Best tidings to all of you! The Christmas Ships have paraded past our floating home in North Portland Harbor, the moorage was decorated to a fare thee well…..brilliant lights adorned the docks and boats, decks and windows. The gates were thrown open, and guests to the moorage trooped in to see their friends, muffled and gloved, bearing steaming pots of meatballs, Yule Log cakes and jelly jars of gifts from the summer seasons.

Christmas on a floating home is wonderful. Friends visit, potluck dinners are festive. The darker side is all about the weather. Snow and ice are not the friend of floating homes. In 30 feet of water, the weight of heavy water in the form of snow and ice can lower your level! Neighbors pitch in to  shovel and scrape any frozen water from the surfaces; docks, roofs, railings. The moorages have systems in place to help with cold weather too. Faucet drips are necessary to keep the flow of water through the pipes moving.  Big containers of salt are placed along the docks to spread out when they get slippery after heavy rain or when the temperatures dip.

I love the winter months on my floating home. I enjoy watching the storms come up the harbor, the sky bruising from dark gray to purple, a squall on the horizon. I love the Canada geese flying in formation, the loons dipping beneath the water surface and the huge Cranes hunched on one leg, fishing in still life for carp.

Now the new year is beginning and the sun sparkles off the frost and water. We will begin January with the boat show and move on to sailboat racing season. Life is wonderful on the water!!

Cover image courtesy of Tripod and Spray Bottle.