Still working on a big yacht parked down at the Everett marina this week and mostly enjoying our current 'winterwonderland', despite the monkey wrench it throws into my personal work logistics.

The Everett marina, while located on Puget Sound, is right near the mouth of the Snohomish River, which dumps a lot of fresh water into Port Gardiner. It's a bit strange to see water of the Sound freeze over, but here it does - all that lighter fresh water 'floats' above the never freezing brine. This week its been mostly a slushy coating. It's interesting to see the 'water trails' cut thru the slush and thin ice, mostly by the Marina Mooching Mallards, and a few other birds: looks like a mini ice breaker just passed thru.

Yesterday I thought I'd discovered a new species of gull when I saw a large immature gull (Herring or Thayer's I think) of beautiful grey tweed coloration with a white back! It had been snowing hard, and the gull just had snow on it's back. Just before dark several hundred Snow Geese flew over headed back toward the Skagit, which was real poetic I thought.

Leaving the boat after dark last night I found myself frozen out of the car, my wife's old Mercedes, which being more than several tons of German engineering, does better in snow than my tin can toyota truck. I would think that a vehicle designed in cold dark Germany wouldn't have this problem, but the door locks, doors, trunk, and gas fill cover, all tend to freeze shut in this kind of weather. I kinda forgot that during our so far mild winter.

So I hiked a couple of hundred yards back to the boat to try and find a lighter, and all I could find was some matches and some paper towels. " This will never work!" I lamented, since it was a bit breezy out. The water was off on the boat, and the main electrical too, except for one space heater, so I couldn't nuke some bay water in the ship microwave and melt the lock with hot water.

Walking back towards the car, my bladder contracting in the cold, I came up with a brilliant idea! Remembering that the human body pretty much operates at 98.6 degrees, I realized "I'm a walking hot water heater!". Back at the car I also remembered that I had a drinking cup in my backpack, so filling this up with my own warm water, I was able to melt the lock. A real 'gee whiz' moment you might say. I felt like the smartest hominid in the parking lot! I was the only hominid in the parking lot actually. It was at this point that I realized that I was two hundred feet from a marina restroom (which I never use) with warm water on tap. While not public, my dock key would get me in. So I wandered over, got a cup of hot water and washed my previous solution off my wife's car - even though the car is already yellow.

Should you ever find yourself in similar need, remember the cup - it makes a neater job of it, and, especially if you are short and/or have a tall vehicle, it makes my technique much more practical.

Jeff Gibson
Whateverett Wa