While this has overall, by northern Florida standards, been a relatively mild winter, we have had a few cold spells that have made us feel like we are still up in New England. Like the past few days. It got down BELOW FREEZING for about two brutal days. On the water, and in the wind, of course, it feels even colder. Our main goal in life for the past few days was to stay warm. Thank goodness we have a little heater on board. Actually, we have two, and we put them both to good use. Way Happy came with a Cole Stove, which is a very wee wood or coal burning stove mounted on the wall in the main cabin. 
There is a small stovepipe that goes out the roof. The stove is a bit high maintenance to operate, and in high winds it doesn’t work well due to the draft coming down the stove pipe, but all in all, we are happy to have the option of having the magical warmth of fire on our boat. 
For fuel, we have been using a combination of charcoal briquets and fire starter logs that you can buy at the store. We also have a small portable propane heater, that we have also been using, especially first thing in the morning when we are getting dressed!
And thank God for our awesome down comforter, which has kept us surprisingly toasty at night!
And all of our mega winter gear that we brought down here “just in case” has been put to good use the last few days. I was about ready to get rid of a bunch of it, thinking “we are in Florida now, we don’t need this stuff”, and was scolding Cap’t K for keeping around massive ski gloves and neoprene face masks. But he sure was glad to have them going to work on the scooter yesterday!
For an early Valentine’s Day we splurged and went out for a nice meal at my new favorite restaurant: Le Bistro de Leon, an awesome French restaurant here in the historical district of St. Augustine. It was such a memorable and delicious meal….I am still happily tasting it two days later! If any of you come visit us in the near future, plan on going there with us, as I’m looking for excuses to go back there again!
And we do indeed have visitors on the way! One of my best friends from Massachusetts is coming on Thursday to spend a whole week with us aboard Way Happy. I’m very excited to have a friend come visit, and am planning outings for us that I’m sure you will all get to hear about.
So until then, we wish you all a Way Happy Valentine’s Day!!
was wondering if you were going to need that stove. Keep warm, sunny days ahead!
And a WAY Happy Valentine’s Day to you too.
With love from Steph and Brook who celebrated Valentine’s last night in Stillwater at our favorite restaurant called Marx!
Happy Valentines Day to you. As for me, I took my wife to McDonalds at let her order off the dollar menu. So romantic sitting under those golden arches. Brought a tear to our eyes!
Hello,
Sorry to hear the temperature is not comfortable. The weather in the Northeast has been bearable, but I’m anxious to get out of here. We’ll be leaving here on the 1st of March and heading to Hunting Island SC for a week and then to Anastasia State Park for a few days. We thought it would be great to visit. We arrive on the Sat the 10th and will be there until the 13th. How’s your schedule? Do be in touch and maybe we can have dinner or drinks.
Pam and Tom
Hi Pam and Tom,
We will be excited to visit with you when you come here! Anastasia State Park is great, and very close to us. And on Saturday mornings, right next to the park is a very wonderful farmers’ market that is worth checking out. We are both working kind of crazy schedules right now, but I’m sure we can get together! See you soon!
K and Lala,
Get yourselves a wee bit of stove pipe that fits the top outlet where the pipe goes through the cabin top. The problem is that the pipe is too short. You need two feet above the cabin top and that will fix the draft problem you’re having.
You can always take the ‘extension’ off when the stove isn’t in use.
Go ahead, ask me how I know.
Jim
Ok, Jim, how do you know this? Is there a good story in there somewhere? We will have to try this…our current stovepipe is only about a foot tall.
Nice, gotta love the solid fuel heater… (we love ours too, nothing beats a fireplace on a boat), we have an “extender” piece for the flue above deck level as mentioned in another comment.. it works really well..
Best of luck!
C
Alright you two, it has been a while since you wrote and kept us up to date on what your doing.
Praying all is well with you.
Faithful reader
I give up.