Month: October 2019

Let’s take a short step back and let me relate a particular incident aboard the Misty Lady. As you may recall, we obtain our slip assignments through a bidding process using our Member number as an indicator of our seniority, lowest number bidding on a particular slip, wins the day and has the home berth in that slip.

We had been awarded a 60 foot slip on the A dock and were settling into it as our home, when another opportunity to bid on a slip further out on the A dock. The further out one’s slip is, the better the view and the easier to depart and arrive at the marina section of the Capital Yacht Club. In this case, we won the compete for slip A-10, which would place us almost halfway up the dock area.

On the day we chose to make the move from our A4 slip to the A10 slip, we had assistance from one of the Club dock stewards to assist in our departure preparations. The gen set had been started and we switched from on shore power to on board generated power, and directed the steward to remove our power cord connection. We then began the process of untying our dock lines and Charlotte was at the bow deck to receive the lines as the steward removed them from the dock. I was on the bridge, and got the main engines started and warming. Charlotte called back to remind me to ensure that the rudders were in the straight ahead position. As I started to do that, the helm wheel spun like a top, no resistance indicating the hydraulic pressure was not there and the system was not working. WE HAD NO RUDDER CONTROL!

Our original intent was to take the Misty Lady out of the old slip, travel down the Channel to the Potomac and then down to the Wilson Bridge. We were then to return to the Club and move into the new A-10 slip. With the loss of helm control, there was no way I was going to take this big girl out into the river with all the other boats and not able to use the helm to steer out of the way of the boating idiots. You must have seen the type, they think nothing of driving across the bows of our big girl. We weigh 55 thousand pounds and could slice a go faster run about in two pieces with hardly a slow down of our passage.

So, I said to the steward and Charlotte that I had changed my mind and we would simply move from the old slip to the new one today. The fact is that when a yacht our size is moving in or near a marina area, the speed is at idle for the most part. At idle speed, with the screws (propellers) turning slowly, the rudders are useless anyway. So, I backed the Lady out of our old slip, into the fairway between A and B docks, with Charlotte at the bow checking for when we were clear of the finger docks and okay to begin turning. I then, using the port and starboard engines and transmissions, backed clear and turned the bow toward the outlet of the fairway and into the Washington Channel.

Using only the Lady’s propellers (screws), and engaging the port and starboard transmissions to steer, we moved out into the Channel and turned the boat 180 degrees to reenter with a better angle on our new slip A-10. Slowly we approached the slip, and began using the screws again to turn us bow first into the slip. The dock steward was there to assist in catching our lines to start the process of securing the Lady in her new home berth. At that point, once the Lady was secured, all lines set and the shore power connected, I informed Charlotte that we had no helm control, our movement from the old slip, to the new one, had been totally performed by the use of the props and transmission. Also that we needed to contact our marine technician to determine what the problem was and if there was a ready solution.

In discussions and searching the path of the steering system with the marine technician we determined that the line from the yacht’s auto pilot controls had a leak. When asked if the auto pilot was necessary to me, I indicated that I had no plan to ever allow a electro-mechanical device to drive this boat. So we closed the valve for that line and that stopped the leak. However, we had drained a lot of the fluid through this leak out of the system and air had been introduced. This caused the system to fail and the helm wheel to spin freely.

We then prepared to “bleed” the system removing the air and replacing it with good steering fluid. We worked the process by filling the helm control pump and using the helm wheel, pressing the fluid into the system, forcing the air out. This took several hours until we finally began to feel resistance in the wheel and were able to get it into a hard over to hard over status. Feeling that we had gotten the system back on line, we shut down our efforts for the day, leaving everything in place, just in case. Turns out that was the proper thing to do. But we should have placed absorbent cloths beneath the helm control pump, live and learn.

As you can see in the photo above, this is what greeted me the morning after our first purge. Fluid had flowed from the helm station, down the side of the bridge within the bridge lounge/lockers and out the edges of the boat to appear flowing down the side, onto the gunnel. It took quite a while and lots of scrubbing with cleansing soap to get the fluid stains off the sides and the gunnels. But it did come off. Then up to the bridge, opening the settee/lounge/locker to clean up the fluid that had flowed from the helm into the locker space. This took a considerable amount of cleaning rags and elbow grease. Then when the technician returned we set about trying to correct again. Evidently during the evening, the air bubbled back up pushing the fluid out and onto the floor.

We once again started the adding of fluid into the helm control, testing the helm wheel until restrictions began and we once again got to the point of moving the rudders from hard over to hard over. Again we stopped when this occurred and this time we placed absorbent rags and absorbent pads on the floor beneath the helm control. The photograph below shows what greeted us the next morning.

Another round of bleeding the system to force the air out and we thought we had it again. The photo below greeted me the next morning.

During the next round, (these occurred over a period of several days), we once again found the steering beginning to be responsive, but alas that was not to be the case as seen below.

We finally came to the conclusion, after several attempts over many days, to locate any additional leaks and in concert through discussions with the senior technical representative of the pump’s manufacturer, that the pump itself was bad. The options were; remove and ship the pump to the manufacturer and have it rebuilt; purchase a re-manufactured newer technology pump; or purchase a brand new pump of the newer technology. I opted for the re-manufactured pump, but as it turned out parts to build a pump were simply not available, so I wound up buying a brand new pump for just under 1,000 dollars. (boats ain’t cheap folks).

On October 17, we installed the new 1250 pump and proceeded to make the appropriate changes to the system. Turns out the older pump, a 250, required a return line and a distribution valve at the rudder ram. With the capability of the new pump, we were to remove the port and starboard lines from the distribution valve and directly connect them to the lines on the rudder ram and cap off the return line. This removed another point of possible failure for our future boating. One option the manufacturer rep suggested was to pull the entire return line out and discard it. Yeah, like we were going to pull almost 50 feet of hydraulic tubing from the various guides and trace areas; the option to cap the hose was the smartest so that is what we did. Yea us!

After a series of bleeding actions called for in the multi step installation guide, to remove any remaining air, the new pump began to function and steering was returned to the helm wheel and rudders. We validated this by having one person at the helm turning the wheel and a second person in the master cabin with the aft bilge area cover removed so that we could observe the actual movement of the ram and the rudder control arms. When the movement was smooth from port hard over to starboard hard over we then centered the rudder with the observer (me) calling out the position of the rudder indicator. Cell phones do have their uses, to help us communicate from the bridge to the aft master cabin without yelling at each other.

At last, it appeared that we had finally repaired the rudder/helm loss and the old girl was back in business. However the proof of the pudding will be later, when we take her out of the slip, and pilot her down to the confluence of the Anacostia River, Washington Channel and the Potomac. The big hurdle is the winds, we are in the midst of the huge Nor’Easter and unless the winds drop below 15 MPH, we will stay in our slip. The boat is too large, her superstructure is too high and the higher winds will push us all over the place. Our sea trial of the corrective actions for our helm control will occur in the very near future, based on weather, Char’s work availability, and people to assist us in dropping the connections of the old girl, like the docking lines, the power cable, water hoses, and other connections.

If we feel comfortable, we will probably continue on down to past the Wilson Bridge, as long as the weather (high winds) does not interfere. More later, once we have completed the sea trial later this week, if the wind gods will allow, but for now we will wrap this entry about the trials and tribulations of large boat ownership.

Stay Tuned???

Rather than relate the month to month life aboard the Misty Lady and living at the DC Wharf, I think that doing a summary of some key events might be best. Perhaps a overview of significant events for our time so far at our waterfront home. In a couple of weeks we will have been resident at the Capital Yacht Club aboard the Misty Lady for three years. Seems that the time has flown in certain circumstances, yet dragged like a turtle crossing the road in others.

Over those many months, we have “floated” from dock to dock and slip to slip as circumstances dictated for the “good of the club”. We finally won a slip on the B dock that was actually designed for a catamaran yacht (much wider than a regular sized motor yacht). It was convenient, since it was located one slip away from the ramp up to the clubhouse and access to the Wharf proper. We lived in that slip for a year, then won a standard yacht slip on the A Dock (A 4) that was more suited to our yacht (60 feet long) that gave us some wiggle room at the aft of our floating home. The further out your slip is for the main dock, the better because you are further away from the huge bulkhead and catwalk between the docks.

We then, after a couple of months, played boat hopscotch and bid on and won the compete for a slip further out on the A Dock winning the Slip A 10. This is where we are located now.

The photo below is the early sunset from our A-10 slip dockage. One of the best parts of being afloat is the opportunity of seeing sunsets and sunrises over the waters of the Washington Channel and the Potomac River, as well as the Chesapeake Bay.

During the late summer of 2017 we finally had our new clubhouse finished and available for our relocation from the temporary space. In October of that year, we were also able to both christen the new Club House and celebrate our Founders Day, for 125 years of the Club’s existence. Our Celebratory Cake is shown below.

During the previous Founders Day, we had the Mayor of Washington, D.C. Muriel Bowser as our guest speaker. Charlotte was able to spend a few moments with the Mayor and I snapped a photo of them.

All is not without an adverse incident however, back in April of this year, Charlotte was coming home from her office and took a spill at the L’Enfant Metro Station. The photo below is her in the surgical unit hospital room at Howard University Hospital. She fell face first into the sidewalk alongside the escalator while wearing a full backpack including her computer. Took a ride in the DC Fire EMT Ambulance with me following. She doesn’t remember anything about the fall, about giving my contact information so a kind DC person could tell me of her accident. She doesn’t remember talking to me in the ambulance, and she doesn’t remember the ride in the ambulance to the Howard University Hospital. And after all sorts of tests (MRI, CAT, EchoCardiogram) the doctors still don’t know what caused the fall, was it a heart thing, perhaps blood pressure loss, did she faint? Their concern was the situation where she doesn’t recall anything about the fall or anything else until the emergency room when she started asking where she was and where her husband was. We both think that she may have tripped and fell, and the resulting trauma to her head and brain caused a memory lapse.

Anyway, my lady is tough and heals rapidly. A few days later the abrasions on her face and hands were pretty much healed, the yellow cast to the bruises were almost invisible, and once the stitches were removed from her eyebrow area that healed pretty cleanly too. Scared this old man quite a bit I tell you. This lady is my rock and my life, the thought of losing her like this was terrifying. But we still have no idea what happened, the medical folks don’t know either. She still gets dizzy spells once in a while, but, as we have all our life together, we will take it one day at a time, and address what ever comes our way as life partners.

Talk about excitement, on August 31, this year, we were awakened by our alarm system telling us to evacuate the boat. This was around 2:30am so we were still sort of groggy. I called 911 and the fire department arrived both by land and water, the fire units on the fire boat, brought their gas testing equipment. WE were able, with the help of the firefighters to get the two sea cats into their carriers and bring them off the boat and onto the finger dock. There was no fire that we could ascertain and this was borne out by the firefighters. But there were a lot of gases and a couple could have been very bad with one possible fatal from heavy exposure. Lucky for us, we were not exposed that badly. The firefighters cleared out all of the cabins, opening windows and bringing a large fan device to clear out the air from the various cabins. The young man in the photo below was the person who, with his oxygen tanks and mask, searched through the boat with sensing devices to determine what type, and the concentration levels of gasses that were in our boat. He then found that one of our main batteries (starts the engines), was 185 degrees while the other batteries (we have a lot), were at a normal heat temp of 82 to 85 and determined that was the source of the various gasses. He shut down our battery charger system to remove the source of voltage feeding the bad battery. This battery by the way, weighs over 150 pounds and is approximately 4 feet long by 1.5 feet wide. Once the gas incursions were cleared out and the measurement of the gas concentration was down to normal levels we were allowed back on the boat and the firefighters left to return to their station.

Later that day, Charlotte called into her office and worked from home for the day. We were both pretty draggy all day. The bed was a welcome sight that evening. Our marine technician came over that afternoon, disconnected the battery cables from the bad battery, tested it and found it failed, which is why it kept fooling the charging system into sending power into it long past when it would be needed. Once the battery cables were disconnected and taped off, the marine technician was able to turn our charging system back on to allow us the ability to use our DC voltage equipment. Two days later, and a couple hundred dollars, a new battery was delivered, installed and the Misty Lady was all back in good condition.

If you look closely at this young firefighter, you can see he is rather tired at 3:30 or so in the morning.

I think I will stop the entry here and write more in the next blog. We have a couple of things working and I want to ensure that I have the right level of clarification.

More Later, Stay Tuned?