Is it my imagination, or has it been far below freezing more often in RI this winter? Of course, that has been interrupted by a day of rain here and there and my bilges keep filling (mast penetration) and then freezing.
I am usually able to get there during a thaw and hand
pump it out, but timing has been impossible for the last couple of months. I'm getting a bit concerned about the genset, which has the water beginning to reach its base and there is rain forecast for this week again, then right back to freezing.
I tried to heat the cabin with a space heater this weekend. I left it on for hours but it barely melted a film on top of the ice. I suspected this, as the hull is a huge heat sink at the moment.
Any tricks out there to defrost and
pump frozen bilges? I have a kerosene heater that would make it a sauna in there, but not crazy about the carbon monoxide nor the
exhaust soot in the cabin.