Month: October 2016

This blog entry will be rather long, I am trying to cover our adventure from our second night stop until our final berthing at our home port.  Hope that the photographs will entertain.

Sunday afternoon we laid over at the Colonial Beach Yacht Marina, at Colonial Beach, VA.  Below are a couple of photos of that layover:

The top left photo is of a small houseboat (sort of the size of an old fashioned outhouse), on one of the docks of this large marina. The second top phot is of a view across the stern of that small houseboat toward the back of the marina.

The photo above is a shot from the dock where we were berthed looking aft toward an old 1920’s yacht that at one time was a Presidential yacht that we were told was the Lady Ann.  She was in rather decent shape considering her age, but certainly could have used a few thousand dollars (tens of thousands actually) in at least some cosmetic changes.  The Bride and I went to the onsite restaurant for this marina and had some very delicious seafood for our supper.  We earlier had visited the marina office and settled our bill for the transient berth and we were then ready to depart at our schedule, rather than others.

Monday morning, October 17, 2016, broke with a nice sun coming over the horizon.  The skies were lit with a warm reddish/orange glow and the clouds were puffy and innocent of bad weather.  We cast off lines and found the treacherous current in the Colonial Beach Yacht Marina had not abated.  Leaving the dock was an exciting adventure.  Problem was compounded by the fact that the channel out of the marina is rather narrow and the water clearance in several spots is less than 2 feet (we draw a minimum of 4), so we watched the depth sounder instrumentation with great concerns and I thought I was in a slalom environment from moving port to starboard, and starboard to port.

Finally the water depth was deep enough that we could breathe again and we turned out of the “creek” leading to the marina and into the main channel of the Potomac.  We had finally, on the third morning, actually left with first light.  Now that we know how to do it, perhaps next season we will be more successful with out planned departures.  The biggest thing it to ensure that you have performed every prep task possible before you retire for the night.  Making sure that your transient dock fee is paid the night before is also important, as we discovered that most marinas have a 8:00 to 8:30am opening time.  Not good for getting away at first light.

Daylight on the Potomac moving from the marina entrance.

Anyway, back to the journey, we moved away from the marina/creek and into the main channel of the Potomac only to be confronted by more crab and fish pots/traps all through the channel.  Had to ply those areas very carefully, with Char watching for these floats as well.  Seemed only a few minutes after we cleared one pot area, we were seeing another batch further up river.  Now understand that I don’t begrudge these fisher folk the right to earn a living, but putting hundreds of these pots and their floats in the main navigation channel seems a bit much.  I am sure that the large ships that come up the Potomac do not watch the pot floats like we did, so I wonder how many of these crab or fish pots get dragged away by these large ships.

As we began to increase our speed, passing the town of Colonial Beach, we were looking forward to passing under the Harry Nice Bridge (US 301).  We motored well, making about 11 knots, up the Potomac, and dodging flotsam and wood dangers (tree limbs, even a 2×4 plank), making our voyage rather interesting.  Finally in the distance we spotted the 301 Harry Nice Bridge, and this marked a significant milestone on our trip as we were well up the Potomac and truly going to make our home port that day.

The above are views of the Bridge, our approach shown in the upper left, a closer view out the bow windows, then on the lower left, passing under the bridge and finally the view from our stern as we left the bridge behind.  We motored on up the Potomac, and as with most rivers it was a winding, curving passage.  We saw lots of nice scenery but nothing really worth photographing on that section.

As we drew nearer to the DC metro area we began to see interesting locales.  The three photos below are of Fort Washington which is on the Maryland side of the river.  It was a military post from the early days of our nation and a few years ago was turned into a national park.

Across the river, was another national heritage treasure,  the home of our first president, George Washington.  Mount Vernon is a site well worth a visit if you are ever in our national capital area.

After we passed Fort Washington and Mount Vernon, we knew that home was just a short distance left in our voyage.  Our next landmarks were the National Harbor Resort and Marina on the Maryland side and the view of the Wilson Bridge, and our gateway into the upper Potomac and HOME!

As we motored up to and through the Wilson Bridge, Alexandria, VA appeared on our port bow. As we closed on the Wilson Bridge, a water taxi carrying passengers from Alexandria to National Harbor passed us astern.

Alexandria in the distance, and you can just make out the George Washington Masonic Temple above the skyline.  The next photo is a close in view of Alexandria and the Torpedo Factory which is a repurposing of a WWII facility into a crafts mall.  The bottom show is of the one of the buildings that make up the US Naval Research Laboratory.

As we passed by Alexandria, the small white buoy markers along the way warn boaters to go slow and “Don’t Make Wakes”.  The next pictures are of our view as we made another turn up the Potomac toward our Capital Yacht Club berth.

The upper left photo is a view as the turn into the Washington channel, you can just see the top of the capital in the right background.  The building on the upper right is unknown to us but we believe is part of the Army post at the point where the Anacostia and the Potomac meet.  And finally the bottom picture covers the Haines Point, a DC park, a view of the Washington Monument to the left and the Capitol building to the right.  At this point we were almost home.  The CYC dockmaster had already stationed himself on the dock where we would tie up and we could finally say that the Misty Lady was almost home.

This next group of photos are of our final stopping place, the Capital Yacht Club.

The left most picture was taken as I brought the stern of the Lady snugged to the dock and our dock master was making her midship lines fast.  Following this, I shut down both engines and we were home!  The middle picture is a shot from our stern down the dock to the foreground.  And the right most picture is a bow on shot of the Lady finally secured to the temporary berth.  As soon as a regular slip is available to us we will move her into her “forever” home berth.

The top left picture is a shot down the fairway between the A and B docks and shows a small portion of the redevelopment that is currently being down for the Washington Waterfront.  The small building with the yellow walls is the new Yacht Club house, currently under construction.  The top right picture shows some of the yachts on the B dock and a view of the Washington Monument along side the cranes of the construction.

The bottom left picture is one of a family of Malard ducks who make the Yacht Club their home. Next is another view of the Monument, the B Dock yachts and the construction cranes.  The next view is of the bridge and a glimpse of the top of the Jefferson Memorial.  And finally the last picture is of a large yacht that arrived the next day after we did.  This yacht is 109 feet long and takes up the entire length of the B Dock “T”.

Thought you might like a couple of pictures of our views from the Misty Lady at night.  The upper left is a picture of the Washington Monument, the upper right is a shot from the maintenance barge looking down the A dock toward our berth at the end. The lower left is another view of the Washington Monument from the after deck of the Lady.  The lower right is a photo looking back down the channel to the Gangplank Marina and one of the very large tour boats that make this marina their home.  The boat to the side in this picture is a large Catamaran Sailboat.  They left the Club around noon today heading home, somewhere down south of here.  Probably Florida.

Whew!  That was a lot folks but now we are home and will have some topics to discuss of life aboard a yacht in the Washington Winter!  Oh Joy!

Stay Tuned.  It could get rocky for a while.

 

 

As you may recall in our last entry, we were resting from the preparation for departure.  Well, our plan was to cast off lines, bring in shore power cables and move the Lady from her berth at Gingerville, heading down the South River and home.  We did arise around 4:30 am to get the necessary things accomplished in readiness for the trip.  We had all the loose articles stowed (can’t have things breaking underway), and our breakfast consumed.  Time to start engines, and begin the cast off process.

Well, the starboard engine didn’t want to start, and in all truth, it was a pretty chilly morning.  After goofing around with this thing for a couple of hours, calling the original mechanic who built the engine we finally decided to spray a bit of starter fluid, lo and behold, we had engines.  Of course it was already 11:00 and we were about three hours past our planned departure……

A little side note: this fellow shared our dock and fished to his/her hearts content.

Finally we had the Lady ready for her voyage home.  Backing out of the berth, the Captain pivoted her using the two engines and pointed her bow toward the river, and we were off.  This is the bridge we sailed under.  This area is a 6 knot venue so we moved rather slowly,, BUT Stately under the Route 2 bridge.

So we motored on down the South River and eventually into the Bay.  There were a lot of boaters out by that time (what we had hoped to avoid with a very early departure.

A view of myself and Char at the helm as we motored down the Bay. We spelled each other to relieve each of us to attend to other things.

We were moving at a pretty good clip, enough to make wakes of impressive size. The first picture is the wake coming off the bows and the second is obviously our stern wake.

The Lady can certainly push water.

Interesting the people you meet on the Bay, these are two oil tankers headed up the Bay, probably destined for Baltimore.

As we moved down the Chesapeake, it dawned on us that because of the delays in getting out of Gingerville, we were going to have to lay by overnight and hoped to make it to Colonial Beach, VA for the layover.  Not to be, that local was more than 50 miles up the Potomac River from the Bay and it would be late afternoon by the time we reached the mouth of that river.  So we looked for another marina.  Not as easy as looking for a hotel while driving down the Interstate.  First, did they accept transient boaters, second could they take a boat our size, third the water depths at the docks and finally, how far away!  We found a site called Point Lookout and secured a berth for the evening.  We hoped to make it into the marina before nightfall.

But as you can see from these two photos, we were still about 6 miles out.  Night fell, and even with a full moon, we were depending heavily on our chart plotting GPS Nav system.  It was still nerve wracking, but old Harv made it to the marina even in the heavy darkness.  Our berth was to be in between a 120 foot mega million dollar yacht and a bulkhead.  Was I nervous about clipping the big yacht?  Nah, piece of cake ( riiightt).  Slipped the Misty Lady in and laid her along side that pier with the 1st Mate grabbing pilings with the lines.

We went to bed that evening two very tired little campers.  The transit to the marina in pitch black waters, not knowing what may be in the water ahead of us was very nerve wracking and tiring and we crashed into bed.

The marina did not have the proper power source for us, (we take two cables of 50 amps) they only had 30 amps and we only had one 30 amp conversion cable connector.  AS a result, we could not run our HVAC units and turned out that our battery banks were drained quite low because the single cable was not properly place.  In our exhausted state, we did not connect the right cable and things didn’t work as they were supposed to do.

When we awoke the next morning we discovered that the marina office did not open until after 8:00am to allow us to settle out bill for the berth and services.  We finally got the power straightened out by starting our generator set and uncoupling from shore power.  We encountered a battery problem again, but this time it turned out to be a circuit breaker had tripped (and we didn’t even know it existed), a call to the previous owner got that information for us.  Anyway, again our departure at first light was delayed.  But we did get a couple of pictures of the area…. The first is a picture of Charlotte on the dock near the Misty Lady’s bow.  The second was a picture that Char took, you can barely make out the moon near the right side of the picture.

 

We finally got things sorted, the engines started, the lines pulled and we moved out of Point Lookout headed up the Potomac River.  Along the way it also became obvious to us that we were not going to make the Capital Yacht Club in Washington, DC before night fall and after the previous night’s excitement, we did not wish to do another night docking.  So, we decided to take an early lay by and made a reservation for the Colonial Beach Yacht Center.  We arrived at the center at around 2:00pm and began the process of docking the Lady.  Turned out NO ONE told us about the currents in that marina.  The Lady was not cooperating with my movements to put her in a dock, we made seven passes and at long last, was able to bring the Lady to the dock and get her lines in place.  We got the power connected with both cables supplying our needed power amperage.

After eating a nice seafood meal in the restaurant located on the marina grounds, we came back to the Misty Lady to soothe the frazzled nerves of the two sea cats.  The sounds and vibrations of the engines drive them nuts.  Our hope was that they would soon adjust, but so far it is not to be.  Perhaps by next season?

Anyway, we are all squared with the marina management here, so there is no need for us to be held up for their office hours.  Our plan is to once again, depart with the first light.  Problem is around this entire area are the plethora of crab pots and fish traps.  Hard to see, those things in the waters in bright sunlight, let alone the early morning rising sun.

But those are the challenges of the “boating life” I guess.  Well, enough for tonight, we will try to snap a couple of pictures around this marina and then more as we go up the Potomac and home.

Stay Tuned

Well it is now 8:00pm on Friday evening October 14, and we have been working most of the day to complete preparations for our departure tomorrow morning.

Yep, that’s right, at first light on Saturday, October 15, we will start engines, start the generator, disconnect shore power and cast off all lines.  By approximately 6:45am (usually the breaking of dawn) we will begin the slow backing away from the Gingerville Yacht Center’s B Dock and once clear, I will turn her outbound and at long last the Misty Lady will be motoring southbound on the Chesapeake Bay to the mouth of the Potomac River.

As our voyage begins, we will move slowly out of Gingerville Creek into the South River and turn down river toward the Bay.  It is my plan that the Bride and I  (oops I meant the First Mate) will try to take a number of photos.  Some we will take with my big Canon and will use them in a later version of the blog once we are ensconced in our home berth at the Capital Yacht Club.

Our original plan was to travel as far as we felt comfortable and move into a transient slip at a marina on the Potomac, because travel in the dark is not something I would countenance.  Our thought now is that if we can make between 13 and 15 knots while underway we may be able to make it all the way to the Capital Yacht Club before nightfall.  As we move up the river, we will keep a sharp eye on the progress and may still fall back on the idea of a layover somewhere on the Potomac.

During the trip, I will try to write a blog entry as we progress on our voyage.  Photos where possible.

Wishes for a safe and successful voyage are solicited

Stay tuned, it gets better.

 

Well it is Sunday evening and the Hodges Mariner family is resting from our labors aboard the Misty Lady.  Many of  you already know, but we have been exposed to a constant rain storm for six days straight.  The water in the marina was less than 1 inch from flowing over the top of the dock. As a result the Misty Lady is still docked at the Gingerville Yacht Center.  Our new departure date is now Saturday, October 8.  We had hoped to be settling into a dockage at the Capital Yacht Club by now, but there you have it.

I did get a nice shot of the Misty Lady at twilight.  I was coming back from the parking lot and it was simply a Kodak Moment.  The upper doors are showing our television set going full blast and the window on the lower level is the light over our bed in the Master Stateroom.

Cleaning the Bilge: one of the more unappealing tasks on a yacht is ensuring that the bilges are clean.  We had earlier paid a local company to clean our bilge and they did a wonderful job,,, on ONE of the three bilges.  They cleaned the engine room bilge and evidently didn’t understand that there was a forward bilge and an aft bilge.  The aft bilge was, shall we say rather odiferous and the 1st Mate and I decided to clean it ourselves.  Oh what fools we might be…    When discussing the odor with the Yacht Center owner and soliciting his recommendation, he told me of several products that could be used to clean and sanitize a bilge.  Among the myriad products (mostly expensive), he strongly recommended that we use PineSol, that it would do the job just as well as the other expensive treatments and cost a fraction of the money.

So, armed with a fresh bottle of PineSol, our new water hose, a long handled brush and a new hose spray nozzle we began the not wonderful task.  Removing the hatch to open the bilge access we were greeted by the sight of really dirty, putrid water.  Some algae floating around as well.  We dosed it well with PineSol, then allowed it to sit for a while and “work” to prepare the bilge for the actual cleaning.  The float that activated the bilge pump had to be elevated manually to get the bilge pump to siphon out the standing water.  We also sprayed fresh water into the bilge to moderate the standing nasty water.

After about 45 minutes of flushing the bilge and adding more PineSol, we finally decided that we had done enough for a couple of amateurs and resolved to hire professionals to finish the bilges, check the bilge pumps and clear the residual algae.

At least when we hit our bed for sleep tonight the aroma will be much improved.

Another finding that the six days of rain brought to us was the identification of a few spots where waterproofing caulking will be required.  Funny how a constant barrage of water will point out areas where seepage is located.  Mother Nature is funny that way.  One might think that these things would sort of put us off.  Not true, we knew when we bought an older yacht that we would encounter these sort of irritants.  The fact it we love the look of our new waterborne home, and we expect that once we have accomplished the final upgrading that we had planned at the outset, our home will be comfortable and nice looking.

Speaking of upgrading, below are two pictures of the Misty Lady’s bridge.  Note the plethora of instrumentation on the left picture, this was the before picture. Now note that the picture on the right has much less, in fact one instrument shown to the left of the center is the primary control system.  It displays the course, speed, depth of water, radar overlays, and through the AIS linked with the VHF radio to the right, shows all of the other vessels around our area of interest.  This system lets us know where the boats are, how big they are, what direction they are headed and their current speed.  The primary screen is a touch screen, and interfaces with my IPad navigation and charting software.

 

The system is also set with a wi-fi connection that will allow me to read the primary control unit display and to update or change the settings from my IPad down in the salon, the galley or anywhere on the boat.  Oh my the Digital Age for boating is a real hoot!  Also note that the old grungy white bridge canvas’ have been replaced with new canvas using a Navy Blue color rather than the white.  The Lady simply has too much white, so we are planning on mitigating the color scheme.

Well tomorrow begins another week in beautiful downtown Edgewater, MD.  Charlotte returns to commuting into the DC metro area via Metro subway and I go back to prepping the Misty Lady for our voyage.  Sometime midweek next week I expect to receive some training on ship handling to ensure that I do not crash this big boat into a dock or fuel pier,  because that would be not nice.

We will also do some shopping for some items to make life a bit more comfortable, such as end tables and lamps.

More to come including the preparation, cast off of lines and departure of the Lady for her overnight voyage home.  I intend to post more items of possible interest and to do so more frequently.

Stay tuned!!