We’ve seen ten snowflakes since moving down to Charleston, but the year we live on a boat is the year we get historic snowfall in Charleston. We try to keep our toes from freezing despite seeing temps below 40°F on board!

1.1.18

Happy New Year!

We had a low-key Christmas. My parents left Christmas day, and my brother and sister-in-law hung out for a few more days – they are the first overnight guests we’ve had! We did a few more touristy things, like visiting the SC aquarium.

After they left, the weather got colder and colder, with temps in the teens and windchill down to single digits. The marina staff turned off water to the docks to prevent any pipes from bursting, although we can still get hot showers at the clubhouse.

We have two space heaters that keep our space livable, along with a huge stack of blankets and lots of warm beverages. Due to the cold, we haven’t gotten much done over the holiday break besides the necessary cleaning. The extreme temp differences are causing a lot of condensation in the boat, which leads to mold. It’s easy to wipe the mold away as long as we keep up with it.

1.5.18

We got a big snowstorm on January 3. Snow started piling up on the boat and it just didn’t stop. We’ve seen a little bit of snow in the lowcountry, but rarely enough to stick, and anything that does stick melts the minute sunlight hits it.

This storm was different.

The day after the storm, the sun came out. It melted the freezing rain that stuck to the rigging and every boat had falling ice shattering on deck. We’d worn a path down the middle of the dock, it turned a little slushy in the sun but overnight it froze into slippery ice.

In the ridiculousness of a situation like this, you have to laugh. Charleston hasn’t seen snow like this in almost 30 years. Of course the winter we spend on a boat, we get historic snowfall. So we built a snowman, with oyster shells for eyes and a mouth.

We’re trying to keep our spirits up but we are genuinely not prepared for this kind of weather. The boat isn’t insulated, and all we have are two little space heaters that barely put out enough heat to keep my fingers from getting frostbite. Since we’re on a catamaran, we’ve got lots of airflow below the salon floor which means the floor feels like the surface of Antarctica. We’ve been waking up to temps in the 40s inside the boat. Work was cancelled as soon as it started snowing, we don’t really have anywhere else we can go, most of the area is shut down due to the dangerous roads.

Our friends are as stir-crazy as we are, someone suggested we go out to lunch on Friday and we jumped at the chance. It was fantastic to get off the boat and socialize for a while, everyone else must have felt the same because we all lingered long after our food was gone.

Hopefully this snow melts soon.