At Home-CYC

Been a while since I sat long enough to bring the blog up to date.  As I said in the last entry, we finally made the voyage from the Gingerville Yacht Center at Edgewater Maryland to our cruiser home at the Capital Yacht Club in Washington, DC.  But here we are and here we will be rest for the cold season from now until March or April.

Presently we are berthed on the “T” head of the CYC A dock and from a time it looked like we would be here for months.  To get into a permanent slip one must bid using seniority for any slips that come open AND that your boat or yacht will fit within.  For instance, the Misty Lady is 54 feet long and therefore we much have a slip with a length of at least 55 feet, so 60, 65, and 70 foot slips are the only ones we can bid on.  We thought we had our slip a couple of weeks ago but someone with a lower member number (more seniority), placed a bid on the very last day.  Today the Club Manager informed me that a slip holder was going to move his yacht into winter storage and his slip would be available from now until the end of March.  We are seriously considering taking this slip for the winter months since it will shield us from the vagaries of winter storms and associated rough water at the T.

One of the advantages of being berthed where we are is the ability to see all sorts of visitors and large yachts that come into the CYC marina area.  For instance,  the yacht below belongs to Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia.  Of course his yacht is named: “Almost Heaven”.  It is 75 feet long and Joe has a problem because our longest slips are only 70 feet.

Joe spent much0 dollars to install hydraulic lifts for his swim platform to fold up against the stern, to reduce the Length Over All (LOA) of the Almost Heaven but when the Rear Commodore and the Dock Master measured, even after all the expense, the yacht was still too long for our slips.  At CYC even Senators have to abide by the Club rules.

The Sea Cats, Penny and The Duchess (Penny is the Tortie in the front and The Duchess is the grey tabby to the rear) have adapted to their new home and have explored from bow cabin to the salon and all the points in between.  The still do NOT like the sound of the engines and the vibration that they cause.  We are hopeful that at some point next summer they will have adapted to that noise as they have with the noise from the plethora of helicopters that fly down our waterway from the Pentagon and the White House.  At first they were jumpy when one passed overhead, now it is just another noise and they ignore them for the most part.  Now if I can just get them to ignore the sound of the Lady’s diesel engines.  Perhaps on the first voyage of next year we should bring them up on the bridge and then see how they do with both of us within sight.

Our boating neighbors do love to decorate their boats, the docks and anything else that stands still.  This was one of the docks decorated for the Halloween season.  The sign reads Creepy Dock and it was a very neat display.  Lots of “spider webs” hanging across the dock from boat to boat.

Today, a new vessel docked at our B dock T.  She is a beauty and will be here for a couple of days and then off for parts unknown but she can sail anywhere!

Isn’t she a beauty?  The crew are young people and their visit here was sponsored by the primary developer of the Washington, DC waterfront.   Some of us were hoping to be invited on board to tour this gorgeous yacht!

We have ordered and will be installing some new technology heating units to keeps us warm this winter, as well as provide warmth to the boat’s external shell.  I ordered three wall heaters from a company (made in the USA by the way) and these heaters are just a few inches think, mount without making holes in our fiberglass walls and will keep each room very nice and comfortable.  In addition, we will be putting an “ice eater” unit underwater next to the Lady’s hull to protect her from ice incursion.  This device is also referred to as a “bubbler” because it uses a prop to circulate water from the lower depths (where it is warmer) to the surface.  Both the warmer water and the agitation of the water will prevent the accumulation of ice.  Of course we are hopeful that the weather will cooperate for our first winter aboard and not generate much if any ice on our section of the Potomac.

We are also planning the “shrink wrap” of the Misty Lady in a couple of weeks.  This process involves the wrapping of the entire boat from the top of the radar arch to just above the water line of the hull and from the bow to the stern.  The material is a heavy duty vinyl type product and this wrap will save us tons in the coming winter months by not only insulating the boat with a secondary layer, but will also cause any snow that might fall to slough off and we will not be covered with snow should this year bring snow fall similar to the previous years.  The alignment of the wrap eliminates a lot of the flat surfaces of most boats of our size.  The wrap will have an access portal or two to provide us with entry and exit.  The installation will also include a clear panel to provide a “window” to prevent the claustrophobic type of total enclosure.  When this process is started, I will take some pictures of the process and the final look.

Well enough for tonight.  I will try to be more attentive to the blog in the coming days.  Not sure if many people read it at this point, not a lot of excitement in being on a boat in the winter time.  But it is a brand new experience for Charlotte and I so I will continue to relay our activities and the circumstances we encounter.

More later, 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