Month: December 2016

Baby It’s Cold Outside Redux

Sunday, December 18, 2016 –

Well here we are, one week exactly until Christmas, and we survived two of the coldest days in DC’s near past.  We are settled into the temporary berth on the C Dock and will be here until the first of April.  The Lady seems comfortable in this slip.

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I drove the 1st Mate out to the Washington National airport on Wednesday at noon for a business trip to her newly acquired Nashville office and headed back to the Yacht Club to prepare for inclement weather.  The temps dropped Wednesday night into the very low 20s.  Thursday dawned very cold, wet and windy, altogether a miserable DC area day.  The Misty Lady did try to keep the old Captain and the two Sea Cats from freezing to death, thanks to the space heaters.  (the HVAC units are useless when the temps drop and the water Temp gets to 40 or below).  Most yachts are not prepared to have folks live in cold weather on board.  Friday the team arrived to begin doing the shrink wrap of the Lady.  The day was cold, but no rain.

Just before noon Friday, I drove out to National Airport to collect the 1st Mate arriving from her trip to Nashville (she has an office there now with about 6 local folks).  We then returned to the Capital Yacht Club and the Misty Lady.  The shrink wrap team had been working on our boat.  This is what she looked like as they got things underway.

The overlay of the wrap covers the entire boat from bow anchor pulpit to the stern ladder.  The shrink process would follow.  Frankly, we have high hopes that this shrink wrap job will, as many folks have said, reduce our power need for heating, as well as keep the overall boat warmer.  It will remain in place until the weather is warmer and we no longer need the additional insulation.

The picture on the below left is a shot of the team leader up on the Lady’s bridge roof at the electronics arch.  They are laying the wrap around the satellite antenna and the internet antenna to ensure that we do not lose signals.

The picture on the right above is what we found Saturday morning, after a freezing rain the evening and early morning.  The white stuff on the finger dock is actually accumulated ice.  The look of the wrap is obviously different since the team worked to do some shrink work, before they had to give up due to freezing on their equipment as well as themselves.  The 1st Mate was concerned about these two young men and the wet, icy environment.  Darkness was also fast approaching.  They closed up the job and told us that they would be back to finish the job on Monday morning.

Sunday evening we discovered a good reason why one should be careful about scheduling work on a yacht for Friday.  The shrink wrap team attempted to secure the wrap sufficiently to last until they returned on Monday to finish up the job with daylight and less frigid weather, as well as give the 1st Mate less worry about their health.  We were all sitting in the salon, Charlotte working on her company computer, me on this one, and the two Sea Cats were napping as usual.  All of a sudden, Mother Nature decided to be a real jerk and give us some wind around 2pm.  Wind blowing about 15MPH and gusts up to 50 MPH causing the shrink wrap to start blowing and flapping like crazy.  We were concerned that it would be torn and blow across the fairway to the B dock and either damage one of the yachts there or worse hit a person and harm them.  The Bride and I stood on the afterdeck, holding the vinyl sheets that were blowing like crazy we were afraid to let go because of the worry about tearing and losing the sheets.

Charlotte came up with a partial solution to take some of the strain of our holding onto the sheets to keep them from continuing to tear more.  She wound the two pieces together with a twist that pulled them together, then she took one of our spare docking lines, created a strong halter tie, winding the line around the twist, also pulling the bottom of the twist over to create a “hook” and then tied the line off connected to one of the Fender Holders on the Aft Deck.  This fix held giving us respite from the constant need to apply pressure.  It held also through the evening and into the following morning.  When the shrink wrap team arrived, I finally untied her work and that allowed them to pull the two pieces together and effect a repair.  What a brilliant woman I was lucky enough to have as my wife!!!

Finally around 6pm the winds died down somewhat and we were able to come back inside, fix and eat some supper.  Altogether we had been out there holding on to the torn sheets to keep them from tearing more and blowing away.

Monday morning, December 19 –

The team is here now and are making repairs to the damages from the winds.  They will then follow up and complete the total shrink wrap with the final steps being to install a window on the stern portion and a large zipper door in the access portal (starboard side door).  I will take some more pictures of the boat when they have finished the total wrap.  We have seen the boat with the loose wrap, supposedly it will look pretty clean later after they close up the loose ends.

I will probably hold off on closing out this edition of the blog until I can photograph the finished product.

Tuesday, December 20 – Continuing with the Blog entry for today, I am going to provide several photographs of the finished shrink wrap product.

The photo on the left is a view of the starboard side of the yacht with the shrink wrap completed.  The photo on the right is a shot of the port side of the yacht.  The guys did a pretty darn decent job and we can feel a change already.

The above left photo is the bow showing the anchor completely enclosed removing another area where cold winds would be entering the forward section.  The above right photo is the stern showing just a bit of the Misty Lady Logo and our swim platform.  The team left access slots in the vinyl at the rear of the boat to allow us to access the pump out connection for the holding tank and the fresh water connection entry on the starboard side.

We awoke this morning to some rather frigid weather, temps down in the upper 20s.  This left a sheen of ice on the top of the marina waters.  The two photos below are views of the ice sheen in the Fairway between the C Dock and the B Dock.

Another wonder of the metro Washington, DC waterfront.  Note that other yachts in the Yacht Club marina are shrink wrapped as well.  A rite of winter passage apparently.

We are preparing for our Hodges Family Christmas gathering on Saturday.  We will all gather at my daughter Kurby’s new home to hold a celebration dinner, enjoy the company of immediate family and share gifts of the season.

Hope you all have a very good holiday, enjoyable Christmas gatherings and commune with family.

See you for the next entry in the aboard happenings with Me, The First Mate and the two Sea Cats.

More later.

 

Baby it’s Cold Outside!

Wednesday, December 14 – Well folks wintry weather is finally showing itself in spades.  The temps have been in the low forties for a high on the last week and expectations are for 40’s, 30’s, and some 20’s.  The temp today will climb to about 45, but will then start dropping steadily as the afternoon, evening and overnight temps go under 30.  Expectation is that tomorrow morning (Thursday) the temp will be 28, and for both Thursday and Friday the high will be 28-29 with lows in the mid to upper teens.  Lordy!  Boats are not designed with cold weather insulation and as a result you use heaters, and with us, we used three to four space heaters where we warm the major areas of the boat to ensure that the we don’t freeze, the Sea Cats are reasonably comfortable and our bilges/engines and external connections are kept above the freezing mark.  Hello electric bill!!!

Also a goal was achieved when we were able to get the port engine to cooperate this past Monday and brought the Misty Lady over from the A Dock T berth to the C Dock Slip C11 and are now in a better more sheltered spot, we have a large motor yacht on each side and another couple across the dock from our slip.  Yeah!!  Our bow is now pointed toward northward so the winds, even if they are able to slip through the other boats with the bow facing north (mostly the winds come down our water way from the north and the northwest so this really helps.  The photo below is a shot of the Misty Lady in her winter slip on the C Dock.  This slip actually can accommodate a yacht of 70 Feet LOA.  Our yacht is 54 Feet LOA so she has plenty of room.  The person who is assigned to this slip normally has his yacht in winter storage.  I understand that his yacht is 68 feet LOA. He pulls the boat in early October, down river, and has it stored in a environmentally controlled warehouse.  Nice to have tons of money, huh?

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The picture below is a view of the I-395 bridge over the Washington Channel.  The blue LED lighting was installed and is maintained by the Hoffman company which is conducting the redevelopment of the Washington DC waterfront.

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The CEO of the Hoffman company is also a member of the CYC and he told us, during a walkthrough of the redevelopment (and our new clubhouse) that the LED lighting on that bridge is of miniscule cost, virtually a few dollars a month.

We discovered the fuel pump problems were increasing when we brought the Lady over from the A dock to the current slip.  The smell of fuel was getting pretty strong.  One of the club members is a mechanic and he helped in moving the boat, then took a look at the fuel pump.  Turned out we had a small crack in the pump which had gotten bigger and instead of problems with leaking air, we had a compounded situation of leaking diesel fuel.  Erik, the CYC member began the process of removing the pump.  We will be installing a new remanufactured pump as soon as it is delivered, expectation of weeks end or Monday.  Finally we hope, the Lady will be able to have both engines start as designed.  YEAH!!!

Also this week, or at the latest, the first of next week, the Misty Lady will be shrink wrapped for the winter.  This process will cover the boat from bow to stern and from the Electronic Arch to midway down the hull.  Openings will be inserted to accommodate the access to the water filler pipe, the waste holding tank pump out ports, a doorway for our entry and exit and a couple “windows” to allow us to see the world.  The expectation and the yacht club long time sailors statements are that we would be a lot warmer through the winter AND the electricity bills will be significantly reduced.  One can only hope, right?

With Winter coming this strong this soon, I see a need for better warmth and this shrink wrap process is reputed to be the major solution.  The kinds of weather we are all experiencing over the past few years tells me that the climate change deniers are as full of crap as a Christmas Turkey and the preponderance of evidences put forth by REAL scientists are spot on with the ideas that our climate change is happening and we humans are responsible, with our refusal to care for our planet.

Okay, am going to have to wind this down, I am expecting the diesel guy shortly to finish removing the fuel pump from the port engine and as soon as he arrives and gets started I will be driving Charlotte to National Airport for her trip to her Nashville office.  She has about 6 people working in that office and they are folks who were part of the company that they just merged with.  She will be there for a couple of days, assigning projects, meeting with people (problem solving>) and just showing her management chops.  Me and the Sea Cats will be holding down the fort aboard the Misty Lady (hopefully not freezing ).

More later>  as soon as the shrink wrap process is completed I will generate another issue and include some pictures.

See Y’all later.

 

Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

December 4, 2016-Aboard the Misty Lady

Well, it has been a few weeks since our last update, so now is a good time I guess that we could bring about the latest from the old Captain and the First Mate along with the Sea Cats.    And speaking of Christmas, every see Santa Claus riding down the Washington Channel on a paddle board?  Well, here is one, shot from the dock at the stern of the Misty Lady this afternoon.

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Last Evening the Mate and I were treated to viewing the Parade of Lights and a fireworks display.  This is an annual event where the various captains in marinas up and down the upper Potomac decorate their boats with lights usually in themes and they gather at the City Of Alexandria waterfront.  They are then launched in a Parade along the Potomac, then turning into the Washington Channel.  The boats are judged in two categories, sail powers and motor powered.

The photo in the two top and the lower left images are of our slip neighbor, his boat depicted an old locomotive and even had the sounds piped through speakers.  Larry and Linda, the owner and creator of this display took Best In Show!  The photo in the lower right is also a boat from our A Dock, and has a large menorah along with four Star of David renderings along the hull.  There 60 entrants but we don’t know how many actually came through, the judging stand was up here on the DC waterfront, next to our Yacht Club house.

Following the Parade the promoters had a fireworks display and we have included four of the images we took from the deck of our yacht.

Of course these are only four of the shots, the show ran for a constant fifteen minutes with no pauses in the works.  The Sea Cats by the way were NOT amused.  But we enjoyed it.

Today we were invited to take a tour of the Wharf development including our new CYC clubhouse.  The presentation was excellent and the facilities and services that will come online as the development winds to an end (around October of next year).  We will have Irish Pubs, a “jazz alley” with live music, restaurants of all possible tastes, including some of the top names in restauranteur venues.  Our club house (which is supposed to be completed in early fall or late summer will be over the water and will have sensational views.  I will include some pictures of the display table for the development models.  This thing was fantastic in detail and our pictures do not do them justice.

The bottom picture is a view of our yacht club marina, the docks already exist and we occupy them, the club house, shown as a two story building overhanging the water between two of the docks is scheduled for occupancy late summer or early fall next year.  The other pictures, including one that shows Charlotte are all various views of the display table which covers probably the length of two large conference tables.  Buildings are inclusive of three hotels, a concert hall seating 6,000 people and various retail businesses including a ton of restaurants, pubs and live music venues.  Going to be a ton of fun as a neighborhood and we look forward to the opening of the various buildings.

The two photos above are artist’s conceptions of the Wharf as it will be when complete.  The Bride/Mate and I are excited that this will be our home neighborhood.

Over the past couple of weeks we have been addressing some situations with the Misty Lady.  Not that the Lady is unique with these situations, basically almost all yachts are supplied with situations when it comes to the winter weather.  Boats are usually atrociously lacking in insulation.  Great fun in the warm weather, but can be miserable in the winter months.  First off, we are installing a set of new technology heating for our upcoming cold weather comforting.  These heaters are very economical and use very little electricity to provide warm air.  They have no fans, so the heating is providing through a “radiant” process where the air is brought into the unit from the bottom, processes through a series of heating elements and comes out the top as warm/warmer air flows.

The Lady comes with four HVAC units but they use a process whereby raw water is brought into the system from the outside and processed either as air conditioner or as a heater.  When the water temps drop to 40 degrees or below, these units cannot be used due to potential freezing and they simply become ineffective.  Ergo, a “cruising” family must resort to space heaters to warm the various cabins.

We currently depend on what are knows as Amish Heaters (smaller, portable, heating units) that use electricity to heat elements and the heat generated is then blown out into the room by fans.  While these do provide sufficient heat, they are very inefficient regarding power usage.

Ergo the new technology ENVI units using a “stack convection” process to generate heat.  These heaters are wall mounted and therein lies the difficulty of finding sufficient open wall space to hang them from.  They are 19 inches wide by 22 inches long and measure about 2 inches thick.  Should have three of these units working by the mid week time frame.  Having these efficient heating units should keep us warm, warm the boat overall (keep ice from forming in the bilges), and ensure that we don’t keep popping circuit breakers will make our “cruising” lifestyle a lot more comfortable and pleasant.

Next weekend, if all goes well, we will be moving the Misty Lady off of the “T” of A Dock and temporarily berthing in a slip on the C dock.  The boat that is usually in that slip belongs to the CEO of the company that is the builder/developer of the Wharf.  He pulls his boat from the water each winter, places her on dry storage in a environmentally controlled boat storage house. (must be nice being a multi millionaire huh?).  Anyway we will be in that slip until April or until we are awarded a slip of our own.  At the time we get tied up and situated in C11 slip, we will have the Misty Lady shrink wrapped.  The entire super structure will be wrapped in heavy duty plastic-like sheeting from bow to stern and from the bridge to mid way down the hull.  This process will also provide us with more insulation from the December/January/February freezing winds and protect the boat from snowfalls.  The snow will slide right off the smooth surfaces of this shrink wrap and the old Captain and the First Mate will not have to get out on slippery decks to clear off show accumulation.  As soon as this process is done, I will take some photos of the boat to show you all what a shrink wrap boat looks like.