Warm Tootsies

It appears that Old Man Winter has decided to pay us a visit after all and Thursday night the best we could do on the thermostat after running the heater all night was 62.  Not bad, but still a little chilly on the feet after a few hours of the lake water temperature seeping through the fiberglass.  Friday morning we took a trip to the local hardware store and bought us some temporary dorade plugs to stop the rush of wind into the salon through the very effective vents (can't afford the real ones right now and they were missing from the boat when we bought it - go figure...) and then began installing our new foam winter flooring.  I recently saw a post on Sailing Simplicity on staying warm in the winter where she detailed in video the process of putting those 2 x 2 foam interlocking panels on the floor of their boat to help insulate it against the New England cold and  I decided that was a pretty smart idea so I made a trip to Lowe's to purchase some. We spent the cold morning cutting and fitting around the table mount and the various shapes of the cabin and were rewarded with not only a very comfortable floor for stocking feet, but about 6° increase on the thermostat over the afternoon and evening.  We did run short for the galley floor and the aft cabin so I'll be heading back to Lowe's this week for another package.  I admit it's not the most appealing color, but it is winter gray so I guess it's appropriate.  In the Spring we'll be able to pick it up and store it under the mattress in the aft cabin.  For any of you staying on your boat in the cold, this is worth the few pennies it cost us. This project definitely gets 5 stars.