Man, I remember back in the winter of 83. . froze my ass off leaving Lake Charles, bound for Mobile. . . ice on everything. . .brrrrrr. . . .and again in the winter of 85. . . up the Mississippi to Plaquemine, just south of Baton Rouge. . . snowing. . .heavily. . .really don’t remember those specific hot days, but the really cold ones make an impression. . .
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Get yourself a nice Helly Hansen Polar suit Jacket and Bib Pants, Dress in Layers with the proper moisture wicking undergarments. Use A pair of Purofort/ Dunlops with good socks on your feet the good winter type and get a pair of orange fireball gloves, use them with a pair of white cotton gloves as a liner. As far as head gear goes, i used a good balaclava with a hoodie over it under the hard hat, with an over the hard hat type of liner.
https://static.grainger.com/rp/s/is/image/Grainger/10DH37_AS01?zmmain
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQjZMr74RBHYbt3jXTYvh7O0lWROAphhtMm2n7HZN77mJTF3TTd
I used that combination for a long time on the east coast of Canada/ St. Lawerence River/ Lake Area and in the Arctic. And if it gets too cold frequent smoke-o’s to warm up.
The trouble I was having with gumboots is getting warm ones, in a women’s size, with safety toes, in the Mercer’s catalogue… which is what I was asked to order from. The only thing I could find there were Baffin boots. Boots arrived today, bad weather coming now. Will report back here with the results.
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Hands and feet will get cold first no matter how good the gloves (or mittens) and boots. The biggest heat loss areas are the head and neck. That and the core.
Almost any boots will work if used with good socks as long as your feet are dry. However the feet will get cold in any boot if the core temps starts to drop.
I have a pair of Scandia wool blend knee-high socks that I got issued as PPE when I was trading in the maritimes and new england in the winter. I wish I had more of them. The skookumest socks.
For cold weather I swear by my Merino woolen socks. The Spanish Merino sheep is highly priced for it’s warm wool. Nice touch is that they marked the socks with a R(ight) and L(eft). Kinda hard to take a picture of your own sockwear…
There are sound reasons for having a good pair of boots, just that there is another reason for the feet (and hands) to get cold that better footwear will not necessaly fix.
Long underwear is cheap, light and doesn’t take much room. I always have some just in case, even if the schedule is in warm climate. That and a tight knit watch cap.
Depends on what you’re doing etc as has been mentioned on this thread.
On some boats in Alaska I’ve used four different pairs of boots. Which pair to wear depended upon the tasks being done.
For rugged work, I used to like “Fireman boots”, but now I prefer “chainsaw boots”.
I’ve never worked on a boat in weather that was cold enough to require “bunny boots,” but they are supposedly comfortable at 50 below zero.
One thing is with the question what to wear, you don’t know what the person knows all ready.
I was third mate one winter standing on the pier in Adak in the wind with my coat unzipped. C/M, who was from the south walked up to me asked me if I was wearing long underwear, I’m thinking wtf with the questions about my underwear but I tell him yes I am. So the C/M say I thought you guys from the North were just tough but then I found out you’re all wearing long underwear, didn’t know that.
I told him it’s both, I am tough and I am wearing long underwear
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According to this post, I got my Baffin Boots 28 days ago. No complaints until this morning… there’s a two inch long crack or tear in the rubber in front of my ankle! I must say this is not entirely surprising. I find that whenever I get woman’s safety gear (which is not that often, because its hard to find) it isn’t good quality. So frustrating. I feel like my only options are wear shoes that are too big or get new ones every month. I had a similar quality problem with my $200 Wolverine boots. I was taking back the broken ones to Mark’s every month (they have a one month quality guarantee) and exchanging them for new ones, until one time I wasn’t able to get to the shop in time to do the exchange. Bootlaces literally last longer than boots: why is that?
Here’s the start of my catalogue of things that don’t work:
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I bought these Sorel snow boots some weeks ago. It is made of leather and rubber with vulcanized waterproof seams, good for up to -40° C. Now I am waiting for some real freezing weather and snow…
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I know where you can find some weather like that. And me with a hole in my boots.
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I am on a tug in NY and I came up on tugs and bunkering tankers here.
You don’t necessarily need arctic quality gear it’s not Antarctica but it does get below zero, usually not all winter. When decking you need mobility and the ability to throw lines. When I was a tankerman I was stuck out there for up to six hours turning valves. A few times I was wearing everything I owned and was still cold.
Unless you are doing stone work, you usually head out throw your lines, make up the tow etc and come back inside until it’s time to do it again. Very rarely are you outside for a whole watch. There are some exceptions like the lookouts on container and crane barges. Even on there the trips are usually not more than a couple of hours. Most of the boats have pretty good heat these days. You are usually either really warm or really cold as the heat cycles. On a modern oil ATB, the climate control is excellent, better than my house.
You will learn on your first hitch what you need and don’t need. Nowadays you can order the gear right from your phone.
Some tips in no particular order:
under armor works well
Duluth trading bare naked base layers are the best, at least for me
+1 on the Muck style boots, I think you can get some American made ones now, and steel toe if the safety Nazis require them
+1 on the long float coat Mustang is better than Stearns. I used to have a beavertail float coat which a ship pilot turned me on to, not sure if they are still made.
+1 on the orange crabber style gloves, but only for handling the wet lines, other gloves rest of the time.
I used to keep some cheap Reebok fleece pants and jackets to add as a layer or to use inside. cheap at Modells
You need some crocs to walk around the boat inside, your wet dirty gear will live in the Fidley.
EDIT: did not mean to resurrect a 3 year old thread, showed in my feed, missed the date
i’ll second the float coat. expensive but added level of safety and also better protection from the wind than anything I have worn.
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Atlas Insulated gloves…wrangler hoodie down combo sweatshirt…dickies pants and wool socks have worked well enough for me in NH, though I don’t really get cold…