Well folks, today is Thursday, the 11th of August, and while I never expected we would still be in the Gingerville Yacht Center, Maryland, at least now we can see the end of this long tunnel.
Tomorrow I will pick up a component of the exhaust system for my starboard engine and drive to the Eastern Shore town to deliver this part to the guys working on it. After speaking with the primary diesel guy last evening, our plan is to re-install the engine in the Misty Lady’s engine room next week.
The specialists who work at the yacht center did an install onboard yesterday, they placed and hooked up our new stackable washer and dryer. Picture below:
While there is still some fine tuning of the installation and some panels to replace, the installation is essentially in and functional. Of course while we are still in dry dock none of the appliances could be operated.
Earlier, the yacht center techs had applied two coats of anti-fouling paint to the Lady’s bottom to keep the little sea critters away as much as possible. The hull now looks a pretty blue instead of the speckled white and blue from before:
So as you can see, she is still on dry land but the current plan is to put the engine back into her engine room next week, around mid week. We will then put her back into the water using that huge TravelLift machine and then take her out for a sea trial to ensure that the engine will perform as designed. When we return from the trial ( between a half hour and two hours), she will be docked in a slip where we will do the final tasks to get her ready for the voyage down the Bay and up the Potomac River to her home.
Charlotte has a business meeting at her Philadelphia office starting on Monday and running through Thursday. My plan is to have started the process of putting our personal effects on board and having her help with the final tasks (along with the not so much fun of loading the Sea Cats into the kitty carriers and taking them down to the boat). My big thrill for the day that momentous day will be to pour a cup of coffee from my own coffee maker and sipping it slowly while the Sun begins to arise that morning. Then approximately one week after we have the engines prepped and cleared, we will cast off all lines, fire up both of our diesel engines and point the Lady’s bows east then south.
As these next few days come about, I will be trying to take enough photos of the re-installation, the final flooring installation, the galley table and settee install and the look on this old man’s face as we move into the South River, then into the Chesapeake Bay heading toward the mouth of the Potomac River.
Stay Tuned, it gets exciting from here on out.
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.
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