Wow! Just WOW!
Okay class, today we’re going to review a couple of things I said in the last blog. First, you may recall me saying this,
“Now that spring is coming…”,
and then this,
“The other day we got a big dump of snow. Well, big for us…. it looked like at least an inch and a half”.
Well forget that stuff, that stuff is so February!
This past week we’ve been snowed upon, dumped upon and crapped upon by Mother Nature. A total of ten inches of snowfall, coupled with winds up to 40 knots and temperatures as low as minus five. I know, poor us, right? Yes, I realize that the rest of the country — even Vancouver — has gotten more snow, colder temperatures and quite probably, higher winds. Well, this blog isn’t about them, it’s about us, and we were a little surprised when we got sucker punched my Mother Nature.
We had our water freeze up earlier in the winter and during that spell we used most of our desalinated water supply. So, this time, we had very little reserve to draw from, when the creek water supply line froze up. We nervously watched the weather forecast and time just seemed to stand still. It seemed as though every day the positive temperatures were still a week away.
To ration water, we filled our empty drinking water jugs first — twenty-eight, five-gallon jugs — more than enough to last us until we leave in May. With our drinking water supply secured, all we had to worry about was toilets — we’re live-aboard sailors, so we know a thing or two about not showering — Arr! So, I turned off the pressure pump in the desalinated water tank and that forced us to not be wasteful with the water. It wasn’t actually the water we were conserving, it was the pressure in the tank — water conservation was just a convenient by-product — psychology! Once the pressure was down to a trickle, I would go turn the pump back on until pressure was restored, rinse/repeat, but only once per day.
We almost did it! It was a full seven days of frozen lines and that technique got us through to the last day of negative temps, when we finally had to start filling the toilet tank manually. Of course, we’d already been living by the old “If it’s yellow let it mellow” rule. By noon the next day it was 5°C outside, raining and our water began to flow again.
But yeah, the sun is back in the northern hemisphere. The upside to the last week of weather is that it was varied, meaning we also had lots of sunshine. It’s nice to see the building getting sunlight again, it even shines through the window onto the pool table.
Wendi even got a little frisky in the snow! Of course, we’re still having fun with the new camera, so in spite of the weather, I did manage to get out and get a few more shots of random bits of stuff and things.
Oh yeah! What better way to convey the weather here than with a time-lapse video clip.
It actually has been a pretty busy week here. I’ve volunteered to help with editing the directory of the Bluewater Cruisers Association, of which Wendi & I are members, and wouldn’t you know it, just as I got busy with that task, the water freezes up and the boiler breaks down and the generator needs servicing and the… So for a guy whose main aerobic activity all winter, has been thumb-twiddling, I was actually having to apply some time management skills.
So that’s it; s’all I got! Thanks again for checking in. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, I post a few pics there from time to time between blog posts.
Thanks very much for your support!
Ciao for nao,
Ron & Wen – Sailing Infidels
© Ron Morrison 2017