Taking up Residence

Thursday, September 29, 2016 Aboard the Misty Lady

It is about 8:15 am and today is the third day of our full residence aboard the MY Misty Lady.  The two Sea Cats are still adjusting to life aboard, not sure if they are enthralled yet.  Heck, just give them time, (oh wait, they may not like the sound of those two diesel engines).

I have just finished my very first breakfast aboard and am watching Mother Nature doing a lot to make the morning GREY!!  It has been raining pretty steadily for the past two and a half days, the water in the marina (just off Gingerville Creek) is up rather high and more rain is expected over the next couple of days as well.  Oh the joy of being on the water.  At least I don’t have to worry about flash floods damaging my furniture or power outages (the lady has two generator sets).  At photo of the Misty Lady tied at the dock in the Gingerville Yacht Center below.

mistyladyatdock

Drove Charlotte to the New Carrolton Metro station this morning in pitch black weather, rain, mist from tires and very bright lights made for a joyous trip to set up her morning commute.

Our original plan was to cast off the lines, disconnect the shore power cables, fire up the two Cat diesels and point the Lady’s bow toward the Bay and down to the Potomac this Saturday.  Well, old Mother Nature gave us second thoughts.  Running a boat, any boat in foul weather intentionally is rather dumb so we are going to sit this weekend out.  I will do some honey do tasks aboard (always something to adjust, fix or clean) while we are biding our time.  Next week, early, I will also take some additional refresher training on ship handling (docking, turning using only the props, pulling up to a fuel dock to take on more diesel, and other close quarters handling), while still getting used to the size and handling quirks of a yacht this size.  Of course, one must also consider the idiosyncrasies of the Mother Nature gang.  The Sea Cats, the First Mate and ye old Captain are frankly tired of seeing overcast skies, rain and oh yeah, MORE RAIN.  This is the highest tide I believe I have ever witnessed though.

We expect the arrival of our marine stove either Friday or Monday.  The tale of the stove?  Here goes, we purchased a marine electric three burner stove with the glass top.  This stove also came with a set of racks that would secure pots and pans atop the range while underway (would anyone in their right mind what to do that?).  A substantial investment naturally, nothing for boating comes inexpensive!

When the yacht specialists loaded the stove on board, they removed the package of accessory items from the top and discovered,,,, you guessed it,,, the TOP WAS CRACKED!!!  From the look of the box and the point of impact, we suspect some yoyo in the manufacturer’s warehouse banged it against something with a small point of impact.

So we off loaded the stove, back into the yacht center warehouse and notified the yacht broker (who was the interface between us and the supplier), that the stove was damaged.  The yacht center owner also noted that there were gimbal fittings on the stove and in further exposure found that this was a fully GIMBALED stove (made for sail boats which can float straight in the water like a great power boat).  Not the right stove for our yacht anyway.  Yesterday, I heard from the supplier again with an update, the right stove was being shipped and would arrive either Friday or Monday.  More information from him later as he learns about the progress of the truck.  So even if Mother Nature hadn’t decided to show us love with lots of wind and rain (oh yeah, a light show in the form of lightning and thunder), we would have probably needed to remain here this weekend anyway.

The winds are playing games with the boat, she is moving in and out of the pier pilings and up and back from her original placement.  Amazing what wind and high water can to with a boat of this size.  Oh well, will most likely spend the majority of the day on board, since one never knows when the sheeting rain will return and overpower the regular rains.

As I look out at some of the other large boats tied up to the same dock, I see that they are moving about just like the Lady, so we just have to sit back and enjoy the day in peace and quiet.

More to come, 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.

Leave a comment