Ruminations:
As mentioned in the previous post, we are celebrating our second year of actually living aboard the MV (Motor Vessel) Misty Lady. October of this year will actually begin our third year. Exciting, sometime, not so exciting, sometime.
Life aboard calls for considerable adjustments in attitude, expectation and adaptation.
The first expectation is to realize that life aboard a boat is NOT like living in a shore based home. For one thing, you are floating on water, ergo the rooms rock back and forth. Forgetting that can create a situation of picking yourself off the deck (floor) or against the bulkhead (wall). Also, expect all sorts of strange things to be found floating around your boat while in the berth/slip. Logs, limbs, pieces of construction material (such as several instances where we found a board 12″x 4″ x 4 feet floating along between our boat’s hull and the dock.) The most dangerous and AGGRAVATING, it the plastic items (bags, wrappers, potato chip sacks and smaller sheets), because these things can jam up a “raw water” intake and cause hundreds of dollars to tens of thousands of dollars in damage from the intake for the HVAC units to the diesel generator and god forbid, the main diesel engines. Having had to replace one of these huge diesel main drive engines, it is both time consuming as well as extremely EXPENSIVE.
Second expectation is that boats are NOT insulated in the majority of cases, therefore, expect to see a variation of heat and cold seeping in. Investment in maintenance of your onboard HVAC systems (air condition in summer and heat in winter) to ensure that you do not swelter in the summer months and freeze in the winter months. We also keep a number of electric space heaters on board for the drop in water temps (when the water temp gets down to 40 degrees or below the HVAC heating unit can no longer be used to warm the boat because severe damage to the units can and will occur.
Always remember that winter in the District of Columbia will always be ranging from uncomfortable to downright ice cubes while the summer will bring lots of heat and humidity. One must remember always that the city of Washington was built on a SWAMP. Of course the hot air coming from Congress and the White House contributes significantly to the weather anomalies. This year, thanks to Climate Change, we have been subjected to a lot of weather variances, from heavy storms, excessive and violent rains, to high winds, very cold days in winter and extremely warm days in summer.
The major aspect for living on board a motor yacht is adaptation. The ability to adapt to the differences in living on a boat and not is key to being happy, content and accepting of the strange happenings. As an example, we gave away or donated to various charities, all of our furniture, televisions, computer printers, dishes and other kitchen ware. We also gave away or donated significant amounts of clothing and other similar items. One focus we maintained in our thoughts was that space was critical on a boat and there were NO WALK IN CLOSETS!!! Over the two years so far, both Charlotte and I have learned to adapt to our new surroundings, and if we get aggravated about something restrictive about boat life, we remind ourselves that We CHOSE this lifestyle and it was a dream for us. Then our attitude adapts, we chuckle at the silly aggravation and get on with “Living The Dream”. So we keep that one word in our minds, ADAPTATION and then get on with our new lives.
Any Travels?
So far this year, the Lady has not been cruising up and down the waterways. Two major reasons for this are the Sea Cats, Penny and the Duchess. Seems when we start the diesel engine, they both go into extreme anxiety states. Both the Bride (the Admiral) and myself were very concerned for their situation and worried that they might have severe health issues (heart attack, etc) as a result. Penny and Duchess have just this year grown to accept the irritating noise from the helicopters flying over our boat/marina traveling to and from the Pentagon and the White House. They now just raise their heads from their slumbers and then go back to dream land. However, when I start the engines, whether the drive engines or the generator even to test them, both kitties would scramble to hidey holes and drool like crazy. Now, a couple of folks including our boat visiting Vet Doctor recommends a couple of options, one being something called a thunder shirt (wraps around them and comforts), and certain calming liquids in both a spray and drops (sort of a valium for kitties). We have acquired both the thunder shirt and the “anti-anxiety” medications but have not tried them as yet. These two feline members of our family are very laid back most of the time and we would really like to help them stay that way.
In the upper left photo a rare situation, both of them are lying together on the sofa. Normally Penny is being mean to Duchess, but for some reason they decided to nap together on the sofa. In the upper right photo, is Penny watching it rain and wishing for a dry day to let the windows be opened. Bottom left is a picture of Duchess after the visiting Vet had given her a “lion’s” cut, trimming her thick fur. And finally, in the lower right is Penny laying out in her silly style, paws up in the air. She can sleep like this for hours as long as no one moves at all.
Our plan now is to test the anti-anxiety treatments for the two cats and then take the Misty Lady down the Potomac for a day cruise. IF all goes well, then we will plan on Charlotte taking vacation time and perhaps cruising down to the Hampton Roads (Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk and Virginia Beach area). The Roads are where the Atlantic, Chesapeake Bay, York River and the James River all come together. Norfolk Naval Station is the largest US Navy base in the country.
Since this voyage would take us at least two plus days each way, it would require that Charlotte take at least a 10 day vacation time off. Hopefully the test run (day trip) will enable us to judge the effectiveness of the anti-anxiety medications for the cats and prepare for a longer voyage. Fingers crossed.
Location, Location, Location
One nice advantage we enjoy with the Misty Lady home-berthed at the Capital Yacht Club on the DC Wharf waterfront is that on the Fourth of July, we do not have to fight traffic or crowds to see the 4th Fireworks Show from the Washington Mall. The pictures below are from the July 4 celebration. The photo of Charlotte sitting on our fore deck was taken about a half hour before the sun went down and the show started. The other pictures are shots of the fireworks display. This has been our ring side seat for both the 2017 show and this year 2018 display show. Grabbing a nice adult beverage, going to the fore deck and taking seats to await the start of the fireworks. Sadly the sea cats do not find this fireworks show amusing.
Other entertainment opportunities abound at the Capital Yacht Club all year, this includes a significant number of great international cuisine restaurants, live music clubs and the Anthem which is a six thousand seat theater hosting top name musical acts. There are also nautical entertainment such as the cruise ships that provide dinner cruises on the Potomac, the Yellow Water Taxis that provide great transport between the Wharf area to Georgetown, Alexandria and the National Harbor.
We also have “Whiskey Charlies”, a cocktail lounge on the roof of one of our three hotels, that overlooks the Washington Channel and the Hains Point Park. Whisky Charley is the call sign that yacht skippers and large cruise ships use to indicate the Washington Channel (“WC”. There is also an Italian Gelato and Coffee Shop, a Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, a Shake Shack hamburger store, and the Washington Waterfront Fish Market, an icon of the DC area for over 60 years. We have a Politics and Prose Book Store, a hardware store, a marine supply store, and a pharmacy. We have a free shuttle bus that travels in a loop from our Wharf location, to the Lafayette Plaza, the Smithsonian and then the Lafayette Plaza Shops, finally returning in the loop back to the Wharf.
So with all of this, PLUS the waters of the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay within a nice boat run, what’s not to like? Truly living the dream!!!
Taking the Misty Lady out of the Slip
At the end of June we replaced the boat’s system wide battery charger. This required that I start the engines, cast off the docking lines and the power cables and move the Lady to another location outside the Yacht Club area, that was appropriate for the electrical engineer to board the boat and do his work. This battery charger device takes power from our dock/shore connection, converts it to DC voltage and keeps our several batteries charged up. We replaced the old (30 years) battery charger system with a new SMART charger system which senses the level of charge on each of our batteries (we have several, some weighing over 100 pounds). These sensors detect when the battery is fully charged and then it will shut off further power feed to that battery. It monitors the battery level and as needed will restart the charging routine until the battery is topped off.
The purpose of the charger system is to ensure that our batteries are kept up to their required level as we use power from them over the shore time. While we are actually underway the boat’s diesel powered generator set supplies power both to the AC devices and through the battery charger to the “house batteries” as needed.
I will try mightily to keep this blog up in the coming weeks. Some will be short, some will be dull, but all will be representative of life aboard. I will always speak the true state of things involving our lives aboard the Misty Lady and whether good, bad or indifferent, will call it as it comes.
Fair Winds and Following Seas.
Misty Lady Thought and Comment 