Still Crazy after all these years

Well, as you can conclude we are still landlubbers and the Misty Lady is still on her dry dock blocks.  Turned out when the mechanics were lowering the starboard engine onto the motor mounts, the oil pan was 1/4 inch too deep.  It was evidently for a 425 horse engine rather than my 375 horse engine.  Or so it seemed.

The mechanic told me that he was going to Baltimore where there were two engines that he was going to buy for parts and he thought the oil pans were compatible.  But as USUAL there was a “delay”.  We lost an entire week, because he didn’t go to Baltimore until Wednesday and ran into traffic coming home……  AND he refuses to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on Fridays????

So here we are on Monday September 5 (Labor Day Holiday) with the engine hanging from two chain hooks down inside the engine compartment but not laying on the motor mounts.  The mechanics are supposed to be here tomorrow MORNING to finish up the work, they will bring the engine up and replace the oil pan with the replacement pan from the Baltimore trip.  Then they will lower the engine, align it with the drive shaft (this must be perfect because of damage that could result if it was off by even a centimeter).  Once that has been accomplished, they will begin connecting the rest of the components, the turbo, the after cooler, and the other things that make the engine a working device.

It is expected that the work to complete the engine install will be accomplished during the day on Tuesday.  That is my goal and my goal will be impressed upon the mechanics.

Once the engine has been installed, the yacht center folks will bring the 75 ton TravelLift over and lay the slings under the Lady’s hull.  They will lift her off the blocks and the paint specialist will go under the hull and paint those areas that were blocked and the painting could not reach.  These area will receive the first coat, then will be left to dry overnight and a second coat will be laid on the next morning.  That afternoon, we will move the Lady over to the launch area and the TravelLift operator will slowly lower her into the waters.

WE will all pull her out of the launch slip and down the dock a few feet.  Once she is secured to the dock, we will lay out the plan for the Sea Trial testing.  This should take about 1 to 2 hours.  Then we will bring her back to the yacht center and to a temporary berth, where the guys will board and begin the process of putting her floor panels back, laying the kitchen cabinets back into their place and installing the stove, refrigerator and dishwasher (the washer and dryer are already installed).  They will then replace the settee in its previous location.  Our dining table cannot be installed until the flooring guys come back and complete the installation of our flooring for the galley and the ladders (stairs to you land based folks).  Once we have the engine covers back in place and the components for the galley installed, Charlotte and I will then get a refresher course in ship handling.  Mainly how to operate in the marina, getting to the fuel docs and into a slip.  With a boat this big, nothing I ever knew about ship handling can be assumed to still work.  She is at least 10 feet longer than the largest boat I ever handled so I want to know how to use the engines to maneuver this big girl in close quarters.

So, everyone keep their fingers crossed for tomorrow’s work!  I will take photos of the boat, but will not be able to go aboard because I took a bad fall a couple of days ago and bruised my ribs making it impossible to climb up the stern ladders (really are ladders), to the after deck.

Also, if things go well, I will take photos of the TravelLift picking up the Lady and holding her in the slings.  Then when we move her to the water I will be there with the camera  Hopefully can learn how to use the movie function to get live action of the actual transfer from the ground to the water.

Stay tuned.

Unknown's avatar

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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