Living Aboard!

[rw58ph]

Originally Posted by aspenhouse1

rw58PH,

We are in Anacortes doing some repairs to our 44 foot pilot house Nauticat. We were just told that we might not be able to leave the Seattle Area until the first week of October. I noticed you are from that area and wondered if you could tell me about the weather/conditions if we were to sail south during that time of the season. We hope to sail into Mexico and be there for Christmas. That includes some time in San Fransisco to eat the famous chocolate.

I would not travel South at that time as most of the storms come from the south so the wind will be against you. There are not many ports/areas you can pull into between Washington and California. Most are 50 to 100 miles a part. Most have bars so you have to cross at high slack tide. If you do, plan on waiting for weather windows and jump from port to port gong down the coast. At this time a year I would look at trucking the boat as it might cost about the same.

[Delancey]

Originally Posted by drewzn

After a few years of dreaming, we sold our house and are now official liveaboards! We closed on our house last week and moved on "Ronan", our 31' Pacific Seacraft Mariah31.

It was rather unexpected. We didn't plan to move aboard for another year, but we found out friends were looking to buy a house in our neighborhood. So, we sold them ours!

And the adventure begins!

Neat boat, congratulations! Look's like you're up in Maine, living in a marina with shore power?

1500w oil-filled radiator-type electric space heater should keep you warm for such a small volume of space. Might consider wintercover/boomtent/tarp to keep the draft out and the heat in. Clear plastic argricultural tarps or building wrap that is laminated with a woven scrim works fairly well and is relatively cheap, use a zipper door to get in or out. Shrink wrap is great, but expensive and you throw it away in a landfill every year.

Your wife will appreciate it if you shop around for a smaller dehumidifier BEFORE the mold from condensation ruins her clothes. Forget the desiccant stuff, not sufficient for two people livingaboard. People will say ventilation, but if your wife doesn't like cold air blowing on her a dehumidifier is the solution. I think ours only draws 4amps so there is still enough left over after the space heater that you can run the rest of your junk on 30amps shorepower.

For two people ours 3 quart dehumidifier pulls about 3 quarts in 24 hours, maybe a bigger one would pull out more. You can run a hose to the bilge for the drain and let your bilge pump get it, or just empty it like we do. If we go out of town I put it in the galley and drain it in the sink. Ours has a fan which helps circulate the air which is helpful, it's shoved in the back by the quarter berth where it blows under the cockpit on one side and out the other.

Depending on conditions you might need a bubbler, I saw one made from PVC pipe and an aquarium aerator once, DIY and a lot cheaper than the prop driven ones. Tide and traffic keeps our spot pretty ice free so I don't bother. I think it has to be thick before you have to worry.

Seawater temp around here never got below 32 often or for long, I didn't winterize but instead turned the engine over every two or three weeks, which is better than not running it all winter if winterized. The diesel fuel helps lube the internal parts of the engine, if it sits for too long a time it looses that protection. If it got really cold I pulled the engine cover off so it got cabin heat, I suppose you could plug in a 200w light bulb and leave it on in the engine compartment or something to that effect.

Maybe others have some thoughts. Good Luck!

[Cheechako]

Cool... have fun. My 30 footer was one of the most fun boats....

[Reach]

If your plan is to eventually go cruising, being flexible and perceptive enough to jump on opportunities (like selling your house) when they present themselves will serve you well. Congrats!!