Author: harv1941

As I indicated in my previous post, the posts that will be forthcoming will describe the ups and downs of being an owner of a motor yacht and living aboard that yacht 24/7 year round.

No, we don’t shutter her and move on land during the winter, we stay on board all year long, though the heat of summer and the freezing temps of winter, here on the waterfront neighborhood known as the DC Wharf.

We are located on Maine Avenue SW, just past the historical DC Fish/Seafood Market. Our location is the Capital Yacht Club (CYC) and our yacht is home in a 60 foot floating dock slip in the CYC marina. The Wharf is a new multi billion dollar development that replaced the old DC wharf’s rather downtrodden environment with high rise offices, apartments, expensive Condominiums, a 6000 seat theater/entertainment venue, and multiple restaurants, snack bars, and boutique shops. Overlooking the rather higher than normal prices for items, the available selections for lifestyle is very expansive. We have a hardware/bicycle shop, a marine supplies shop, many sit down restaurants, several walk up kiosks, and multiple sandwich, pizza, Falafel stores.

So life at the Wharf is rarely boring, if one partakes of all the amenities and the events that happen each week. WE on the other hand, do not spend a lot of time with the Wharf gatherings, considering that the crowds are rather large each week and the old Captain really does not function well in large gatherings. Once I retired, I love the ability to just be, not interact with others, just be.

SO, now that you have some idea of where and how, let’s talk about the life of a yacht homebody. Thinking about how things have gone over the past three years, since we first brought the Misty Lady from Annapolis/Edgewater, Maryland, to the Capital Yacht Club we have been making repairs to various systems aboard, trying to enhance the livability of the boat, acquiring and installing necessary appliances and simply keeping the old girl in running order. We hire a nice gentleman to wash and polish the Misty Lady’s exterior surfaces and he does a bang up job for a very reasonable price.

Over the past three years, we have had to install, repair, remove and replace, various items and systems aboard this old girl. At the outset we left the Maryland marina at Gingerville with a balky fuel injection system on the port engine. It required a priming action using a starter fluid to get the engine to fire off, and the pump would simply stop the engine as it wound down in the engine speed. Our master diesel mechanic, (Delyn) who has been our life saver for these engines, wanted to remove the fuel pump and rebuild it, because of the cost to do a replacement with a new one.

One thing led to another, once we arrived at the CYC marina, we were relegated to “floating” status. which means that we had no permanently assigned slip to put the Lady into. Instead we were told to move every few days or weeks from one docking to another. Meaning we had to be ready to move the boat whenever the Club General Manager indicated we had to do so. So this is one reason why we fell for the “club scam artist” or as some in the Club referred to him as a damn thief. This individual convinced me that he had a source for a fuel pump which would eliminate our down time. This source was supposed to have rebuilt pumps in their inventory and we would simply remove our pump, trade it for the new rebuilt one. During this time, this person “found” that we had, during our float moves, damaged the turbo charger on the port engine as well. Long story short, this man cut the two primary water exchanger pipes to “remove” the fuel pump, had parts laying all over our engine room and soaked me for 3,500 dollars. He had performed NO appreciable work whatsoever. We simply got taken for the money. Turns out, we weren’t by ourselves and multiple complaints were sworn out to the Metro Police for his arrest. To the best of my knowledge, he has not been seen anywhere in the DMV (District,Maryland,Virgina). And good riddance.

When the reality came about, we were lucky to have had our true diesel expert, Delyn, at the Club docks working on another boat. He came over to our vessel, took a look at the mess, said a number of unprintable expletives, cursing the thief guy up a streak and said that he had done absolutely nothing except damage the water transfer pipes, and stealing money from us. (As for the expletives, I should tell you that he was in the Navy for quite a while so the inventory of those words is quite extensive)

I had to make a trip up to the Alban (Caterpillar Distributor) facility in Elkridge, MD (near Baltimore) and purchase two new water transfer pipes while Delyn worked on getting the fuel pump prepared for removal and transfer to the repair facility where it would be rebuilt. Long story short, after a protracted effort, Delyn was able to lock the engine, remove the fuel pump and take it to the repair facility for rebuild. A few days later, the pump was returned with a diagnostic and rebuild descriptive and Delyn reinstalled it on the port engine. Nothing was wrong with our turbocharger and that 750 dollars was paid for absolutely zero work. So a major warning to any of you contemplating the acquisition of a boat, be very careful who you hire/contract to perform work on your vessel. As for us, major work on the yacht (excluding the engines) will be done by one of two craftsmen affiliated with our yacht club, or the Gingerville Yacht Center/Abel Marine yard in Elkridge, MD. Most of our work these past two years has been done by the technicians recommended by the membership of our yacht club.

Now don’t get me wrong, incidents like the deal with our fuel pump and turbo money theft are not the norm. Usually the skilled tradespeople are very honorable and do good work. Admittedly prices for marine/boat skills are higher on average that for trades folks with ground/land facilities.

A friend recently asked that since we had so many things hit us for repair or replacement, were we ready to chuck the idea of living aboard a motor yacht and move back on land. I response was a definite no, I was still in love with the yachting life and have no intention of moving off the boat and back into a fixed structure house or condo.

More later> how we spent the past three years here at the Washington waterfront and continuing to describe life of a liveaboard.

Stay Tuned?

When one who is a confirmed live aboard person, if asked about their lifestyle, they usually give the Living the Dream response. What they don’t tell you is that some time that Dream is a nightmare, but then nightmares are actually dreams as well.

So let’s start this new Blog approach with a nice history of our live aboard life. Back at the start of 2016, we were fascinated by a television show called Tiny Houses. After watching several of these shows, where people downsized from large and costly homes to the inexpensive to buy and to maintain, small tiny houses of less than 500 square feet, we thought how nice it would be to rid ourselves of the large monthly mortgage payment, Condo fees, high property taxes and simplify our lives. I mentioned that a motor yacht (40 feet or larger) would provide a similar living space and would have the added nicety of being able to move across the waters of the Eastern Seaboard.

After checking a couple of online boat broker websites, we decided to look at a couple of options in that area. Long story short, we found a boat in Dundalk, MD that suited our need for size and price.

Once we determined that we wanted to acquire this boat, we arranged for a yacht surveyor to conduct a viability survey of the boat. This was a $1,500 dollar deal, and the boat had to be hauled out of the water using a huge Travel-lift unit, the accumulated residue and little sea creatures power washed off the hull to allow the surveyor access in evaluating the status of the hull (blisters in the fiberglass, weak spots around the keel and prop shaft outlets, and a special device to measure any wet areas in the hull signifying any possible areas of deterioration), he also checked the trim tab, rudder and prop surfaces for viability.

Once the boat was back in the water the survey continued and the yacht was checked from bow to stern. We were then ready for a sea trial to check the running gear. The first trial was a bust because the starboard engine overheated and we had to return to the marina on just the port engine. The owner had a new raw water pump impeller installed and we took a second sea trial the following week. This time it went well.

After the second sea trial was a success the next hurdle was to get our condo sold in a timely manner. Interestingly enough, even though our asking price was well over 500k, our condo sold in less than seven days after listing. We had placed our earnest money on the motor yacht about a month prior to the closing on our condo and when the condo sale funds were deposited into our account, we transferred the balance of our offer price to the broker.

The following Saturday we met the broker and his lady and he drove us up to the marina where we were to be joined by my son, his wife and our youngest grand daughter. They were going to ride with us down to the Annapolis area and to the Ginger Creek Yacht Center just off the South River.

The trip started out wonderfully, the broker took us out of the marina as the slip was very convoluted and directly behind were several yachts in the million dollar class. I certainly didn’t want to start my yachting career hitting an expensive boat. Once we turned toward the Chesapeake Bay, I took the helm and was totally enjoying our new live-aboard yacht. But as fate would have it, two hours into the trip, the starboard engine blew. Most of you, who have followed this blog from the early days, know all about the starboard engine blowing up two hours into our voyage down to Annapolis.

We wound up limping into the Gingerville Yacht Center in Edgewater, MD, just off the South River and spent the next six months with the boat “up on the hard” which is boater slang for having your boat hauled out of the water and settled on blocks. She stayed that way from May through September and we spent almost six full months in the local hotel. The Sea Cats were not thrilled with being restricted to a single hotel room day in and day out. But then neither were Charlotte or myself.

The day they finally finished with the engine and had it back into the boat, was a super happy day. Rick (the TravelLift Operator), put the slings under the Misty Lady and lifted her off the blocks. The engine specialists finished up up a couple of things and we put the big girl back in her element, the Water. We put her into a temporary berth and wrapped up a couple of other items, before scheduling a sea trial for the newly installed engine.

During the sea trial, we took the Misty Lady out of the marina and into the South River. Shortly after we got the engines up onto some speed, the diesel specialist noted that the new engine was starting to get a little warmer than normal. So we headed back to the marina, calling the marina owner and they had the Travel Lift available to pull the boat out of the water. We kept her on the Lift’s slings while the technicians evaluated the water intakes, etc. Turned out the “raw water” impeller was worn and needed to be replaced. The tech installed one from the Center’s parts inventory and we put her back in the water to resume the sea trial. This time, all went well and we brought her back to a maintenance slip to begin the process of putting all the pieces back together. The flooring was replaced, the cabinets and appliances along with the sink/faucets were reinstalled. The settee and dining table were installed and the Center staff replaced and resealed the large galley window that were used to remove and replace the engine. Just to give you an idea how large these marine diesels, a photo is below, this is the engine that we bought and prepped to be installed. They weigh several hundred pounds. This picture is when they brought the finished engine back to the yacht center to do the reinstall.

Within a few days of the final, successful sea trial, I signed off on the engine installation, settled up with the diesel specialist and turned the boat over to the yacht center employees to finalize the restoration of the interior and exterior items to their status prior to the engine work.

Once the interior was restored to functional status, the flooring people finished installing the new flooring in the galley area and the forward entry to the guest cabin in the bow area. Finally we were ready to bring our personal items on board, let the Sea Cats be freed from the hotel and removed from their carriers on board their new sea going home. Needless to say they were a bit nonplussed at the different area, having been moved from a single room to a multiple cabin area with a 1,000 square feet of areas to explore. As usual, Penny found an open hatch on the bridge and got underneath the dashboard cowl. Took us a long time to coax her out and to shut down the hatch.

Our plan was to prepare the boat with food, water, snacks and of course COFFEE, then get a good night’s rest in our new master stateroom. Our plan was to leave in two days (Saturday morning) at first light. However, as Mother Nature would show what a capricious being she was, a storm was forecast for that weekend with high winds (gusting to 50 knots) and heavy rains. Being the intelligent captain, we decided to postpone the voyage home for another weekend. As it turned out, we were smart to delay, the winds and rains were fierce and we experienced that living aboard a motor vessel was like in a storm, even though we were securely tied to the dock.

Finally the following weekend we were able to begin the process of heading home to Washington, D.C. and our marina home at the Capital Yacht Club.

The early blogs describe our voyage home, the things we saw and the trip down the Bay and up the Potomac. Blogs following this will describe the many facets of our life as live aboard yachts people. Some will be mundane, others will be interesting, but all will be informative. Especially if any of you are considering joining into the yacht live aboard life.

More to come, keep watching.

Hello Again:

It is a quiet, rather nice Sunday afternoon, the last day of September, here at the DC Wharf/Capital Yacht Club.  The sea cats are resting from their labors (early naps and eating), the Admiral is working on her laptop doing the work necessary to keep us in cash flow and me?  Well suffice to say I am beginning this new blog entry for the Misty Lady.   Seriously though I am also doing a couple of loads of laundry using our on board washer and dryer units.  This requires us to fill the water tank prior to starting and also after finishing three to four loads.  Live Aboard, living the dream!!

So, What’s been happening?

Yesterday (Saturday 9/29) was my Daughter In Law, Becky’s birthday and the family celebrated by, at her wish, going to the IFly facility to let those brave enough to participate in free form flying in a wind tunnel.  Several members including the two younger grand daughters, the Birthday Girl Becky and Charlotte (the Admiral) along with four other friends, participated, first attending a flight school, donning flight suits and helmets and lining up for their turn in the wind tunnel to experience the flying time.   The photo below is of Charlotte flying, she was doing a high flight going up into the upper portion of the tunnel.  We now have a problem because she and Becky loved it so much, they want to do it again and again…. So you now know what the primary focus will be in January when it is Charlotte’s birthday?

How’s the Lady?

Maintenance, and more maintenance, such is the life of a boater.  Recently we replaced the old and probably original ship-wide battery charger.  This device gets power either from the shore/dock based AC power or if underway, from the on-board generator system.  It then sends AC converted to DC voltage to all of our on-board battery packs.  This functions like a trickle charger.  However, the original system was not “smart” so it kept sending voltage to batteries even though they might already have been at peak.  Eventually this system wore out (there were actually two chargers) and were not really keeping these DC systems up to par.  So, break out the check book, hire a marine electronic dude and get a new, modern and SMART charger.  Bear in mind with our boat, like most of our size and type boats, there are two types of battery systems, one for the engines and the other for “house power” systems.  Those are for our lights and other life style things including the water pump that provides water to our sinks, showers, and the washing machine, from the large water tank, as well as to the toilet waste system.  With the old charger system we were constantly watching the available DC voltage indicator on the main power panel, dropping to less than 10 volts DC when loads were applied.  This meant that our batteries were getting kicked in the gut constantly.  The new system has never had a single drop of available DC voltage readings.  So our batteries, our lights, our water pump system and our toilet waste system are humming right along.

Another enhancement/maintenance task completed was the replacement of our overhead lights changing from the old technology fluorescent lights to the new LED lights.  Better lighting and significantly lower operating costs.  We replaced two non working lights on the bridge (overhead) that had the old lighting technology with two LED fixtures that can be switched from white light to red light for night piloting.  The red lights protect your eyesight (keeping your night vision intact).  The marine technician installing these lights worked his fanny off, in a rather hot humid day.  But the job got done and we now have a bright home and ship’s bridge.

Latest on the Sea Cats:

Our older sea cat, The Duchess, has been diagnosed as diabetic and the old captain is attempting to gain the courage to stick her with an insulin pen.  Not a fun thing, cause first of all, I am very tenderhearted when it comes to my fur babies and second, The Duchess has a tendency to retaliate by trying to bite.  Well, I have to stick myself with an insulin pen daily so why is she so resistant?  oh right, i forgot, that crap hurts.

We have also been trying different solutions for calming the sea cats when the engines are running.  They go into a huge anxiety state from the moment the three engines fire up until several minutes after they are shut down.  One Face Book friend bought a Thunder Shirt for her big dog so we though we would try that.  Bought two,,, only to discover that these two girls HATE anything around their bodies…. Go figure.  Then we learned about some calming medicine (sort of a Valium for kitties) and will now try that, we got one type that required several drops into their mouths prior to the anxiety creation stuff, and the second one is a spray that you spray into their mouths.  Not looking forward to that, because of the aforementioned retaliation process.  But, we gotta do something, we bought this boat to take it out on the water and go places, not to have a floating condominium!  One neighbor in the marina said we should just let them get used to the noise and vibration…. hmm, but the Admiral says she doesn’t want them to have a heart attack from the stress.  Consider a voyage from the DC area of the Potomac, down to the Chesapeake and south to Hampton Roads (Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Newport News and Hampton) would be at least a two day voyage down and two days back.  Lots of stresses, so when we do get prepped and ready for that long voyage, we are gonna hit them with the tranqs and hope for the best?

The Florence Hurricane

Thank Goodness we dodged a bullet from Hurricane Florence.  We did get some wind blows, and tons of rain but nothing even approaching the hit taken by the folks in the Carolina’s.  The rain was not unexpected, because it had been raining for at least two weeks previously.  The winds were relatively mild, reaching sufficient wind speeds (30 to 50 knots) to give the Misty Lady a bit of shaking, rocking and rolling.  I feel terrible for the folks south of us in the Carolina’s and the horrible damages they experienced, and continue to experience as a continual water destructive flooding, high river crests, etc.  Our family members, all living in a shore based existence were very concerned for us, but the rising waters on the Potomac and related waterways bothered us not a bit.  Our berthing marina of the CYC is composed of “floating docks” which means that our boats are snugged up to the slip piers and as the waters rise, both our boats and their dock links rise right along.  So other than having to hold on to something when crossing the floor of our salon (living room), and extra care going down the ladders (stairways), we simply rode out the residual from Florence which frankly was about the type of conditions we encounter often here on the DC waterfront. (Remember we are close to the Congressional chambers and the White House and we all know how all that hot air affects wind and rain currents.)  Speaking of the White House, I think the current occupant just flew over probably after a multi million dollar visit to one of his resorts.  The CYC club house and marina are on the flyway for all the helicopters of the White House, any VIP, and of course the Pentagon.  Oh Joy!  What a thrill huh?  Important Dialogue on TV, then some General flies from Andrews AFB to the Pentagon or the other way and the noise totally drowns out your tv and that important dialogue… oh well, another day in Paradise.

The Happenings Around the Wharf

In a few days we will “close the season” and host another Founder’s Day celebration which will acknowledge the 126th year of the Club’s existence.  Lots of happenings with that, formal procession, cocktail hour (don’t drink so ho hum), and then dinner.  Now we are not sure that we will attend but will see as the day draws near.

The DC Wharf itself is soon celebrating its first year of operation and I strongly suspect another fireworks show which will require us testing out the kitty Valium on the Fur Babies.  Fireworks scare the bejeebus out of them.  There is a 6000 seat theater here on the Waterfront and it host top name entertainers, (none that I recognize usually and not worth paying real money to sit with 5998 other people.  But it is supposed to be really cool.  The DC Wharf is not exactly an inexpensive place to visit either.  A fellow asked me the other day where he might find an inexpensive place to grab a lunch.  I suggested the BBQ stand in the next block.  Nothing on the Wharf’s locale’s menus could be considered cheap.  Once made the mistake of having breakfast (the Admiral was out of town) in a place called Kith/Kin across the street from our club.  Plain breakfast folks, cost me 56 bucks.  Yeppers, half a hundred dollars for bacon (too well done), a couple eggs, some hashbrowns and some toast.  Yikes.  We usually drive across the Potomac River to Virginia to have breakfast out, otherwise breakfast on the boat.

What’s on Tap:

Next weekend, my son Cliff and his family (at least two of our grand daughters) will come down to the Club and we will cast off the Misty Lady’s lines, shut down the shore power, power up the on-board generator, fire up the two turbo diesels and slowly back this big girl out of our slip, into the fairway and then head down river.  (yes will blow the boat’s horn as we exit the fairway) We will probably take a four hour run downriver to Belmont Bay, take on a couple hundred gallons of diesel fuel, then on down river to see the sights from the water.  We will then head back up river.  During this time, I will turn the helm over to any and all who wish the opportunity of piloting this big girl on the river, observing and staying within the navigational equipment’s directives, observing water depth (we do require a good amount of water beneath us), and then take lots of photos hopefully.  We will then pass by the National Harbor Resort, then under the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and the City of Alexandria.  The passage under the bridge and the upper Potomac will require that the Lady be held to a 6 knot speed and no wake (wave water behind the stern from the movement of the boat).  We will arrive at the juncture of the Potomac, the Washington Channel and the Anacostia River, this is our path home.  Up Whiskey Charley (marine call sign for Washington Channel), to the fairway between our yacht club’s A and B docks and home to slip B3.  She is currently berthed “bow in” to the slip, but when we return we will place her “stern in” with the swim platform abutting the docks.  I will write the detail of this process next week when we take the voyage and return.

We hope to get in at least one more voyage for putting up the Shrink Wrap and bundling the Lady up for the winter chills.

Be safe and watch for More Later.

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.

Look whose back:  I will try to bring everyone up to date with our adventures or lack thereof involving our life as live aboard mariners.  When one stays in port for quite a long period of time, things kind of get away from us and we miss out on the connection of sharing with our friends and relatives.  Within this blog set I will try to begin the effort of catch up for the times of myself, Charlotte, and the two fur babies, The Duchess and Penny.  To keep it from being a long drawn out entry, I will break it into segments of timeline points.

Activities in the harbor:  In October of 2017 we formally opened and dedicated the new CYC clubhouse, and at the same time we celebrated the Founder’s Day with 125th year of our Capital Yacht Club’s existence and had a terrific time, good food and a fabulous cake.  The new Club House dedication was performed in a special ceremony by the Oldest Member and the Youngest Member (in age).  A bottle of fine Champagne was dashed against the corner of the building in the old mariner tradition of dedication.

Local Area:  As most of you may be aware, our berth is at the Capital Yacht Club located in the newly developed DC waterfront, known as the DC Wharf.  The developers invested almost 4 Billion dollars to build this exciting area.  I will try to provide some photographs in this issue.

The photo in the upper left shows a street view of the Wharf Street which runs along side the actual water itself.  The blue building shown here is the Kirwan’s Irish Pub and it a true authentic Irish restaurant and bar.  All of the interior, walls, bar, tables, flooring etc were all built in Ireland and shipped to DC for this restaurant.  Quite a place and has libe music most nights.  The upper right photo is a picture of the yacht club’s flag mast and the building behind it is the Intercontinental Hotel one of three here.  The photo just below shows the Water Taxi pier.  These yellow taxi boats come into the Wharf, the City of Alexandria, Georgetown, and the National Harbor.  Cost is very reasonable.  The final photo in this group, at the bottom is a picture of the Wharf Street in the evening.  Note the shaded light posts.  They keep the entire Wharf waterfront well lighted into the night hours and until daybreak.

Anyway, the District Wharf is now a fully operational area with three hotels, multiple eateries of various venue levels, a marine supply, hardware store, a CVS pharmacy, and a Ben and Jerry’s.  There are also three residence buildings, two rental apartments and one of condominiums.  The condos run from 500 thousand for an efficiency to over 2 million for one of the penthouse three bed units.  What’s not to like?  If any of you are up in this area, be sure to put the Wharf on one of your lists of Things To Do while in the area.  It will certainly be worth while.  Take one of the water taxi boats for a nice ride on the Potomac River, leaving from Alexandria, or National Harbor, or Georgetown to the Wharf, enjoy great food, live music and all sorts of other things to see and do.  Most weekends and also special holiday days, there are multiple live performances on the various locations within the Wharf area, from the Sutton Square, to the DC Pier, and the Entertainment Pier (two of the three new piers built for this development). Plus, you get a chance to view the yachts in the Yacht Club’s dock area, especially the Misty Lady and we will be happy to wave hello.

A taste of New Orleans:  This year at Mardi Gras, (Fat Tuesday, Etc), the Wharf developer decided to host a Mardi Gras event with a float parade.  Since the parade street wasn’t very long, the float vehicles were golf carts, however the imagination and artistic talent of the entities submitting their float for the parade was truly amazing.  The CYC float was the brainchild of the Club’s Entertainment Committee folks and was titled “20,000 Leagues Under DC”.  Which I thought was pretty neat and evidently so did the folks casting ballots, because the CYC float was the first place winner.    The Bride was disappointed because she had to work and would not get off work in time to make it home to the Wharf to observe and participate in the festivities.  The Wharf also hosted a terrific fireworks display.  It was a bit chilly however so the old Captain felt like an ancient ice cream bar by the end of the parade and I was very happy to see the break and to hustle down the ramp to the warmth of the Misty Lady’s salon.

The Winter Weather Trials:  We weathered a pretty harsh winter in the Nation’s Capitol this past winter, with one 8 day period of temperatures in the high teens and low twenties.  Water systems froze and we were unable to add water to the Misty Lady’s water tank, nor were we able to get our waste holding tanks pumped out.  At one point, the showers in the clubhouse baths froze and even those were unusable.  Finally one of our members (who was an expert in water systems, especially very cold situations) was able to prepare a work around and we were able to fill our water tanks, a group of members along with the dock master participated in filling the tanks on the yachts in our marina dock area.   It was a pretty miserable several days, but it was a shared misery by all the live aboard members so we were in good company.

Even in the month of March, we had roller coaster temperatures, one day 50 and the next in the lower 30’s.    One had to hope that old Mother Nature would finally take pity and allow the days and nights to warm up enabling us the pleasures of taking the Misty Lady out and head down the Potomac for a day cruise, an overnight run or even a vacation cruise to the southern areas like Hampton Roads, North Carolina Outer Banks, etc.

Misty Lady Prep Work:  The Last Day of Winter (according to the calendar, not the actual weather), had come and gone so we are now on the road to Spring, Summer, etc.  Of course Mother Nature has to have a last gasp and we were treated to snow, colder temps, and other fine weather problems, before it all finally faded and Spring actually appeared for real.  We have the season prep for the Misty Lady underway and only one or two tasks remain before we are prepped and ready for taking the big girl out of the berth and down the river to visit locales in the Maryland/Virginia area.  Especially the more historical areas in the lower Chesapeake.

The Misty Lady has had her main ship’s electrical generator repaired, (new starter and fuel pump), and is ready to supply power while we are underway.  The main port and starboard engines have been checked by our diesel guy and pronounced ready for a season of cruising.   We also have a second generator system but it is not currently functional and we are possibly going to look at evaluating whether to get it fired up in the next year or so.  It is a 10KV gen set and our big one is a 20KV gen set.  Either would supply power sufficient to run our air conditioners, the refrigerators, the dishwasher, the washer/dryer setup, the AC lights and our cooking appliances.  So the big one is running fine now and we will look at the smaller one later down the line.

As I mentioned in an earlier post we had a power problem with the starboard engine alternator, and finally found a specialist who was willing to crawl into the cramped space between the engine and the bulkhead of the Lady’s hull.  While back there removing the alternator (to either rebuild or replace), he discovered our fresh water line was leaking.  Seems the previous owner patched the leak with some electrician’s tape and when we upgraded the fresh water system pump from a 2.5 GPM unit to a 5.0 GPM, the additional pressure caused the patch to fail and water was spewing/leaking into the engine room bilges.  Tony bought the necessary repair supplies, such as connection piping and sealant to close off the leak.  I wound up buying a rebuilt unit, putting the old device in the spare parts locker to eventually have it rebuilt, and Tony got it installed in quick time.

Still need to have a new LED light fixture installed in the forward companionway.  (we are replacing all of the old light fixtures with the more economical LED units, especially the DC powered ones.)  So, is some nice warm weather and calm kitties and the Misty Lady can once again cast off lines and tour the mid Atlantic waterways.

More in the Next Post.

Well things have sort of gotten away from me again.  Been quite a while since I took keyboard in hand to update the state of our water borne life.  We are finally out of the “floater” status, having been awarded a permanent slip a couple of weeks ago.  We are now located on the B Dock of our Club’s marina (there are three docks, A, B and C).  Our slip is B3 which places us right at the bottom of the ramp to the club house.  YEA!  Note Charlotte (the Admiral) sitting on the foredeck.

The Misty Lady seems to be happy in her new home, especially since this Permanence State means that we will never have to leave the vicinity for a transient visitor and anchor the Lady out in the channel on a Mooring Buoy.  A lousy existence, but one that we no longer have to dread!

We recently ( 7/30/2017) took a short voyage, with my daughter, Kurby, my son Cliff, daughter in law Becky and two of our four grand daughters, Hattie and Cammie.  The older two are off doing their own thing, being in their 20’s.

Our voyage was just down the Potomac to the Mount Vernon estate of George Washington.  They have a very nice wharf that juts out into a small bay off the Potomac River and can accommodate the large tour boats (160 feet and larger), as well as smaller boats and larger yachts such as our 54 footer.  The day was pleasant, warm and sunny with a slight breeze.

Right at the start, we powered up the generator set (to provide AC and DC power to the “house”) and switched over from shore power to internal generator power.  Then we fired up the two big Cat diesels (of course the Sea Cats headed for their hidey holes, since they hate those engines).  We then disconnected the shore power cables, untied the docking lines and the Lady was free to navigate.  We moved slowly out of the slip and into the fairway traveling less than 2 knots (lots of expensive boats about).  About a half mile down the Washington Channel, basically where the Anacostia River joins the Potomac River, the Generator stopped running.  Don’t know the why yet, but we have a Westerbeake specialist checking it out.  This meant that the refrigerator and all other AC functions were off line.  The voyage was not a long one, so we just carried on to our destination.  While Charlotte, myself and the two sea cats stood a day watch, the rest of the group disembarked and took the tour of Washington’s Mount Vernon estate.

Last month we finally installed our cooking appliances.  We purchased a induction range top (with two burners) and a separate oven to be mounted below.  The local yacht technicians did the install for us and connected the electrical outlets to ensure that the wiring was professionally correct.  I immediately went to the grocery store and bought us a couple of nice Ribeye Steaks for supper the next evening.  Turned out, the oven put out a lot more heat than we had anticipated during the broiling action.  So we installed a cooling fan in the space under the range top and behind the oven to blow cooling air across the area.  Seems to be okay, but we will see the next time I put a couple of big steaks in the broiler….

Next up for this area is the acquisition and installation of a quartz counter top.  The range top required that we purchase pans that would attract a magnet, so we went shopping for pots, pans and skillets with a magnet.  See the range top cooks by magnetic induction and the burner area will not heat up until a pot/pan that is magnetic attractive is placed on the burner.  Cooks things pretty darn fast too, so we have to watch when making a breakfast of bacon and eggs….. YEA!!

As we posted back in July, for the Fourth of July Holiday, we looked forward to watching the fantastic fireworks display over the Capitol Mall.  We were positioned very well to observe the fireworks from the decks of the Misty Lady right here in the CYC marina slip.  It was quite a show from our view point, after all we can see the top of the Jefferson Memorial from our boat.

So we stayed in port, snugged up to the dock, sipping a cold drink, eating a couple of hot dogs with chili and cheese while watching from the comfort of our own home, these firework displays.  The two photos at the top are of Charlotte on the foredeck waiting for the evening to arrive and the show to start.  And a picture of our new Yacht Club clubhouse.  The clubhouse is a lot further along at this writing, with our expectation of moving into the new facility in about 5 weeks.  Note in the picture with the two boats, one the catamaran in the right slip and the yacht “Tide Together” in the left slip.  That slip is the one that we were awarded and is not our home port.  The big power catamaran will be pulling up lines and heading back to their winter port in Florida, shortly after the formal opening of our new Yacht Club home on the 12th of October.

As the sun set, we prepared for the big light show.

So to all of you out there who actually read my blog, we all hope you had a Happy and Safe 4th of July!!! We will, from the command bridge of the M/V Misty Lady.

The Wharf Status

Things are really coming to fruition for the transition of the DC waterfront from a sleepy marina and restaurant row to a dynamic Wharf place to go!!  The developers of the Wharf are spending over 4 Billion Dollars to create a beautiful and exciting locale.   Below are two photos that I took when we were given a VIP tour of the site.  

The top photo is of the Wharf as the artist’s conception, it is remarkably unchanged from the work that the construction companies have accomplished.  Note the three piers, the first (left most) is a recreation pier and in winter will have an ice rink there.  It also serves as a place for the water taxi service to arrive and depart.

The bottom photo is a display in the construction office and it shows the concepts of the finished Wharf area.  Our new Capital Yacht Club can be seen in the center, it is the smaller building built out over the water, you can see our three docks in this shot also.

I saw a listing the other day for one of the condo apartments in the VIO building (in the center of the Wharf phase one) that showed a two bedroom, two batch water view unit selling at 1.2 million dollars.  WE have a great water view and we paid less than 1 percent of that price…. Even with her warts the Lady is a good deal.

Short Notes

Thought it might be good to share a couple of photos that have an “Ahhh” factor, at least to me.

This is one of our mallard duck families.  Momma has 6 ducklings.  They are so cute as they swim around our boat in the slip and the fairway between the docks.  Momma Mallard has her wings full chasing these guys.

This is the view from our boat almost every evening.  Sometime an overcast will hide it but most of the time we are treated to a beautiful sky.  Makes being a live aboard all worth while.

This smaller yacht is a unique live aboard, the entire top of the boat is a series of solar panels and the majority of their time afloat these panels supply all of their power needs.  Of course the captain of this boat owns a company that builds and installs solar panels so he should know what it is all about>  The Misty Lady is across the dock, next to the CYC maintenance barge.

More Later?

June 30, 2017 Aboard the Misty Lady

Well, it has been quite a lengthy period since my last entry.  My apologies to the folks who were readers of the Misty Lady’s blog.  Things sort of got out of hand and my attention was elsewhere.  I shall try to maintain a better issue period from now forward but then in winter there is not a lot of interesting things that happen.  We did have a few things that are atypical for a land based family but not for those of us living on the water.  Luckily for us, the winter here on the DC waterfront was relatively mild.  We did have a few bitter cold days, but all in all, not too bad.  Only one snow fall where we had an accumulation.  The shrink wrap did it’s job in this as well because as the snow would hit and start to collect, the slick surface and pitch of the vinyl casing would cause it to slide off and into the water.  We did get some accumulation on the slip pier, but only about 2-3 inches, and it was very easy to shovel off and into the water. The good thing was that we were a lot more comfortable and the power bill for heating the boat dropped quite a bit.  The extra layer of insulation kept the boat cabins a lot more comfortable and we were able to have a decent time of our first winter aboard.

We continue our membership status of “floating” which means that we still have no permanent slip for the Lady to call home.  As a floater we are asked to move the boat to various available dockage as needs arise.  We were in a member’s slip from early November.  This member is the CEO of the company that is the prime developer of the new Washington Waterfront, known as “The Wharf”.  In early April he has the Captain bring the boat back down to the Capital Yacht Club for the boating season.  Therefore we were required to move from his slip to the B dock’s T head.

Since the Misty Lady had the port engine down for a fuel pump rebuild, we could not navigate in the close confines of the yacht marina on just one engine.  A few of the members pitched in and using small outboard motor boats, they towed the Misty Lady from the C dock over to the T Head of the B Dock.  The Club membership are truly outstanding in their willingness to assist other members.  The Lady had to be towed twice after that first move to the B dock.  We were towed from the B dock back over to the C dock and into a 50 foot slip. (obviously we couldn’t stay there permanently because the Club has a rule about NO overhang and the Lady is 4 feet too long!  This of course meant that we would need to move again when another member (with a smaller boat ) bid on and won the award of that particular slip.  

I should tell a bit about the two from B back to C dock.  When the members tied on to the Lady in preparation for the tow, the winds were calm, but then when they got her out into the channel in order to make the turn down the fairway to the new slip, the wind picked up and the Lady showed those two little boats who was boss, by towing them around the channel.  Finally the winds died down and they were able to position her to head down the fairway.  We all breathed a great sigh of relief when the big girl was finally in the slip and we were getting her lines secured.

One more tow was required shortly afterward when we had to move from that C slip over to the A Dock T Head.  Again, this is one of the best locations for views.    The picture below is a shot of the Lady being towed by two of the members. One has a line off the bow and another from the stern.  You can see Char on board preparing to cast lines when the Lady is pulled into position on the T Head.

We tied up there for a couple of weeks in which our diesel guru finally brought the freshly rebuilt fuel pump back to the boat and got all her components back together.  IT was a true pleasure to step on the bridge, turn the ignition key for the port engine and have that beautiful sound of a diesel engine actually starting as normal!  A few days later we were asked to move again to accommodate a mega yacht scheduled to dock on the A T Head.  We were able to fire up both engines, cast off lines and motor over to the new temporary slip under our own power!  YEA  

Now the photo above is a picture of one of the mega yachts that visited the Capital Yacht Club.  So far this year we have had a 109 footer, a 160 footer and the one above is a 200 footer.  Imagine paying 10s of millions of dollars for a boat…

As for us, it will be wonderful to at long last have a boat that we can start both engines from the bridge, cast off lines and run down the Potomac for a short cruise, down to the Chesapeake Bay for an overnight cruise or even down to Hampton Roads (Hampton, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Newport News, etc. ) for a week long cruise.  We start our cruising next week, with my son, his wife, our grand daughters and my daughter Kurby.  We will take the Lady down the Potomac to Mount Vernon, and hopefully let the grand daughters have a great tour of our first president’s home.  Seeing it from the water is a lot different than from the land side.  Hope to have a lot of photos to share then.

Last month our yacht club held the flag raising celebration for our 125th year.  We had Cake: 

Mayor Muriel Bowser spoke at our event and here is a photo of her speaking.  Charlotte got a photo with the Mayor and they chatted for a bit.  The Bride was pretty impressed with our Mayor.

The canon fired the salute for our club and officially opened the boating season for 2017.

While we were on the T Head, we caught a long rain storm, our sea cat, Penney was not happy, and looked out the window at the rain so intently. 

You can almost hear her wishing for the sunshine to return.  Charlotte and I took photos of each other at the Club house patio in the late winter/early spring. 

We were headed to the boat from a CYC meeting.  Caught the sunset and thought a photo was in order. 

Well enough for today, we will look at our activities since we moved this last time in the next rendition of the Misty Lady’s blog.

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A Note from Harv:  This blog post was completed a couple of days ago, but it was blocked by Facebook from posting at that time because I was being punished for saying mean things to a right winger.  Oh well, Happy New Year to you all again.

Today, Sunday January 1, 2017 is the beginning of another year and a first new year’s day as yachting family folks for the Bride and I.  As each week ends, we become more attuned to the aspects (both great and not so great) of living aboard.  Granted we are living on a rather large yacht (not yuuge, but sizeable) which has around 1000 square feet of living space.  Not exactly a “tiny house” right?  We have become more and more comfortable aboard and have adjusted to the differences inherent in comparison of a land based home and one that floats.

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas holiday and an enjoyable and safe New Year celebration.  Our wish is that you all have a better year in 2017, than you had in 2016.  Albeit that could be very problematic considering the change in political administration.  As for the four of us, Captain, 1st Mate and the two sea cats, we spent a quiet evening, watching the New Year’s programs on the television.  We passed on the yacht club’s “Toast the Boats” celebration last evening, primarily because it required evening dress and we just were not in a mood to put on formal clothing and walk the docks for a quarter mile to the Club house.  Besides, since I can’t drink any alcohol, (diabetics don’t do well with booze, we can die.) we really don’t “party” all that much anymore.  But we will enjoy the first day of 2017 in our own way, just me, the Bride and our two fur babies.

We have been in the slip on C dock for three weeks now and the difference in the wind effect is striking.  Also though we enjoyed the time on the A dock T head, the temporary residence in this slip is more comfortable with respect to the winds blowing down the river.  We miss the great views on the T, and will probably be back out there come spring, unless we are awarded a permanent slip before that time.  At this point, the Misty Lady is completely shrink wrapped, and we do see a difference in the lower need for the space heaters higher run rates to keep us from growing icicles on our noses.  Obviously the lower the operating temps, the lower our electric bill each month.  We have no idea as yet what kind of savings we will see, but we are looking forward to a smaller bill for energy use this month.

We truly hope that you all is to have a more pleasant, prosperous and healthy year in 2017 than you had in 2016.  Hope that you all get the opportunity to enjoy life, do a bit of travel and improve your lot in life.  I know, I know, that is going to be rather difficult most likely with the changes we see coming, but we can persevere and hold our own if we all keep the faith.

As for us, we will spend the winter in our floating home working on tasks that will enable us to begin enjoying the ability to cruise the waters of the eastern seaboard, the local rivers and the historical venues that abound in our neck of the woods.  We do plan on taking the Misty Lady on her first voyage within a couple of weeks of the removal of our shrink wrap and cleaning her decks and hull from winter’s deluges.  Over the coming weeks, we will be preparing the internal areas to bring her more in tune with what we had originally planned when we first took possession of her last May.

The first voyage will most likely occur in May (perhaps a birthday cruise for the Captain?), and it will mainly consist of a trip down the Potomac, possibly to Smith Island or Tangier Island in the Bay.

Keep the faith folks, the Misty Lady will be cruising the coastal waterways and this blog will provide a ride along journal of these voyages and scenes along the way.