Water We Thinking

If you read THIS previous post you know we wrapped Cygnet this year in white plastic instead of our usual translucent.  This was a mistake.  It wasn't our choice, the guys who do this only had the white available and we went with it to keep Cygnet out of the ice and snow for the winter slumber.  We were a bit concerned about less light making its way inside the plastic and not getting the greenhouse effect that normally helps tremendously to keep us toasty warm in the cold months.  Well, we were absolutely right.  By using white we effectively kept the sun and the warmth created by it out of Cygnet.  With a new method of routing power to our heaters and a slew of new heat units we thought we'd be nice and warm but it turns out we were worse off this year than we've ever been, including our first winter in 2014/15 where we didn't see temperatures above the mid-20s the entire month of February. Cygnet Burrito. We had a couple mornings where the outsid...

When we spring ahead and change to daylight savings time here in Illinois it gives us an extra hour of sunshine in the evening.  Through the winter the sun sets as early as 4:30PM and working normal hours makes it tough to get home before dark.  Now that we are experiencing the longer days it is getting obvious why we live on a boat.  Spending time on the back deck with a cocktail in hand after a stressful day is about the best thing you can ask for. With the sun warming the still wrapped Cygnet it gets awfully warm inside and our mornings are spent figuring out a heating solution for the day.  With five electric space heaters going we keep the boat warm inside when the temps are well below freezing, but when the temperature hits the 50s it's tougher to figure out how much heat is enough.  Sunny days and mild winds mean Cygnet can get well above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32.2C) inside with two heaters on low, but a breezy day and clouds mean two heaters might not...

This past weekend we did what very few people get to do.  We got to spend the day on the Chicago River while it was dyed green for St. Patrick's Day.  In case you are not aware of how big a party St. Patrick's Day is in Chicago you need to understand that at one time Irish immigrants were the most populous group in the city.  That has changed quite a bit in the last few decades but the city is still full of people of Irish decent and we take this holiday seriously.  It's a day that people who aren't even Irish can pretend to be and have a great time with their fellow Chicagoans.  Since Kevin is 1/8th Irish and Colette is a smidge we go all out and spend most of the day enjoying all the various festivities this city has to offer.  We've been to the official parade made famous in The Fugitive starring Harrison Ford, we went to the last "real" South Side Irish parade before they had to cancel it for a couple years because it was getting out of hand, we've...