of ice and hats

I'll put this post here because it is easier to do for now, but blogger is giving me difficulties with email addresses being associated with multiple accounts and whatnot. So from here on out ALL POSTS WILL BE AT http://aboardmadrigal.blogspot.com/. Sorry for the runaround, but we want to have the right site for the right boat! :D


Now, aside from that, the marina has a small steel tender that they had to use as an icebreaker yesterday. We are getting frozen in pretty good here. About 2 inches yesterday. I think more today, I had to go chip it away from the hull earlier. It is really pretty awesome! hah, we like it, but we're weird.


Willie stole my hat to keep warm!



More later! -- at the new site http://aboardmadrigal.blogspot.com !

-Justin

fyi

http://aboardmadrigal.blogspot.com/ is finally up and running!

We will try to make the move slowly and will still update this website for a good long while, but update your bookmarks cuz we are finally committing.

Oh, and this also means that we have pretty well decided, after all that huge process, that we are going to keep the name Madrigal. It has grown on us, and we no longer see any need to change it. :)

Justin and Jenny.

galley work

So we have been making some arrangements in our galley lately. We got tired of not being able to bake, so we got a convection microwave. Only works at shore, but we are tied up most of the time anyhow. Love it so far.

The boat came with an electric stovetop installed, but not cooking at all out at anchor sucks. The boat also came with an Origo 3000 alcohol stove, but it wasn't installed. Well, I spent today moving the electric stove and hanging the Origo on a new set of gimbals so that we have both options readily available. It is also nice cuz our marina charges electric in the winter, so we can use the alcohol then, but electric is free in the summer, so we'll use the electric then. Plus we can cook at sea now! yay!



Still some work to be done. Have to varnish and trim a few things but after that we'd like to resurface all the counter and tabletops with new formica. Time will tell.

Of seals, ice, and weirdos

Jenny finally saw a seal. When we were going to move aboard we'd heard stories of seals frequenting Constitution Marina. Jenny was pretty excited, but sadly, she had yet to see one. I saw a couple last year, but always when she was away. Jenny had time to go to the boat, get the camera, and get back to G dock for pictures. The seal was lounging, and in no hurry.





And then there is us...

It has been rather icy and ugly out here lately. Just wanted to put up some pictures of the marina.





That's all for now...

convection

Using some xmas present money we bought a microwave/convection oven! Being home over the holidays reminded us just how many conveniences we have given up over the couple years we've been aboard. In trying to make the boat more comfortable and homelike we decided that adding a convection/micro would do a good deal to make life a bit easier. That and I have an insatiable love of frozen pizzas that I have been unable to satiate in the last year. We put it below the stovetop, where the cruddy old norcold had been located. We are going to sell the norcold and eventually put a refridgeration kit in the icebox. In the meantime, we have an igloo minifridge sitting in the quarter berth and that works just fine.

We are doing a bit of a galley overhaul. I finally installed hot water a couple weeks ago. The electric range has temporarily been pulled out and replaced with the alcohol origo stovetop. The electric one will get re-installed behind the origo, which we will gimbal. That will give us 4 burners on top with electric option at shore and gimbaled alcohol option at sea! Soon I'll re-formica everything and finish out the area around the new oven and our galley will finally be the way we like it!

Happy New Year
-Justin