Month: April 2020

As I am wont to do, many weeks have passed since I started this potentially final blog entry. I had actually started it to be a discussion of our family gathering for Christmas and the efforts of living aboard a winter covered yacht. 

So, within the following paragraphs, I will attempt to bring you all up to date with the happenings of the old Captain and the Admiral (hey, she deserves the promotion).

So now it begins

As we progress into the year 2020, the month of January brought a need for significant change in our lives and lifestyle. Following a diagnosis of a health issue, Charlotte and I had a long discussion about the reality of continuing our life aboard the Misty Lady. The old man has now developed a situation where his sense of balance comes and goes, therefore walking on the Lady’s decks. getting on board or off, or simply walking about the marina on the docks has become a potentially dangerous, possibly even fatal situation of falls that injure, involve a water hazard, or falling between the boat and the dock (a friend died from that situation). 

Faced with this situation, we determined that we should put the yacht up for sale and move back on land into a condo apartment somewhere. So, we made contact with a real estate agent about a new condo, and then let the membership know that the Misty Lady was going up for sale.

One of our yacht club member family indicated that he may have a person who might want to buy the old girl. Our asking price was quite a bit below the market for a yacht of this size and age, but we own the old girl outright and simply want to get her sold and use the funding from the sale to outfit our new condo. While everyone who heard our asking price was surprised at the low cost, we found that the first person was looking for an entirely different type of boat.

A second interested party came along to view the old girl and they were most excited about her size, looks and especially the asking price. We offered to finish off the interior walls, since we had already started that project and would allow them to select the new wall colors.  The need for us to go ashore was brought home very painfully slightly over a month ago.  During a visit by the couple who were interested in buying the yacht, I stepped off the dockside steps to close the water valve that was filling our on board water tank.  I either missed a step, tripped over the hose or simply lost my balance, and fell on my face upon the concrete surface of our finger dock.  Cut over my eye, an abrasion on my knee and right hand but the big thing was what I thought were bruised ribs.  Following two weeks the pain increased sufficiently that the Admiral decided I should go to the emergency room.  Turned out following a CAT scan, that I had actually broken four ribs, with one complete separated.  Now, almost a month and a half later, the old ribs are finally allowing me to move about without flinching.  So, the decision to end our live aboard lifestyle became even more confirmed.

After considerable discussions, and in consultation with several sources, it became obvious that we essentially had only three options. These were:

1. Find a person or company that did restoration of older vessels, and who would be interested in acquiring the old girl for a fire sale price and restore for resale at a market price. The work to restore the Lady would include fuel tank repair/replace, finish the interior walls, and other small tasks. A purchaser would have to be someone who went into this deal with eyes open and a commitment to working or hiring work done to first and foremost, repair the fuel tank.
2. Find a person or company who would purchase the old girl for salvage and remove the resalable items such as the two main engines, two large capacity generator sets, upgraded navigation system (including a new radar, a new radio with AIS capacity, and a multi function display). A washer and a dryer were also installed on the old girl along with a brand new (never been used) dishwasher. Lots of other items that would be salvageable from the old girl and then her hull and superstructure would be dismantled. A sad ending for a graceful lady of the waters.
3. Final option, least attractive, but probably easier to do, would be to donate the Misty Lady to some charitable organization, or perhaps the US Naval Academy for training purposes. We would not receive any cash out of this deal, but would possibly be able to take a tax write off over the next five years.

The photo below shows a group gathering of my immediate family members

We spent a terrific afternoon with family, enjoying the grand daughters and just connecting with everyone. Gifts were exchanged and good food was served and enjoyed.

Following Coffee and pie, Char and I headed for home. We needed to stop off at a grocery to get food and snacks for tomorrow, Christmas Day. Nothing around here is open on that day in the form of grocery or other food items. We also expect the yacht club will be pretty empty since a number of our members will be visiting with family members for the holiday. A few, like us, will be in the marina and the club house but the numbers would be rather small.

The club house has been decorated very festive in the spirit of the holidays, and we took advantage to snap a photo of Charlotte in front of the Christmas trees on the upper dining/bar area on the second floor.