A Boat, a Blizzard, Two Introverts and a Scared Cat

Alison says:

We survived the blizzard of 2016 on the fair Elizabeth! We stayed warm, well fed and thoroughly entertained. The cat is a whole other story.

There was plenty of warning for the monster storm named Jonah aka Snowzilla. A light icing on Thursday closed schools in Fairfax County and then the threat of an afternoon blizzard start on Friday closed schools again. So fortunately/unfortunately I wasn’t able to gather all my school stuff in preparation for multiple days off. Kurt and I were, however, able to gather all the food, fuel and supplies needed to weather this storm.

Now, let me make this clear. Kurt has been on this boat or his previous boat through HURRICANES. Either he’s completely off his rocker and likes the challenge, or, as he tells me, he prefers to stay on to make adjustments to save his boat. So far his track record is solid, so I felt in very good hands. He doubled up the lines, filled the alcohol heater and we charged all our batteries. We had one of the two water tanks full and a 10 gallon container of potable water. And we had an entire container of Poo Powder with plenty of bags! The back up plan for losing electricity was to run essentials off the boat battery, which could always be charged by "simply" turning on the engine. The last blizzard I weathered was in a house with children and the preparations were far different, so I took Kurt’s word for all of this. Oh, and the ultimate back up plan was to quickly retreat to Holiday Inn before everything got too bad. In the end, that was not needed because Kurt and I are a solid storm team!

Check his facebook page for during storm photos - https://www.facebook.com/kurt.reitz.7

Most of the two days of storm were filled with reading, crocheting or photo processing. I experimented with the convection oven and vegan food. The  cauliflower pot roast (oops!) was delicious, but making the gravy on the stove top created so much condensation that we had to open the main hatch and let out the steam. So what normally is a good thing in a house, moist heat, is too much for a boat to handle. I made the follow up curry lentils in the slow cooker - no condensation. My Rocky Mountain son, David, will get the blizzard afghan as soon as I run out to get two more skeins of yarn. Not bad to have weathered a blizzard and be only two skeins short of an afghan! We never did play cards or any other game for that matter. Guess we'll save that for nights during our warm weather voyages. All in all we lived comfortably and safely.

The wind did freak me out at one point when things started to roll to the other side of the table. Kurt quickly shared photos from his maiden voyage on Elizabeth to show me just how much the fierce Elizabeth can take. The photos distracted me long enough to allow me find my breath. Good work, Kurt!

We were able to get out during breaks in the wind and take photos and wave to the other live aboards. The marina office called on the second day to make sure all was well and then we just all did the hunker down thing. 

Morning of the second day.

The oven cooks, but condensation was an issue.
Lesson learned.

Escaping the wind

Can you see the wind?

The dig out. Wind blew most of snow
into water and away from cars.

Just this much snow left on snow day 4. 

Dirty Laundry – Litterally 

Scared Kitty

As for the cat, she was afraid and she is a cat. Normally we don’t have a litter box onboard. Before she came to live in the ‘burbs with me, she was a fully outdoor kitty. I fear she has softened. The litter box was recently brought aboard due to a previous inside poop incident. She’s not a big fan of it. Whether it was the sand that Kurt used for litter or that the sand didn’t meet her kitty litter expectations or maybe because she hadn’t had time to acclimate, she wasn’t consistently using it. Regardless, during the height of the storm, after Kurt and I had eaten a delicious, home-cooked vegan meal, read really good books, processed pre-storm photos, crocheted like a fiend and used precious data to stream a movie about old people struggling through a struggle, we retired to the vee berth. I ventured in first only to find the kitty had peed on my pillow. My pillow, not Kurt’s pillow. Of all the places on the boat, she chose my pillow. I lost it. I knew the kitty was paying revenge on me for placing her into the unsuitable litter box. That’s what humans do when they want to train a cat where to pee inside. She doesn’t like to be told what to do. Anthropomorphizing aside, cats CAN be passive aggressive. Dogs can’t, cats can. I slept on the port settee with the declaration that we would go to the laundromat the next day. My daughter told me the next morning that if we hadn’t had a tussle in the midst of this blizzard, she would have been worried about us. When introverts tussle, there usually is a lot of silence. We have to process. Good thing Kurt got me those bird-watching binoculars for my birthday.

We have reconciled. He doesn’t agree with a dog person’s view of cats. I don’t agree with cats not being able to be trained or doing anything by accident. Kurt doesn’t eat animals. I sometimes do. We have different ideas about human dominance over animals. We spent some time apart after the storm passed. It was still really cold and windy outside, but the buffleheads were pretty as they swam past.

We didn’t get to the laundromat the next day because we couldn’t physically get out of the marina. We did get there the next day and the temperature today is going to reach 47 F. Kurt had to go into work. I didn’t. Maybe tomorrow.

Lessons from the blizzard on a boat:

Do have an experienced skipper, do breathe deeply, do have lots of reading material and yarn, don’t watch an emotionally charged movie, prepare the cat in advance.

Kurt Says:

Snow storms, even what passes for a blizzard in the mid-atlantic, is not really a big deal in a boat. The snow insulates the cabin top so the boat is warmer, it only piles up so high before falling off the boat and the boat itself can easily handle all the extra weight. As long as your lines remain secured, as well as the lines of all the other nearby boats (so they can't break free and crash into your boat) you are good to go. Hurricanes are worse as they may tear up the dock you are tied to and large bits of debris, either floating or flying, can cause some life-threatening damage. Note, if you will, that this is no different than the risks of weathering a storm in a house; except maybe the house can't sink.

What made this storm harder was its arrival late in the winter when we were already suffering from cabin fever and were trapped inside for a few days. Being stuck in a hole in the water during the winter is really not fun. It is to be endured.

The Cat:

Cats are not vindictive. They will not try to get back at you for all the nasty things you may do to them. Really, they care for little more than comfort, food, water and a place to poop. They can be persistent, pig-headed and stubborn, just like Alison and myself -- being the stubborn Germans we are. But not vindictive.

The blizzard confronted Alison, myself and Kitty with a new and difficult situation. Kitty peed on Alison's side of the bed. When a cat pees outside their normal locations it may be for a variety of reasons, notably stress, medical conditions, and an unacceptable litter box. Alison's theory is the cat peed on her pillow to get back at her and I found this idea utter nonsense. The cat up until that point had peed and pooped outside, but about a week before the storm she started to pee and poop indoors and generally refused to go outdoors. I believe something really scared her, an attack by a fox, for example. In any case, just before the storm I brought a small litter box into the boat which she used sporadically. I filled it with sand because clay litter would clog pipes were it to collect in the bilge of the boat. So I think she peed outside of the box because she didn't like it. I also think she was stressed by the howling winds and rocking boat during the storm. She hid most of the time. Her sense of security was turned upside down. I think it was pure coincidence that she peed on Alison's pillow and not mine, or on the floor, or on the bedding. During a blizzard there is nothing to do about it other than clean up the mess and get on with life. Sigh. 

Red sky in the morning sailors take warning

We are stocked up and ready for this. Stay strong Mid-Atlantic!

The Nuts and Bolts of Two Middle Aged People Living on a Boat in the Winter

We have heat on the boat, just no insulation

Oops, I started writing this post when it was partly sunny and 53. We had pulled in all the bedding and closed all the hatches after everything being aired out in the warm sun and light breeze. Today is a whole different story. I am home due to an unexpected snow day as we await an historic snow fall this weekend. Some are saying 30 inches in Northern Virginia, which probably means only six inches here.

This winter has been so mild with a sprinkling of a few frigid days here and there. The electric space heater and the little alcohol stove crank out enough heat to keep the boat warm, but that causes condensation to accumulate on all the walls. We have to “swab” the walls to keep the water from dripping on everything. I am getting used to putting on damp clothes in the morning. Winter won’t last forever.

And be clear, I am not complaining about a couple of warm days after a couple of frigid days as it allows me to run through all my clothes before having to go back to the l.a.u.n.d.r.o.m.a.t. And a possible blizzard to make it feel like winter and use up some of our snow days is all good. Now the pantry is stocked for a possible foot of snow. I have books to read and yarn to crochet. I am just kind of worried about the blizzard winds, possible loss of electricity and coastal flooding. Kurt seems to be okay and keeps assuring me the alcohol stove is strong enough to keep us warm and cook if we do lose electricity. We do have in-walking-distance-land-rescue plans if it gets really bad. Kurt may stay even if I head out. It’s the mid-Atlantic, how bad can it be?

Main Hatch aka Front Door

The thing about boat living is it makes me notice the weather. There are times when I came outside in my former suburban mornings to find wet sidewalks having never heard any rainfall. Raindrops don’t hide outside a boat, nor does an icy blast of arctic air. I am really not minding it as much as my brother claims I am. Which is good as this year’s teaching position is keeping me inside much more than before. And the bathroom is well stocked with Poo Powder for the cold days. That has made all the difference, just ask Kurt!

BUT HOW DO YOU….INSIDE THE BOAT?

And for you who have been asking about specifics... I took some photos on that warm day before we put everything out to air. Please excuse the mess; boat living hasn’t made me OCD yet. And please be impressed with my nautical vocabulary. That is different than sailor vocabulary. I already knew how to talk like a sailor before I moved on board.

Vee Berth with Kitty passed out 

WHERE TO START?

At the front, AKA Vee Berth because it is shaped like a V. The forward hatch is above us and has just been recently covered with redneck storm windows (plastic shrink wrap). Otherwise we can open and close it throughout the night depending on rainfall. The bed is shaped like a v, but we both fit with room to toss and turn at night. Sleeping bag on the bottom with comforter on the top has kept us plenty warm. And my nighttime body furnace temperatures have been tremendously helpful.

The shelves on either side get damp so I have put my socks and underwear in magazine files. Yes, those files that I found super, cheap on clearance at Staples! Eventually I will liven up the decorating to match these, but for now they are my fun space. I can also fit my writing journals on this shelf. They are getting damp, so I’ll need to find another coordinating container…

Take a quick step back from the bed and you’ll find the “head”, the home of Poo Powder. Sorry, the photo I took informed me that it is time to organize this space. I’ll post that later. It has a sink, toilet and shower. For now we shower off the boat in the bathhouse or at Kurt’s work due to…condensation. The rules in the Bay no longer allow for the poop tank to be dumped in water closer than 3 miles from the coastline. Pump-out stations provide for the clearing out of waste, but those are closed for the winter. So we use the toilet as an emergency stop only. Not to gross you out, but it’s a bag in the tank and liquid absorbing crystals sprinkled after each go. It has made this adventure possible. No more to be said. There is hot and cold water leading to the sink and we are at least able to brush our teeth there.

My/Our closet is directly across from the head. I have my essential hanging stuff in there, but also store clothes in my car and in that forgotten suitcase tucked back behind the captain’s desk.

Main Cabin

Now we are in the main cabin. Kurt is standing facing that bit of a closet that he used to have more of his stuff in before he made room for me! To your right is the starboard settee. When it’s clear of school bags, camera gear, books, scripts and crocheting projects it makes for a fine perch on which to read, crochet or

Tall enough to stand!

obsessively check Facebook or just have some space away from my beloved. It can comfortably sleep one adult. The table in the middle folds down when we sail, but with one side up is our central hub for eating, computer work, solving the world’s problems and chilling together with the heater facing us. Both sides can come up when work is serious or there are a ton of papers to grade. The port settee is hidden to your left and has an extra cushion that can sleep two cozy adults. Kurt has his computer hidden in a cabinet and uses a wireless keyboard and monitor attached to the wall.

Yes, this is tiny living on the water, but there is room to move about and even stand upright! The ports (windows) are small, so the light streaming in is limited on cold days. On warm days all the hatches are open and light becomes irrelevant because we are out and about or maybe, possibly sailing.

This photo was taken while standing at the vee berth. The door to the outside is up that ladder. The cat gets in and out through a cat door Kurt installed. The galley (kitchen) is to the right. The desk (who even knows the nautical term for that) with a berth behind it is to the left. We use that berth for storage of relatively current stuff including extra clothes, dirty laundry and aluminum foil. It can sleep one adult who does not suffer from claustrophobia. We also found a way to hang our winter coats from cup hooks originally installed to keep our keys handy. Multitasking whenever possible.

Now for the galley! In an earlier post Kurt talked about how he took out the gas stove/oven and replaced with electric convection oven, conduction hot plate and microwave. All of that has more than met our needs. From my understanding, we’ll have to go back to the alcohol heater/stove when we head out for an extended sail. But for port life, this has worked great. Clever Kurt quickly fashioned an extra counter space out of an old table top that I was throwing out in my purging days. It slides forward so we can store baking pans behind.  He still needs to figure out a way to secure the ovens for when we sail, but not top priority right now. Food storage is tight. That is hard for me. I will learn to not buy quite so much food at once. Old habits die hard. In big news, we just bought a new coffee maker that is on a timer. Stopping at Starbucks and Wawa for coffee every morning lost it’s thrill in mid January, so now coffee is ready for a thermos upon waking. So while Kurt starts the cars, I pour the coffee and we are on the road in 15 minutes or less!

The back of the refrigerator lid and some shelving

Note the ladder to the
main hatch
and the water jug.

 So stand here, don't move a toe, turn clockwise and you have toured the kitchen!

All in one smooth turn 

I just realized I didn’t take a photo of the inside of the refrigerator. Just imagine your cooler on electricity. A big cube of disorganized cold. Last weekend I found baskets at the Container Store to help organize this mess of a food storage system. I’ll show it to you when it doesn’t bother me so much. I also didn’t take a good photo of the sink. It’s a nice double sink, trash can underneath, dish drainer to the left, nonelectric cooler cube under the dish drainer.

The water pump

Almost forgot to explain the water. It comes from a well. Drinking water gets filled up here. Water tanks for sinks and shower need the hose dragged to boat in above freezing temperatures. I can do the water jug. Kurt is truly skilled at filling the tanks. They are big and there is a port and starboard tank. And there is something about trying to keep them somewhat equal so the boat doesn't lean to one side. I'm still learning.

Extra accesible storage
Note VA tags
MD resident in denial

And yes, we have heat, just no insulation, so as long as the heaters are on and happy we are warm. The rest of the time, we are fully dressed in long underwear and often hats under toasty blankets. We have also been known to “run errands” till we warm up a bit.

Happy blizzard DC, Maryland, and Virginia, I’m heading out for a walk in the sunshine before this all gets crazy!

Teacher Dedication

This video does a great job speaking frankly about the issues teachers deal with every single day.

Two parts spoke clearly to me. The most important was about the actual teaching and what joy it brings me when I am able to find the right path to guide a child on to find a new understanding. That never, ever gets old. The other was that every teacher I know has a second job whether it pays with a pay check or a husband/wife. I do not know one teacher who does not have to supplement their income in order to live and work in my county. For Kurt and I that second job right now is my giving up my living expenses and commuting from the boat. Lucky for Kurt!

On the Topic of Money

Alison says:

The advantages of living on a boat is that we save money, get to live simple lives and share the rewards. This month we shared the rewards with my kids. I know that I have put myself on the boat for an extra month with my Christmas gifts to them, but it was nice to be able to send along some cash to help them get a couple of gifts they wouldn’t have been able to buy on their own anytime soon.

Kurt and I locked up the boat, filled the cat feeder with enough food and water to last two weeks and drove to my daughter's in North Carolina. To be clear, she was offered a Christmas adventure on the fine boat, Elizabeth, but declined. No surprise. So after celebrating Christmas with Amy, Josh and my friend from JMU(!), Kurt and I took the coastal route home via ferry through Ocracoke Island and on to Cape Hatteras. It was on Ocracoke that we found the perfect example of what I am looking for in our "Grandma" house. 

It is this kind of front porch that I envision sitting on when my grandkids or granddogs come to visit. Kurt will be out back in his shed, building another boat/shelf/table and I'll be doing whatever it is I do in my free time. I see myself sitting on more of a porch swing or couchy bench, but the rocking chair is nice. This particular house may be the Sears bungalow known as the Sheridan. Sears houses are littered all around Arlington and I love them. They were sold in the early to mid-1900's as plans to build or as kits with precut materials to assemble yourself. My understanding is they are centered near former railroad depots as that is how the materials were delivered. My love for this style of house is enough to stay on this boat for as long as it takes to either find property on which to build something like this or to find a bungalow already built and in need to tender loving care. 

As sweet as Ocracoke Island is, it's just too far from anything to look into buying this particular one, and the fact that is wasn't even for sale made walking away from it that much easier. The Chesapeake Bay doesn't have beaches like the Outer Banks in North Carolina, but if I am going to afford this and retire in a timely fashion, I am staying close enough to my current employer. There is too much invested in my retirement to play around this late in the game. Kurt remains flexible, as always.

Which leads back to the topic of money. 

I firmly hold the value that money is meant to be spent. 

I was raised by one very frugal parent and another parent who taught us to “spend quick before you run out”. Seems the latter is my preferred way of being which is why boat living seems to be my best option. It's why my inheritance was spent on renovating my house and raising my children outside of my means. It's why the proceeds from the sale of that house financed the start up of my acting career, paid off all my debt and saved two of my children a little bit on college loans.

Money, like politics and religion, is a hard thing to talk about and I try to avoid it. I’m not sure these sentences will be published, but it’s the core of this adventure. Money. Its value. Its purpose. My value and my purpose. Kurt’s value and his purpose. Part of what I fell in love with was Kurt's very deep conviction that money is not the goal. People and this earth are the goal. He has lived his adult life consistently living with this ethic. As for me, I am still working out my relationship with money, I think. But I chose Kurt knowing full well that it will be a life lived out loud. There will be no ulterior motive. He told our families at our wedding that our home will always be a safe place for anyone to land. We hadn’t discussed that ahead of time and it surprised me to tears as he made that declaration. And that’s really all that matters. We both work in jobs that we value. Jobs that help to make the world a better place. We could have chosen differently, but we didn’t. We mean this. 

We both make far less money than our relatives and childhood friends who chose other career paths. But we like knowing that there are a couple of kids out there whose lives are better because we opened up a path of understanding useful to them.

Somewhere on the internet is a meme that equates the hoarding of newspapers with the hoarding of money. One hoarder is considered mentally ill, the other hoarder is considered brilliant. That was a new and interesting concept to me. I know that I have judged others and myself fiercely for not having enough money or handling it more wisely. But I also don’t understand why people spend so much of their energy, life and health trying to save and build a portfolio that could carry them generations into the future. I am all for people who use their time and talents and gold to help others or clean up messes. On the other hand, I am completely confused by folks who seem to need to show that they have greater personal value as their financial accounts increase. 

In another life, I was witness to a love, not Kurt, who lost a ton in the stock market crash of 2008. He was devastated as he tried to explain how much money he lost in one day. I was sincerely amused as I patiently explained to him,  “It’s all Monopoly money until you sell anyhow. So, no, you really didn’t lose money, you lost the perception of money.” My former love patted my head for not understanding the complex ways of the grown-up financial world. I understood then and I understand now, it’s an invented value system I don’t buy into. It's why I don't spend my time and talent trying to learn the system. Maybe I'm an idiot for judging improperly. Too bad for me, maybe.

**A quick thanks to the oil industry for producing an abundance of oil, so gas prices are not breaking our bank. AND a quick shout out to Wawa's consistent stocking of the Smartfood popcorn. And to their new grilled cheese panini! It's kind of like fast food, but the burnt cheese on the edges makes traveling so much more pleasant! 

Happy New Year to all. May we all live our lives as we damn well see fit so long as it doesn't hurt the earth or others!

Kurt Says:

Alison told me I wasn't allowed to read her post on "money" until I commented on it myself. Money, sigh. 

Choosing philosophy as my primary major in college probably sealed the deal -- I have never been interested in pursuing money. It is a means to an end; the end being living a fully human life here, in this place, and now at this time. Money is necessary, of course, but its acquisition is not, I think, a worthy goal in itself.

Living Simply:

Part of living a fully responsible human life on this fragile little blue ball is the commitment to live simply, to consume as little as possible and be very clear about the distinction between what is needed and what is wanted. "Live simply so that others may simply live" has been a guiding principal of my life. I chose a life of voluntary poverty and for the first 20 years of my adulthood I lived on less than taxable income, i.e. significantly under $6000 annually. Spending a decade working with children and families living in extreme poverty taught me how to do this with dignity and pride and they really showed me that money, though a cause of great stress, is nonetheless important. At least enough to cover the basics.

Retirement:

There comes a time when living simply, choosing a life of voluntary poverty, and the realization that one is not going to die young collide. It is called retirement. Sadly, while I have been working constantly since I was thirteen years old I have no savings, and no retirement other than social security. So in 2004, at the ripe age of forty, I decided it was time to settle down and make some money. Unfortunately, not having it in me to pursue money as an overriding goal, I found employment with the local public school system. Not much money there but the work was meaningful and there was a retirement package. Today I earn the national median income, the first time I have ever had a living wage. It does not leave much room for extras but I can afford to pursue my love of photography and pay the basic bills. I will work this job until I retire, they fire me, or something significantly better comes along.