Two Years Later:

Sadly, almost two years have gone by since this post was written.  In our tasks to relocate ourselves from the Misty Lady to our land-based condo, posting this final blog entry as yacht owners and live aboard mariners simply fell through the cracks.  After reviewing my old blog entries, I found that one entry was still in the draft queue.  It was one that should have been posted before we left.  Alas the emotional feelings, the thought that we were leaving our water-based home of over 4 years, and that we would no longer have the ability to take our big girl out of her slip, motor into the Potomac and enjoy a scenic voyage down the Potomac River and into the Chesapeake Bay.

Alas, here we are almost two years later, missing our life aboard, but knowing that the dangers to my person due to the health situation created an untenable situation.  We moved into the condo on May 21, 2020 and now are preparing to sell this place and move out of Northern Virginia, relocating to the Tidewater area of Virginia, in the City of Hampton.  This is a location where my ancestors, both maternal as well as paternal first arrived in this country.  Both legs of my ancestry landed at Kecoughtan (now Hampton) around 1620.   We are searching now for a new home, no more condos, looking at single family dwellings only.

And now, to the much delayed posting:

A Fond Farewell

This will probably be the last entry for the Misty Lady Blog, most assuredly the last for the Misty Lady herself.  You see, we no longer own the Misty Lady, our 54 foot Bluewater Aft Cabin Motor Yacht.  We sold her to a couple who will completely restore the old girl and give her a new outlook on cruising the waters of the Eastern Seaboard and associated waterways.

See from our earlier blog posts, health issues created a situation where we were no longer safe to remain on a floating home and located in floating docks.  When we began the process of prepping the lady for sale, we discovered a leaking fuel tank.  Repair of this problem ranged from 10,000 dollars to over 50,000 dollars.  Not a lot of recreation boaters who were interested in taking on a purchase and immediate expensive repair of a major component of the yacht.  The Lady’s fuel tank is a centerline 500 gallon aluminum tank encased in a fiberglass cage for protection.  So, to repair this component or to replace it, would entail considerable labor to remove the fiberglas, the empty the tank (estimated to hold over 400 gallons at that point), then cut the tank into manageable pieces or remove the window frame in the galley (this was done in 2016 when we replaced the starboard engine), and lift the tank out that way.  Anyway, no takers, finally got one person who was interested in doing a restoration of the lady, but then decided the asking price (very very low) was too much for him to take so he passed.  Bear in mind we are at this point nearing the closing date on our new land based home.  Finally, we sold the old girl at a fire sale price to a couple who are members of the Yacht Club and also specialized in doing restoration and updating of older yachts.  So, on the date of our closing, May 21, 2020, we began removing all of our personal effects, clothes etc, including the two sea cats, Penny and Duchess, who were NOT pleased at this turn of events.  We finished the move off the yacht and then turned her over to the possession of her new owners.

They moved her from the regular slip over to the T-Head of the B dock to load some items they wanted to take down to the Colton’s Point Marina where the Misty Lady would be hauled out and placed on blocks (on the hard as mariners say), the fuel pumped out of her tank and the replacement of her fuel tank (project number 1), would begin.  Over the coming months, her interior will be restored with new wall coverings, new interior furnishings, some new appliances and perhaps new decking.  Then her exterior will be cleaned, the wood trim sanded and re-varnished to bring her teak components back to their former glory.  So she was going into a new world and coming out with a new look and refurbished from bow to stern.  We will miss our old girl, she gave us four years of comfortable and unique living.

On May 7th, 2020, Charlotte and I were totally surprised at the outpouring of affection from our Capitol Yacht Club (CYC) family to wish us well as we got closer to leaving our Misty Lady yacht; the Capital Yacht Club family, and move back on shore into a new condominium.

Charlotte received a message from our CYC friends, Jeff and Sharon Sheats saying they wanted to come by our boat at 6:30 pm to wish us a fond farewell.  When they got to our slip and knocked on the boat hull, we were encouraged to go up to our fore deck and they would stay on the dock so we could chat. Remember that our club really practices the social distancing and CoronaVirus safety practices so this wasn’t really a strange request.

The couple in the left photo/foreground on the dock is Jeff and Sharon.  Just behind Sharon is Cara and Dennis our neighbors and their sailing yacht across the main dock from us.  The photo on the right is Sharon holding one of the farewell signs they made for us.

Suddenly members started coming up to our slip from all over the yacht club marina.  Since our clubhouse is on COVID-19 lock-down this was their work around to give us a farewell gathering.  Since we were drawing pretty close to the actual settlement date for our new shore home, this was their opportunity to wish us well .

As folks began to gather from all three of our marina docks, they broke out a couple of signs showing their affection and farewell wishes.  The caring and affection of these folks were just overwhelming and it was truly difficult to speak and keep a dry eye.  It is truly amazing to us the warmth and affection that we have experienced while being members and residents of this yacht club marina these past four years.  We gained so much knowledge and experience from the members for yacht handling, boating courtesy, rules of the road, line handling, and a myriad of other important points for living aboard a yacht.  But most important, was the feeling of true family of

The number of folks coming out to wish us well continued to grow and each one that appeared just made our hearts swell with the outpouring of well wishes and expressions that they would truly miss us when we moved off the yacht, out of the club and into our new shore based home.  So many offers for us to come back to the club and take rides on their vessels.

Then River Sam (Sam McKay) came up to the starboard bow and handed up a bottle of red wine, and proceeded to read a poem she had written especially for us.  Charlotte and I had a tough time keeping it together as Sam read what she had written. Methinks that Sam had a bit of quaver in her voice on the last couple of words as well. A copy of it is below.

Another long time member, Richard Wellens also handed up a bottle of nice white wine as a parting gift.  We will save these until we are in the new home and use them to christen our land based abode.

It can truly be said that the women and men who make up the membership and staff of the Capitol Yacht Club on the Washington, DC Wharf waterfront are in actuality a family.  In all of the locations that Charlotte and I have lived in our life together, no where have we experienced the community, caring, close interactions and just simply expressions of friendship, as we had experienced here at the CYC.  Leaving it is very hard, and will be even harder when that final day comes and we remove the last of our belongings from the Misty Lady and turn her over to the new owners.

But we know that she will be restored to her former glory and will continue to ply the waterways of the Eastern Seaboard.

We also feel gratified that so many expressed strong wishes for us to return when we can to enjoy the friendship and love from these wonderful people.  A very fond farewell to our CYC family and we will miss you all very much.

Update: We now have a date and time for the closing/settlement on our new home.  We take formal possession of the condo on the 21st of May and will be moving in over the following several days.  Our plan is to be moving our personal belongings off the Misty Lady by next Sunday May 24th and doing a formal turn over of the Misty Lady to Laura and Tony.