April 16, 2016 – On Saturday thinking about the week that passed and the activities in the Weeks ahead. On the 20th the Board of Directors for the Yacht Club will meeting to either accept the Admissions Committee recommendations for new members (we are among them). On the 30th we will load the majority of our remaining condo furniture on a truck and haul it to my son’s home in West Virginia. The remaining items will go to a charity on the 3rd of May. And we will become homeless the morning of the fourth. Actually we will move into a hotel on the evening of the 3rd and remain there until the Misty Lady is ready to be fully re-commissioned and returned to the water.
During the period from the point we close on the yacht (expected to be the 7th, to the 15th of May we will be involved heavily in making safety, mechanical and cosmetic updates to the Lady. The day of Closing we will receive the keys and title to the yacht, we will then head up to Dundalk fire up the diesels and sail the Lady down to Edgewater, MD (just outside of Annapolis), to a shipyard on the South River. She will have several tasks initiated immediately. These include, evaluating, maintaining and recertifying the fire suppressant system, “polishing” the fuel in the tanks (will explain more about this later), installing a set of holding tanks to meet the requirements of the DC waters, and laying in some teak flooring on the sole of the salon and the Master stateroom. These are the first tasks, before we actually haul the Lady out of the water.
When she is hauled, the bottom will receive two coats of anti-fouling paint, she will be washed, waxed and polished from bow to stern, and a couple of surface scratches will be repaired and retouched. We will, after the flooring is installed, move the TempurPedic mattress into the master stateroom and onto the bed (gonna sleep well on this yacht, ya know). Appliances for the galley and the laundry as well as Salon furniture will be shipped to the shipyard and installed.
At that point, the Captain (that’s me) and the two sea cats (Duchess and Penny) will take up residence. The first mate will most likely still be at a conference. Upon her return, we will (if all tasks are completed) have the Lady restored to her natural habitat (the water) and the preparations for heading out to the Bay and south to our home berth at the Capital Yacht Club on the Washington DC waterfront.
On May 9th, I will hold a moment of remembrance for the passing of my son Mike and will install an engraving on the Chart Table that dedicates the Misty Lady to his memory.
As these things take place, I will try to post both descriptions and photos as the Misty Lady evolves from being the Roving Retreat to her new name and becomes ours both in fact and in look.
Stay Tuned?
Author: harv1941
Just a summary, I am 84 years of age, retired in July 2013 and settled down to promoting the dangers of bacterial meningitis, which killed my beloved son, Mike in 2009. My wife, Charlotte, and I embarked on an adventure of live aboard cruising, aboard a large Blue Water motor yacht. While our beginning was rather fraught with hurdles, we continued to look forward to the day we moved aboard the Misty Lady and cruise the eastern seaboard and associated waterways. After more than four years of life aboard this Bluewater Motor Yacht, I developed an advanced problem due to interaction with medications and experienced rather frightening balance problems. Therefore, getting on and off the yacht was fraught with danger of falling between the docks and the boat's hull. Walking the docks was also problematic considering that our yacht club docks were all floating docks and my balance problem was a danger during the walk from our yacht's docking slip to the clubhouse or out to the DC Wharf facilities and our car housed in the yacht club's reserved garage. SO, we had to regretfully put the Misty Lady up for sale and move back on shore. We moved on shore, first into a condo apartment in Alexandria, then after two years there, we relocated to the city of Newport News, in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. Our original desired location was in the city of Hampton, Virginia, which is the oldest English-speaking settlement in the United States having been established originally in 1610. My ancestors came to this country through this settlement in the mid 1600s and lived in that area for around 100 years before beginning a migration of one portion of our family toward the west.
I looked forward to moving back to this area and exploring the roots of my family, both maternal and paternal ancestry, but we found a great house in the Newport News area and became ensconced in the terrific neighborhood of Kiln Creek. My wife, being still actively employed, received a substantial offer in a position with a government contractor firm back up in Northern Virginia. So we put the Newport News house up for sale, receiving and accepting an offer withing two days. We then relocated back up to the city of Alexandria and into another high rise condo. My wife reached a point where considerations for retirement were becoming very important. She indicated that she really didn't want to retire in Alexandria, so once again we began a house search in the Tidewater area, this time in the City of Williamsburg and in a community restricted to 55+ age owners. We found the ideal location, initiated the sale and closing for our retirement home. We then put our condo on the market. Alas, the market was not as robust as before so we had to change asking price a couple of time, but finally the Alexandria Condo was sold. Now we are set to enjoy the great locations found here in the Tidewater/Hampton Roads area, considering that we are history buffs and there are literally hundreds of historical sites in this segment of our nation. Of course living in Williamsburg is the epitome of history living life.
So, now we are in our retirement home, in a great retirement type community. A great clubhouse with a fine dining restaurant, a grill/pub, an award winning PGA designed golf course and miles of walking trails. Looking forward to my wife's eventual full retirement and the two of us visiting all up and down the east coast historical spots.
View all posts by harv1941
Misty Lady Thought and Comment 