Hotel Edith

Last night I attempted to sleep aboard Edith. I've been meaning to do it for some time to test out the accomadations for camping, and just to sleep on 'my' boat. I have visions of gently being rocked to sleep by the waves and tides on the Petaluma River, and waking up at dawn to the honking of Canadian Geese. Thankfully most of that was true. It had been a hot hot day, and even in the cool of the night the boat remained pleasantly warm. I unpacked my sleeping bag, pad, pillow and laptop (gotta watch movies right?) and settled in. Occasionally one of the big push-tugs from Jerico would rumble past and provide a little additional wave action. I was fast asleep in minutes. But by 2:30 I was back home in my own bed. Dang.

The problem it turned out was two fold: I'm a softie and my boat is stinky.

I'm a softie: There's no padding on the'bunks' in Edith, and while I have a sleeping pad, I've gotten soft in the passing years and woke up stiff and sore at 2 am. Not enough hip padding and the bunks are lightly tilted the wrong way so your head is just lower then your feet. These problems are easily fixable, and I intend to give it another shot with addditional foam and maybe adding more weight to the bow (she's not on her water lines anyway since we removed the fuel tanks).

In answer to Laurel who raised a good question: if the bed is the wrong angle why not flip around? Because then my face will be up under the deck and if I sit up I'll smack my face into an oaken beam. And I like my pretty face. I suppose I could adapt and learn to scoot down before I bolt upright in bed, but I didn't want to take a chance last night.

Stinky Boat: Since we removed her fuel tanks we've resorted to a small 3 gallon tank on the bridge (in the cabin) and whenever we top off a little diesel or biodiesel gets spilled and then wiped up. We keep her closed up tight most of the time especially with the out of season rains we've had, and she hasn't been cleaned since River Cleanup Day. So her cabin was pretty fumy. I open the portlights and kept the door open for a while, but closed it when I was ready for bed and when I woke at 2 I was a little woozy. I can't be sure if this was because of the fumes or because of the 'gentle rocking' but I decided that I'd decamp for home until I've given her a thorough scrub and clean the detritus out of her. Again a solvable problem (maybe) and something that I'd like to attempt again soon.

Also it would probably be wise to attempt this on a non-work night. But the idea hit me last night and I wanted to sieze the opportunity.