Living On a Boat in Winter

With our January temperatures fluctuating between 18F and 45F degrees, it may be a good time to point out a few items that help us stay comfortable on Manna.  If you have spent much time looking at our gear list you may have noticed we do not have a heater installed on Manna.  At dock we use an electric oil heater like the one pictured below, but we also like to anchor out... even in winter.



Quiet Dockside Heat

Although warm enough, we noticed right away we would wake up to a rain forest above our heads when it was cold outside.  So we purchased a Whynter RPD-411WG 40 Pint Portable Dehumidifier.  A great feature to look for is a dehumidifier that has a continuous drain in addition to a holding tank that has to be emptied.  We can be away from the boat for a week or more and the dehumidifier drains into our galley sink keeping the boat dry.

Nice to wake up to a dry boat!

Before moving on to our anchoring comfort item, we do enjoy one other dockside warmth convenience.  A Sunbeam Electric Heated Blanket with dual controls and a preheat setting.  The dual controls is nice since I usually turn my side off before going to bed and Julie can keep her side going all night.  With heat localized to our bed we can turn down the electric oil heater at night... but the mornings get chilly until the cabin warms back up.

Great localized heat

I have not connected my Kill-a-Watt meter up to the blanket yet, but the control states 360W at 120vAC or 3 Amps (A = W/V).  I assume this is both controls on high.  If Low is considerably less I think we may be able to use the blanket at anchor running off our inverter and 750 Amp battery banks.

Lastly we wanted an inexpensive solution to heat the boat at anchor in the winter.  Between labor and cost installing a diesel furnace (or any other major heat source installation) did not excite us, since we plan on being in a much warmer place next winter.  So we settled on a Sengoku HMN-110 HeatMate 10,000-BTU Portable Radiant Kerosene Heater. 

Includes the lovely warm glow at night

It took a lot of convincing Julie this was a "good" idea.  She is already sensitive to odors and had nightmarish images of being at her grandmother's small place strictly heated by kerosene.  So after much research I found Klean-Strip Green Klean Heat fuel.  Conveniently sold at Ace Hardware stores.  Part of the research showed the heater gives off the most odor when it is started up or shut down, which I can confirm.  So we light and shut down the heater in the cockpit.  This involves carefully carrying the lit heater in and out of the boat.  So far it has not been a problem!  We love the heat and warm glow the heater provides.