The World is Waiting for the Sunrise

"The World is Waiting for the Sunrise" is a great tune written in the early 1900s and popularized in the early 1950s by Les Paul and Mary Ford.  I remember listening to the 45 RPM record over and over again when my mom played it on her little portable record player (remember them)?   I blame this song on my penchant for watching sunrises.   There's something about the early dawn and the quickly changing light and shadows that draws me.   I'm usually compelled to arise well before dawn so I can make coffee, shower, and enjoy some quiet time with the sunrise.

There was nothing special about this morning's sunrise, really, but I decided to photograph it from the same view over the course of an hour or so, just the same.

I also enjoy sunsets a great deal too, but sadly we have an office building blocking our view from the marina.

For all you old timers out there, here is the great Les Paul and Mary Ford playing "The World is Waiting for the Sunrise" courtesy of YouTube.



And for all you Stan Freeberg buffs, here is a comic version of the same song, another I used to listen to on my mom's record player.   Living on a boat requires a sense of humor.   Sometimes, a really, really strange sense of humor.  :)

Spring is here!

Well, it's Spring today anyway.   Yesterday was a bit cool and breezy, so I spent the day finishing getting the marina's wireless internet up and running.  I owned a computer business for 20 years.   Although I had no experience with wireless hotspots, I know a bit about networking and volunteered to take a look.  What a mess.  It was cabled wrong and configured wrong, but after many hours of reading the manual I had downloaded for the GIS Hotspot (there was no documentation anywhere) and redoing the cabling, and then reconfiguring it with invaluable help of Richard from GeoSat Solutions, it's up and running.

The view from the top of the office building that houses the internet gear is awesome.  I had to check the link lights on the antenna so I brought my camera along.   I'm glad I did.

 Life living on a boat in winter in Connecticut is slow.  We watch some TV, a lot of movies, and find other ways to amuse ourselves.  Last night, Pam decided to try jewelry making using some of the sea glass she's collected over the past couple of years.   Smudge the cat found something new to amuse herself with as well.

Today, Sunday morning, it's sunny and in the upper 40s and it's only 10 AM.  Time to boot these guys outside.

Pam has decided to clean up the helm station, which has become a catch all for stuff.  The dogs are on the foredeck, with Ruby sunbathing and Chevy standing guard.



Pam put on a floppy hat she found in the helm station.   Chevy caught sight of it and, not recognizing Pam behind the window, started barking his head off.

While I'm writing this blog, Pam seems mildly annoyed that she's working and I'm sitting on my duff.   I promised to take down the Christmas lights after watching Chris Christie on Face the Nation, and then I may tackle getting the electric motor off the hoist so I can get it rebuilt.

Update- Sunday was a great day to sit on the foredeck with a neighbor and enjoy the sunshine and a couple of brews.   I did remove the Christmas lights, but not the electric motor.

This Freedom 25 was returning from a sail.  It looked like a good breeze out there so it must have been a little chilly sailing upwind.

Internet access on a boat

It seems as though the internets is catching on, and is a popular way for cruisers to get weather data, keep in touch with friends and family, and obtain general cruising information.   To connect from a boat, many cruisers simply try to anchor close to unsecured wireless hotspots, or use internet cafes when ashore.

On Drift Away, which is in one place, tied to a dock, Pam and I decided to forego the usual cable TV-cable internet-cable phone thing.  We're close to New York City, so we use a marine TV antenna for over the air TV signals.  We get a couple of dozen channels.  Unfortunately for us, half are in Spanish and Chinese, so we have a dozen or so we can watch.   We get the four major networks, and a good selection of PBS stations so we're quite happy with that.

For internet, we were going to use the marina's wireless, but then found out when we got here last fall that it's been out of service for a long time.  Not being able to find an unsecured wireless connection to freeload off of, I hied myself to the local Verizon store and came home with a 3G wireless hotspot.

That's the hotspot, just above the red mouse.  Its plugged into a 110 volt powerstrip.   It can also connect to the laptop's USB port, or the laptop can connect to it wirelessly (is that a word?).  It allows us to connect to the internet with a cell signal.   I also have a PC with a wireless network card that connects through the hotspot as well.

I've found that it's not as fast as cable, but it is more than adequate for what we use it for- surfing the internet, email, and watching Netflix movies online.   Verizon has several plans available, from 1 GB up to 10 GB.  Because we watch movies online, I opted for the 10 GB at $80 a month.   I also paid for the hotspot up front (a couple of hundred dollars) so I 'm not locked into a plan.  At any time, I can downgrade to 5 GB for $50 or 3 GB for $35 a month.

Overall, I think its a good solution for cruisers.  All you need is a cell signal and you're online.

Meanwhile, I'm working on the marina's wireless system, trying to figure out what the guy before me did to mess it up so badly.  I should have it back up either tomorrow or within a week or two, once I figure out if the marina lost their POE (power over ethernet) adapter and if I need to order one.

On the what-its-like-to-live-on-a-boat-in-Connecticut-in-winter front, today it's raining, and there was hardly any need to towel off getting out of the shower.  Might as well wait until you get to the boat.

I also learned today that pit bulls HATE rain.   Just look at Chevy run!

Why don't boats have storm windows and doors?

I guess boat manufacturers build boats to be used only in warm weather.   That's a valid assumption, I suppose, since only crazy people live on boats in the winter in Connecticut.

I've decided that cold temperatures aren't really the problem in living aboard.  Its the wind.  Our trawler has three sliding doors, two in the helm station and one in the main saloon.  They fit nicely, but the wind pushes drafts through just the same.   I put weather striping on the doors as best I could, and I covered all the boat's windows with that clear plastic stuff that shrinks when you hit it with a blow dryer.   For the most part, the diesel space heater I had installed along with strategically placed electric heaters make the boat fairly toasty, but it does get chilly when the temps are in the teens and the wind is blowing.

Like yesterday.  We awoke yesterday to five inches of new snow.  Yuck.

Yeah, those are Christmas lights in that photo.   I'll take them down.  Really.  Maybe this weekend.  And yes, I will be painting the underside of the roof, along with many other parts of the boat. 

One of our biggest challenges in living aboard in winter is navigating the dock when its covered with snow.   We had five inches of snow yesterday, and you can see the steep angle of the ramp in this photo below makes going up to the heads a bit daunting.

After climbing up the ramp for my morning shower and then sliding back down, I shoveled a path for Pam and the other crazy people living on "A" dock.  

Shortly thereafter, the dogs got up and I took them off the boat to go potty.  That's what we ask them when they're whining about something- "Do you want food?  Do you have to go potty?"  If they run to the door, its to go potty.   Anyway, even though I want to get away from winter and its snow, I had to admire the hushed beauty of it.

However, I also think palm trees and white sandy beaches are beautiful too.

Hard Aground.

Well, maybe a better term  would be "soft aground".   Its been REALLY windy here yesterday and last night with 20 to 30 mph winds out of the west and northwest.   Some reports had gusts here in the Stamford area at 50 mph.  Combine the wind blowing the water out of Long Island Sound with a full moon and we had low tides a few feet lower than normal.   Everyone on "A" dock was hard aground this morning.  

I turned on the depth sounder.  It read 1.7 feet.   Its mounted a couple of feet below the waterline and we draw five feet, meaning that we were stuck about a foot into the mud.   Drift Away is the trawler on the outside of the gas dock.  The boat on the left was certainy hard aground with only two or three feet at his dock, and the sailboats across the dock from him that draw four feet also aground.

Still, no damage and a beautiful morning so life is good.  I took the dogs off the boat to do their business and to play a bit awhile ago.  Back on the boat, they were still revved up.

When you live on a boat, its never big enough, and play time often overflows from the floor to the couch onto us.

Sometimes the cats get in the way of dog play.   Chevy the dog won this stare off and Smudge the cat moved.

One has to have patience and understanding when living on a boat.   Add in a bunch of critters and one has to have a lot.

Whoooooo weeeee its windy!

This 46' trawler really rocks and rolls in a breeze.    When its gusting in the 20s, like it is right now, it REALLY rocks and rolls!

I usually spend Saturday mornings taking the two dogs to the off-leash dog park, but this morning I spent it working on the marina's wireless internet problems.  When I got back to the boat around 11, the dogs were really restless.  I think it was a combination of energy that needed to be expended and nervousness about the rocking and rolling, along with the associated creaking, groaning, and bumping noises.   So I decided to take them for a walk to Cummings Park Beach, which is across the harbor from the boat.  This was after I tied on every dock line I had on the boat.  

I've been a sailor for 40 years.   I used to tease a powerboater friend of mine with "if you can't tie good knots, tie lots of them!"   Now, on a powerboat of my own, I feel like if I can't tie on good dock lines, tie on lots of them!

With the dogs on leashes, we followed the shoreline through Cummings Park to the beach where I let them off leash to run and play.    No dogs play like these two pit bulls.   The run and run, chasing each other all around until one of them picks up a stick, and then it becomes a game of keep-away.  People in parked cars seemed to be enjoying the scene, and one young woman got out of her cozy car and walked down the beach to photograph them.   Finally, after about 45 minutes of steady play, they slowed down.    I put them back on the leash and we walked back to the boat.

Right now, its windier than ever, with possible gusts up to 60 mph forecast.   The dogs are dead to the world and could not care less.

My next concern is low tide, which is at 6:17 PM.  There's a possibility that low tide will be three to four feet lower than normal.   We draft five feet and sit in about six feet of water at low tide.   I hope the bottom is real soft mud!

THIS is why we liveaboard

Its a 150 foot walk from the boat up to the showers every morning, and 150 feet back.  Rain or shine, no matter how cold out.  Is it worth it?   You tell me.

This is what greeted me yesterday morning on my return trip from the shower.  This is also why we decided not to shrinkwrap the boat.  We want the view.   So, we're a little chillier without the shrinkwrap.

We also enjoy the ever present waterfowl.   Swans, Canada Geese, Mallards, Hooded Mergansers, Sea Gulls.... they are all our neighbors.    It was particularly cold the other morning, and several of the Canada Geese overslept and got frozen in, it seems.   It was so cold, the Sea Gulls were standing on one foot to warm the other.

There were a couple of Canada Geese that overslept.  It seems that this guy was sleeping one off or something.

His buddies also seemed concerned, and the whole flock paddled up to see what was the matter.

I'm not sure how it turned out since I had to go to work, but I'm guessing that the geese who were frozen in managed to free themselves, either by wiggling around enough to break the thin ice, or by waiting for the sun to help out.

Pam and I have been living aboard for ten months now.  We can't imagine living any other way.