When we packed for our trip, we thought sun, summer and warm days. So far we have had about 4, the rest have been at or below 20 degrees C or about 68 F. This morning it was 14 degrees at the harbor, in the low 50’s F. Therefore if you are looking at our pictures or films on Facebook or Instagram and think that we always wear the same clothes, you are right! We didn’t pack a lot of warm clothes. We brought along a warmer comforter which Magnus really likes, and are thankful for that.
Sometimes, when we have access to electricity included in our harbor fees, we pull out our little space heater / car heater. Not only does it give us a bit of warmth, it dries out the cabin which gets damp. Unfortunately, we lost the mattress cover on our bed due to mildew already, so we are trying to be aware. Lulu is great in terms of keeping dry, I had just missed that the mattress cover had gotten so wet underneath the bed where it was tucked around the mattress. Fortunately, the mattress seems to have survived unscathed. If you are wondering how the mattress cover got so wet, see the blog post about turning around the dorade vents when in rough seas….
Lulu also has a mini washing machine, which works great. However, due to rain, stormy seas and cooler weather, it has been hard to dry our clothes. There is another area where our little car heater also helps, if we use it, we also do a load of laundry that we hang up to dry. Other lessons learned are that if we do laundry and we are heeled over, the grey water box isn’t sealed on top and the laundry water runs into the bilge. Not a problem, but the water isn’t enough for the bilge pump to pump it out so I end up with a sponge cleaning it out after every load. Our bilge is very clean right now!
Most times we don’t use our heater, it’s only been in use a few nights on the trip, but it has been a very welcome addition to our life onboard. When we were almost a whole week in Guernsey, we didn’t plug in at all; but we did start making breakfast with the propane stove because it added warmth. The lack of radiant heat was an unexpected bonus from our induction hotplate, it only heats the pot or kettle, not the whole stove like the propane does.