January 6, 2007

Marine Forecast issued for Eastern Lake Ontario. Issued: 10.30 AM EST Tuesday 6 February 2007 for the period ending At 10.30 AM Wednesday with an outlook for the following 24 hours. Forecast: ..Freezing spray warning in effect.. Wind northwest 25 knots backing to west early this afternoon then veering to Northwest 20 overnight. Freezing spray at times heavy. Flurries and local snow squalls. Waves near 2 metres. Outlook..Strong to gale force westerlies.

The snow has finally stopped and the wind subsided making the morning almost pleasent. Winter has closed its icy grip over Waupoos and a huge part of North America with nighttime temperatures at or around -30 C. When I do not exit the ice boats toasty shelter I recognize how dangerous the weather is, not that I mind nor does it concern me as I have a lifetime friendship with winter and the outdoors. My first Arctic experiences, and training occurred. On the other hand I now have Defiance banked with snow and even the residual heating requirements are extremely frugal.

A bit of a practical usage rant:

First you need to remember Defiance cannot go cold as the generator is still commissioned, and I have 250 gfallons of water left in the tanks. My electric averages a draw of 27 AMPS. Thirsty a bit, but at the moment it provides a level of walk away security as with 2300 Watt of electric heaters (that is like 1.5 electric heaters)running it will keep the interior at +14 or +15C even in this -30C weather. A huge part of this is the side decks which act as a perfect insulation and the temperature on the side and aft bridge deck always remain about +10 to +14C above the outside ambient temperatures. It should be noted that at this moment I have 638 hours of reserve 24 V battery, that could keep everything working for weeks without generating power. A average full charge from 20% left will take about 4 hours to float (love those huge Heart Freedoms.

I have run the figures 100 times but because of all the fluid pumps and fans, Defiance will draw close to 15AMPS to run all the systems relegating self sufficiency to either one of the generators or the planned 2 kilowatt wind generator.

• Refrigeration 6 AMPS
• Espar furnace 120 watts 12 AMPS
• Espar/Heater craft radiator fans (3 running) 4AMPS
• TV, lighting, power antenna, computer (12 V inverter) 6 AMPS
• Total powered up draw 26AMP fully powered up

Once it gets this cold it is the ESPAR that is the comfort king, however by next winter all heating will have a passive element as I am replacing the wood stove with a Dickenson Pacific oil stove which will run 24/7 in the winter and take the place of the electric heaters which will become too expensive soon.

The decline in my shoulders condition last fall and the debacle of an unsuitable shop has thrown me into a tizzy as I had to drop plans of working through the winter and will defiantly not take on any more massive heavy jobs in the future. Just to finish “ET” in November I pumped over $1,000 of heat into the shop in a month and became terminally dissatisfied with the location. However, the decline of my health has forced me to consider the sale of Defiance.

02/06/07 15:30 EST

Yep going for the work in the south, time for me to bail for a little work and away from the cold. Time to brush up up spanish get movings and curses. As the days pass I am looking forward to a cook and some bucks. Not a bad day, passport pictures garantored and Thursday I will make the early trip to Whitby and do the ultra emergency passport thing.

It is snowing hard again outside probably putting down 5 or 6" a hour. However it is relativley warm somewhere in the teens. Tonight is forcast for -21C. I actually love the snow and the cold is just Canada. Then again on the other hand it is I who dream of chasing or at least observing polar bears in the Arctic.

It must have been food poisioning that hit me which will probabl;y be the last time I buy discount food. Sunday evening I was hit hard and have spent a very misserable 48 hours loosing everything from one or the other orifice. Nasty nasty. When I can not even get out of my berth it is bad. However lots of fluid and I am back feeling depleated but OK.

January 4, 2007

The wind has shifted north west and has subsied to perhaps 20-25Kilometers and hour. The snow now is drifting from the dock on to the ice building up a drift against the side of the boat. There was another 7 or 8 cm of snow on the back porch which brikngs the total snow fall of this event to 17 to 20 cm.

January 3, 2007

Marine Forecast issued for Lake Ontario. Issued: 10.30 AM EST Saturday January 3, 2007 for the period ending At 10.30 AM Sunday with an outlook for the following 24 hours.Forecast: Gale warning in effect. Freezing Spray Warning in effect. Winds from the west at 45 knots, swinging to north west later in the day. Wave hights are 4 to 5 meters mid lake. Light to moderate ice pressure east end Lake Ontario.

This is the first blizzard of the winter and it is snowing several inches per hour with a good 6" already on the ground at midday. But it is the wind and blowing snow that define the danger. I am shoveling our bivouac on the ice is begining to take shape. Nature provides up this wonderfull insulation that all those who bubble their boats in marina's miss. Once the ice is hard and the snow comes I bank the hull as high as I can keeping the biting wind off the hull. Its work but living aboard in the ice is considerible different than the suburbs. There is no getting the neighbors kid or leaving something that is not right. But it is wonderful.

Friday turned into a pretty good day and I am now a Dickinson dealer, and have the missing part for the my Pacific diesel stove ordered. I will replace the wood stove in the salon with this in an effort to have only one type of fuel on board. The wood was pretty, but a woodpile poses a logistic problem, particulary as you head north. As it has a oven and will run 24/7 in winter pushing the base temperature up or keeping the boat warm on its own in temperatures to -0C. Once we get 10C below freezing we enter the Espars territory. It can be a little thirsty with its 45,000 BTU's, so adding a low consumption, passive alternative heat source is perfect.

Once I get the new stove up and working the propane range in the galley becomes even more undesirable, not to mention a huge rating hit from survey & insurance. Remembering that all this cold preperation is a much tougher service criteria than 90% of the winter liveaboards ever bother with.

The blizzard brough a new wild cat into the orange building today so she got breckfast along with the rest and I will not urge her departure until after the storm subsides. Unfortunatley, visiting kitty does exhibit signs of resperitory problems and resporitary problems are a big problem with feral cats and contagious. So this one will have to move on after the storm no matter how persuavive she is trying to be.

Rufus on the other hand has made his morning patrols and is settled back for a long days sleep disgusted at the weather. On the other hand he has settled into a very loving pasttern sleepin curled up on or next to me, preferably with the port next to him.