

Warming the toes.

We stayed until late the next night and decided to night sail back home. Of course the wind still was nonexistent so we motored again, but it was nice at night. The kids tucked up in bed, no other boat around, my job was to keep th fire going. We arrived back at the dock around midnight and thankfully docked without any problem. Overall we had a great first overnight trip out, nothing super exciting, but all went without a hitch and that's all we can ask for.

Catching Up.

It's been a while since I have updated the blog, not for lack of things happening, but lack of energy on my part, the internet situation is entirely too vexing and sometimes I am literally just that lazy that I don't want to fight with it anymore. However, it's time to get caught up on the goings on around here.

Firstly, I turned 29. 

My birthday booty from my boat neighbour, very thoughtful of her.

Here's to my last year in my twenties, let's hope it's a good one.

Secondly and most importantly, we are now enclosed. 

It took two weeks of straight work but our canvas man  got our cockpit enclosure finished, it looks awesome and gives us so much more living space.

It's huge!

The weather has just turned from summer to fall, rain, wind and cold are now set upon us for the next ten months and the enclosure came just in time. We now just leave the door open into the cockpit, our electric heater inside the cabin and one in the cockpit keep it toasty warm, on those days we don't light a fire in Skippy, most days it's warmer out there than inside, hot air rising and all.

The trick was getting some lighting out there, I'm not sure if this is a permanent solution but the twinkle lights are pretty...

The lanterns are just cool

And who doesn't love a star light?

Our living space has almost doubled with the addition of the enclosure, at first we didn't know what to do with it all, we would have the door open but all still be crowded down below, but it didn't take long for the pets to find sanctuary out there, the cat has become a constant hassle trying to keep her from slipping through the cracks, the kids now drag their toys and crayons out there and it has also solved some of our hot water heater issues. Now that the wind is blocked from whistling through there, we don't have fire balls shooting out of the bottom of the heater, always a good thing.

Aside from that, school is coming along, although sometimes reluctantly, but we are finding ways to keep entertained, learning what happens if you give a mouse a cookie, hint, don't do it.

Penelope and Jeep are learning to tolerate each other, there was some hissing and snapping for a while but they have moved from opposite ends of the couch ....

To this, progress.

The hectic time of the year is bearing down on me, somehow Halloween, Aislinns birthday, Finns birthday and Christmas snuck up on me and I am not prepared. Birthdays are going to be a bit different this year, no more 4000 square foot house to hold a huge party, so we are keeping it small, if not simple (come on, people, it's me your dealing with here.) we,re inviting only a few friends and planning an outing.

Also being space restricted has caused me to have to get creative with presents, I can always rely on grandparents to get the kids toys and things they want, so this year I've decided to make them gifts, here is Aislinns 'Frozen' themed quilt I am in the process of sewing. I am discovering it is very difficult to quilt in such a small space with a cat who likes to bat and chew on the thread as it feeds through the machine. Also this project would normally have taken me two days but it has been weeks and is still hidden under the v berth waiting to be done, I can't work on it until the kids are asleep and my night owl reader has been staying up later and later.

Giant dog at the Country Store. 

(I don't know, thought it was odd and worth sharing.)

We have made it to our three months anniversary living on SweetHaven, it seems longer somehow, and we love it. It's hard to imagine ever living in a house again. We love our boat, we love the sounds, waves lapping against the hull wind tinkling through the rigging, birds crying, seals barking. The motions, the closeness; to each other and the environment. I was worried about weathering our first winter on the boat and true we haven't gotten into the really bad weather yet, but there is nothing like hearing the wind and rain storm outside, hear the lashing, feel the rocking, being right in it all, but being tucked away safe and sound down below, lanterns burning, fire roaring, kids playing, dog and cat cuddled together, it seriously does not get any better, add a cup of tea and a cookie and your in heaven... Of course we don't mention the long trek up the docks in this bad weather when we actually have to go somewhere, or slipping around the deck at 3am in the pouring rain trying to replace the tarp that's blown away so the hatches don't leak, but the little trails make the simple pleasures all that more enjoyable.