Category: A New Lifestyle

Well it is now 8:00pm on Friday evening October 14, and we have been working most of the day to complete preparations for our departure tomorrow morning.

Yep, that’s right, at first light on Saturday, October 15, we will start engines, start the generator, disconnect shore power and cast off all lines.  By approximately 6:45am (usually the breaking of dawn) we will begin the slow backing away from the Gingerville Yacht Center’s B Dock and once clear, I will turn her outbound and at long last the Misty Lady will be motoring southbound on the Chesapeake Bay to the mouth of the Potomac River.

As our voyage begins, we will move slowly out of Gingerville Creek into the South River and turn down river toward the Bay.  It is my plan that the Bride and I  (oops I meant the First Mate) will try to take a number of photos.  Some we will take with my big Canon and will use them in a later version of the blog once we are ensconced in our home berth at the Capital Yacht Club.

Our original plan was to travel as far as we felt comfortable and move into a transient slip at a marina on the Potomac, because travel in the dark is not something I would countenance.  Our thought now is that if we can make between 13 and 15 knots while underway we may be able to make it all the way to the Capital Yacht Club before nightfall.  As we move up the river, we will keep a sharp eye on the progress and may still fall back on the idea of a layover somewhere on the Potomac.

During the trip, I will try to write a blog entry as we progress on our voyage.  Photos where possible.

Wishes for a safe and successful voyage are solicited

Stay tuned, it gets better.

 

Well it is Sunday evening and the Hodges Mariner family is resting from our labors aboard the Misty Lady.  Many of  you already know, but we have been exposed to a constant rain storm for six days straight.  The water in the marina was less than 1 inch from flowing over the top of the dock. As a result the Misty Lady is still docked at the Gingerville Yacht Center.  Our new departure date is now Saturday, October 8.  We had hoped to be settling into a dockage at the Capital Yacht Club by now, but there you have it.

I did get a nice shot of the Misty Lady at twilight.  I was coming back from the parking lot and it was simply a Kodak Moment.  The upper doors are showing our television set going full blast and the window on the lower level is the light over our bed in the Master Stateroom.

Cleaning the Bilge: one of the more unappealing tasks on a yacht is ensuring that the bilges are clean.  We had earlier paid a local company to clean our bilge and they did a wonderful job,,, on ONE of the three bilges.  They cleaned the engine room bilge and evidently didn’t understand that there was a forward bilge and an aft bilge.  The aft bilge was, shall we say rather odiferous and the 1st Mate and I decided to clean it ourselves.  Oh what fools we might be…    When discussing the odor with the Yacht Center owner and soliciting his recommendation, he told me of several products that could be used to clean and sanitize a bilge.  Among the myriad products (mostly expensive), he strongly recommended that we use PineSol, that it would do the job just as well as the other expensive treatments and cost a fraction of the money.

So, armed with a fresh bottle of PineSol, our new water hose, a long handled brush and a new hose spray nozzle we began the not wonderful task.  Removing the hatch to open the bilge access we were greeted by the sight of really dirty, putrid water.  Some algae floating around as well.  We dosed it well with PineSol, then allowed it to sit for a while and “work” to prepare the bilge for the actual cleaning.  The float that activated the bilge pump had to be elevated manually to get the bilge pump to siphon out the standing water.  We also sprayed fresh water into the bilge to moderate the standing nasty water.

After about 45 minutes of flushing the bilge and adding more PineSol, we finally decided that we had done enough for a couple of amateurs and resolved to hire professionals to finish the bilges, check the bilge pumps and clear the residual algae.

At least when we hit our bed for sleep tonight the aroma will be much improved.

Another finding that the six days of rain brought to us was the identification of a few spots where waterproofing caulking will be required.  Funny how a constant barrage of water will point out areas where seepage is located.  Mother Nature is funny that way.  One might think that these things would sort of put us off.  Not true, we knew when we bought an older yacht that we would encounter these sort of irritants.  The fact it we love the look of our new waterborne home, and we expect that once we have accomplished the final upgrading that we had planned at the outset, our home will be comfortable and nice looking.

Speaking of upgrading, below are two pictures of the Misty Lady’s bridge.  Note the plethora of instrumentation on the left picture, this was the before picture. Now note that the picture on the right has much less, in fact one instrument shown to the left of the center is the primary control system.  It displays the course, speed, depth of water, radar overlays, and through the AIS linked with the VHF radio to the right, shows all of the other vessels around our area of interest.  This system lets us know where the boats are, how big they are, what direction they are headed and their current speed.  The primary screen is a touch screen, and interfaces with my IPad navigation and charting software.

 

The system is also set with a wi-fi connection that will allow me to read the primary control unit display and to update or change the settings from my IPad down in the salon, the galley or anywhere on the boat.  Oh my the Digital Age for boating is a real hoot!  Also note that the old grungy white bridge canvas’ have been replaced with new canvas using a Navy Blue color rather than the white.  The Lady simply has too much white, so we are planning on mitigating the color scheme.

Well tomorrow begins another week in beautiful downtown Edgewater, MD.  Charlotte returns to commuting into the DC metro area via Metro subway and I go back to prepping the Misty Lady for our voyage.  Sometime midweek next week I expect to receive some training on ship handling to ensure that I do not crash this big boat into a dock or fuel pier,  because that would be not nice.

We will also do some shopping for some items to make life a bit more comfortable, such as end tables and lamps.

More to come including the preparation, cast off of lines and departure of the Lady for her overnight voyage home.  I intend to post more items of possible interest and to do so more frequently.

Stay tuned!!

 

Thursday, September 29, 2016 Aboard the Misty Lady

It is about 8:15 am and today is the third day of our full residence aboard the MY Misty Lady.  The two Sea Cats are still adjusting to life aboard, not sure if they are enthralled yet.  Heck, just give them time, (oh wait, they may not like the sound of those two diesel engines).

I have just finished my very first breakfast aboard and am watching Mother Nature doing a lot to make the morning GREY!!  It has been raining pretty steadily for the past two and a half days, the water in the marina (just off Gingerville Creek) is up rather high and more rain is expected over the next couple of days as well.  Oh the joy of being on the water.  At least I don’t have to worry about flash floods damaging my furniture or power outages (the lady has two generator sets).  At photo of the Misty Lady tied at the dock in the Gingerville Yacht Center below.

Drove Charlotte to the New Carrolton Metro station this morning in pitch black weather, rain, mist from tires and very bright lights made for a joyous trip to set up her morning commute.

Our original plan was to cast off the lines, disconnect the shore power cables, fire up the two Cat diesels and point the Lady’s bow toward the Bay and down to the Potomac this Saturday.  Well, old Mother Nature gave us second thoughts.  Running a boat, any boat in foul weather intentionally is rather dumb so we are going to sit this weekend out.  I will do some honey do tasks aboard (always something to adjust, fix or clean) while we are biding our time.  Next week, early, I will also take some additional refresher training on ship handling (docking, turning using only the props, pulling up to a fuel dock to take on more diesel, and other close quarters handling), while still getting used to the size and handling quirks of a yacht this size.  Of course, one must also consider the idiosyncrasies of the Mother Nature gang.  The Sea Cats, the First Mate and ye old Captain are frankly tired of seeing overcast skies, rain and oh yeah, MORE RAIN.  This is the highest tide I believe I have ever witnessed though.

We expect the arrival of our marine stove either Friday or Monday.  The tale of the stove?  Here goes, we purchased a marine electric three burner stove with the glass top.  This stove also came with a set of racks that would secure pots and pans atop the range while underway (would anyone in their right mind what to do that?).  A substantial investment naturally, nothing for boating comes inexpensive!

When the yacht specialists loaded the stove on board, they removed the package of accessory items from the top and discovered,,,, you guessed it,,, the TOP WAS CRACKED!!!  From the look of the box and the point of impact, we suspect some yoyo in the manufacturer’s warehouse banged it against something with a small point of impact.

So we off loaded the stove, back into the yacht center warehouse and notified the yacht broker (who was the interface between us and the supplier), that the stove was damaged.  The yacht center owner also noted that there were gimbal fittings on the stove and in further exposure found that this was a fully GIMBALED stove (made for sail boats which can float straight in the water like a great power boat).  Not the right stove for our yacht anyway.  Yesterday, I heard from the supplier again with an update, the right stove was being shipped and would arrive either Friday or Monday.  More information from him later as he learns about the progress of the truck.  So even if Mother Nature hadn’t decided to show us love with lots of wind and rain (oh yeah, a light show in the form of lightning and thunder), we would have probably needed to remain here this weekend anyway.

The winds are playing games with the boat, she is moving in and out of the pier pilings and up and back from her original placement.  Amazing what wind and high water can to with a boat of this size.  Oh well, will most likely spend the majority of the day on board, since one never knows when the sheeting rain will return and overpower the regular rains.

As I look out at some of the other large boats tied up to the same dock, I see that they are moving about just like the Lady, so we just have to sit back and enjoy the day in peace and quiet.

More to come, stay tuned.

 

 

Well, guess WHAT!!!  I am writing this post from the bridge of the Misty Lady.  She is in the water, currently berthed at a temporary dock to facilitate the restoration of the hatches in the galley, BUT we have a floating yacht again!!!  Charlotte and I are looking forward to the possibility of moving out of the hotel and onto the Lady this week!  Are we excited?  Just a teensy bit I think.

The Misty Lady’s sea trial to evaluate the starboard and port engines went off very well.  The engines were both running strong and well within tolerances for temps, RPMs and thrust.  We brought them up to slightly over 2200 RPM which is actually higher than I would run them at cruise, but they climbed up to that level with smooth acceleration, considering they were shoving 50,000 pounds of boat through the water.  There were a couple of small anomalies but nothing that impacted the engines.  We did note that the temperature gauges on the bridge were of two different styles??  But hey as long as they work, who cares what the manufacturer was?

The Sea Trial could have been a bit smoother and things would have been a bit ahead of where we are except we received some hoses from the Cat dealer that were only 50% correct, four were the right once but four were not.  So, the mechanic who worked on the port engine will evaluate the specs sent by the Cat dealer’s rep this morning and I will hopefully get them first thing in the morning.  Then the port hatch can be closed up and the settee/table combination can be reinstalled.

Our plan is, based on the ability of the yacht center crew to complete the restoration of the galley, move our mattress and mattress box onto the boat and in place within the Master Cabin.  Then start the process of moving our personal effects, including coffee maker, of course.  Priorities you know!  Our Goal is to be fully living aboard by Friday.

I will have some  photos to share in my next posting.

Stay Tuned?

 

Tuesday was a banner day, the diesel guys arrived at the Misty Lady’s dry dock l0cation and began to complete the installation of the remaining components, including the oil pan. We were hopeful that the day would end with a solid engine and the Lady would be ready to return to the water.

They had made good progress by lunch time, but were still looking at about two or more hours.  When they broke for lunch (a rather long one) the TravelLift operator moved that large machine over the Lady, connected the loading straps under her hull, and lifted her off the blocks, suspending her in the air.  Woody (the painting specialist) then got under the hull and did the first coat of touch up (painted the areas where the blocks and stands were positioned and were not accessible during the regular painting process.

When the diesel guys returned, they saw the yacht suspended from the huge TravelLift and said that they should get things done!!  They actually worked on the engine until around 6 that evening and said they would return in the morning.

That evening as we were getting off the boat, we found the graphics man applying the Misty Lady’s name to her stern.  It looked terrific during the process and even better when he finished.  Do you agree?

This morning, Wednesday September 9, I arrived at the yacht center to see the Misty Lady partially in the water, loaded on the TravelLift and being launched back into her native environment, the water!

And NOW the Lady is in the water, alongside a dock where the diesel guys were performing final adjustments, adding oil (16 quarts) to the engine, and antifreeze to the cooling system, and the majority of the cooling comes from the “raw water” system which is a pump that brings water from the river, etc., through a pump and exhausts that water through the exhaust system and the muffler.  I tested the air conditioners in the master cabin and the forward stateroom.  The units in the galley and the salon were not able to power up so that will be on our final pick list to inspect the cooling water pumps for the se units.

We were hoping to perform the sea trial today and check out both the starboard as well as the port engines and ensure that all repair was completed and the engines were ready for our cruising pleasure in the coming years.

This photo, just above, is a shot of the Misty Lady’s cabin Name Boards.  There is one of these name board on each side of the boat, just below the bridge.

Well, I think I will turn in, it was a long day, a very hot and humid day and this old man is worn out from the efforts of the day.

Tomorrow, we finalize the set up of the engines and the test plan.  Then we cast off the lines and the Misty Lady will enter the South River in Annapolis and showing us how well her renewed engines will perform.

Fingers crossed for us and good thoughts for a successful in our test voyage.  Look for another entry tomorrow relating the events of the day.

Goodnight all

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9

Well, as you can conclude we are still landlubbers and the Misty Lady is still on her dry dock blocks.  Turned out when the mechanics were lowering the starboard engine onto the motor mounts, the oil pan was 1/4 inch too deep.  It was evidently for a 425 horse engine rather than my 375 horse engine.  Or so it seemed.

The mechanic told me that he was going to Baltimore where there were two engines that he was going to buy for parts and he thought the oil pans were compatible.  But as USUAL there was a “delay”.  We lost an entire week, because he didn’t go to Baltimore until Wednesday and ran into traffic coming home……  AND he refuses to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on Fridays????

So here we are on Monday September 5 (Labor Day Holiday) with the engine hanging from two chain hooks down inside the engine compartment but not laying on the motor mounts.  The mechanics are supposed to be here tomorrow MORNING to finish up the work, they will bring the engine up and replace the oil pan with the replacement pan from the Baltimore trip.  Then they will lower the engine, align it with the drive shaft (this must be perfect because of damage that could result if it was off by even a centimeter).  Once that has been accomplished, they will begin connecting the rest of the components, the turbo, the after cooler, and the other things that make the engine a working device.

It is expected that the work to complete the engine install will be accomplished during the day on Tuesday.  That is my goal and my goal will be impressed upon the mechanics.

Once the engine has been installed, the yacht center folks will bring the 75 ton TravelLift over and lay the slings under the Lady’s hull.  They will lift her off the blocks and the paint specialist will go under the hull and paint those areas that were blocked and the painting could not reach.  These area will receive the first coat, then will be left to dry overnight and a second coat will be laid on the next morning.  That afternoon, we will move the Lady over to the launch area and the TravelLift operator will slowly lower her into the waters.

WE will all pull her out of the launch slip and down the dock a few feet.  Once she is secured to the dock, we will lay out the plan for the Sea Trial testing.  This should take about 1 to 2 hours.  Then we will bring her back to the yacht center and to a temporary berth, where the guys will board and begin the process of putting her floor panels back, laying the kitchen cabinets back into their place and installing the stove, refrigerator and dishwasher (the washer and dryer are already installed).  They will then replace the settee in its previous location.  Our dining table cannot be installed until the flooring guys come back and complete the installation of our flooring for the galley and the ladders (stairs to you land based folks).  Once we have the engine covers back in place and the components for the galley installed, Charlotte and I will then get a refresher course in ship handling.  Mainly how to operate in the marina, getting to the fuel docs and into a slip.  With a boat this big, nothing I ever knew about ship handling can be assumed to still work.  She is at least 10 feet longer than the largest boat I ever handled so I want to know how to use the engines to maneuver this big girl in close quarters.

So, everyone keep their fingers crossed for tomorrow’s work!  I will take photos of the boat, but will not be able to go aboard because I took a bad fall a couple of days ago and bruised my ribs making it impossible to climb up the stern ladders (really are ladders), to the after deck.

Also, if things go well, I will take photos of the TravelLift picking up the Lady and holding her in the slings.  Then when we move her to the water I will be there with the camera  Hopefully can learn how to use the movie function to get live action of the actual transfer from the ground to the water.

Stay tuned.

Today (Saturday) I am excited and looking forward to next week.  The reason?  On Thursday this past week, the mechanic brought my starboard engine back and started the reinstall of the motor into the engine compartment of the Misty Lady.  And YES I did take some pictures.  Tried to take some movie clips but evidently need more training on that.

Thursday morning arriving at the yacht center, with coffee and bagel in hand, I noted that the folks there had the huge forklift and the little forklift placed next to the Lady and ready to do the task of hoisting the engine up and into the port galley window!  So as I arrived at the site of the Lady’s dry dock block space, I saw that all was ready, just waiting for the arrival of the motor.  This is the scene:

The little fork lift will be used initially to load the additional parts into the galley area.  If fully configured, the engine would be too big for the window.  So things that sit on top, like the turbo charger, the oil cooler, the coolant tank, etc must be installed after the engine had been positioned within the engine compartment.  Note the large forks in the right side of the picture.  These belong to the huge forklift that will be used to actually insert the engine through the galley window.

Next step is for the two yacht center technicians to remove the actual window, frame and all.

Note that in the first picture the window is still in place, and in the second picture showing both of the yacht center techs, the window has been removed.  Ready for the engine insertion now.

The diesel mechanics arrived with both the renewed engine and the old seized engine on a trailer.  The seized engine is in a shipping cradle and will be sent back to the originating company and eventually remanufactured.

The old engine is covered in plastic and you can see the new engine all white and ready to hit the seas with us.

Carefully they lift the new engine with the smaller forklift and then settle in and secure the engine in the forks of the very large forklift.  This is a very careful operation, because the engine weighs almost 2,000 pounds and any slip up can cause a huge problem.

The engine is now secured to the large forklift and the two yacht center folks direct the forklift operator in raising the engine up to the level of the galley window and then gently moving forward slipping the massive engine through the window opening.

As you can see in this pair of photos, there is very little room and all movement must be done with extreme caution and care, otherwise the forks could shove the engine through the side of the boat and there goes the entire farm

Finally, the engine is removed from the forklift and hangs from an “A FRAME” device which will be used to lower the new engine down into the compartment and onto the motor mounts which will hold it in place.

As said earlier, there is very little room for lowering the engine down into place.  It must be tilted with the transmission down and the front of the engine up.  Then “shoehorned” into the correct position.  These two pictures show effort that took more than 20 minutes just to crank the two chain connections and lower the engine without hitting a hatch brace or the outer bulkheads.

At this point then engine is settled onto the two front motor mounts and is still suspended from the A Frame device.  On Monday, the diesel guys will return with the replacement motor mount, install the top components of the engine and connect the hoses and wiring.  Once this is completed, they will then put in the oil (much more than for your car by the way), the antifreeze and check the circuits for the system.  The gauges and other small units will be installed and then the starboard engine will be ready for sea trial.

The port engine is having some minor work done, with the fuel system processors, the raw water impellor and new gaskets for the manifolds.  The diesel mechanic doing this work anticipates he will be completed by Tuesday afternoon.

IF all goes well, on Wednesday morning, the Misty Lady will be lifted off her blocks by the ginormous TravelLift moveable crane and hauled over to the launch slip.  The Lady will be gently lowered back into her native habitat, the WATER.  We will then prep her for travel, start her engines and take her into the South River (Edgewater, Maryland) and head down river toward the Chesapeake Bay for her sea trial.

The sea trial will probably take about 1 to 2 hours, but could be less.  When we return, the Lady will be berthed temporarily in a maintenance slip to allow the yacht center crew to replace the hatches that were removed and seal them up, then reinstall the cabinets, the settee and other items that were removed to do the engine work.  All of the new appliances, stove, dishwasher, refrigerator, etc will be installed and connected.

We will do an electrical wring out test to ensure that all electrical connections were fully restored.   We will fire up the air conditioners (there are four of them) to ensure that they are still functional.  The heads will be tested to ensure that water can be applied and the units will flush properly.  All lighting will be checked and the new integrated electronics will be tested again.

Our satellite television will be connected to DISH and we will then be able to have television working when we move on board.

The flooring people will come out and finish the work that was halted when we had to tear up the galley floor, the fabricator will bring out our new bridge settee cushions and the graphics guy will put the graphical name for our yacht on her stern/transom.  We will have the fire suppressant system evaluated and updated and new locks placed on the outer doors.

We anticipate all these things will consume the better part of two to three more weeks. Then, as the sun begins to light up the eastern horizon, we will cast off the lines,  fire up those two Cat diesels, and slowly move out of the yacht center, into the South River.  We will utilize our new navigation system take a heading for the Chesapeake Bay.  Our plan is to be into the Bay, out of the river before the majority of other boaters wake up and start the crazy quilt of running full out.

The old Captain and the First Mate will settle in on the Lady’s bridge, sip a cup of real coffee made in our own coffee maker and watch the landscape flow past our yacht.  It will take us about 10 hours to make the run down the South River from Edgewater, into the Bay then down to the mouth of the Potomac.  From the confluence of the Potomac and the Bay, we will then have 95 nautical miles to our permanent berth home at the Capital Yacht Club on the Washington, DC waterfront.  We will do a running commentary as we move down the Bay and up the Potomac along with photos when and as we can take them.

I will try to update this blog starting next week on a frequent basis and let you all know the status of the Misty Lady’s return to the Seas.

Stay Tuned

 

 

Well folks, today is Thursday, the 11th of August, and while I never expected we would still be in the Gingerville Yacht Center, Maryland, at least now we can see the end of this long tunnel.

Tomorrow I will pick up a component of the exhaust system for my starboard engine and drive to the Eastern Shore town to deliver this part to the guys working on it.  After speaking with the primary diesel guy last evening, our plan is to re-install the engine in the Misty Lady’s engine room next week.

The specialists who work at the yacht center did an install onboard yesterday, they placed and hooked up our new stackable washer and dryer.  Picture below:

While there is still some fine tuning of the installation and some panels to replace, the installation is essentially in and functional.  Of course while we are still in dry dock none of the appliances could be operated.

Earlier, the yacht center techs had applied two coats of anti-fouling paint to the Lady’s bottom to keep the little sea critters away as much as possible.  The hull now looks a pretty blue instead of the speckled white and blue from before:

 

So as you can see, she is still on dry land but the current plan is to put the engine back into her engine room next week, around mid week.  We will then put her back into the water using that huge TravelLift machine and then take her out for a sea trial to ensure that the engine will perform as designed.  When we return from the trial ( between a half hour and two hours), she will be docked in a slip where we will do the final tasks to get her ready for the voyage down the Bay and up the Potomac River to her home.

Charlotte has a business meeting at her Philadelphia office starting on Monday and running through Thursday.  My plan is to have started the process of putting our personal effects on board and having her help with the final tasks (along with the not so much fun of loading the Sea Cats into the kitty carriers and taking them down to the boat).  My big thrill for the day that momentous day will be to pour a cup of coffee from my own coffee maker and sipping it slowly while the Sun begins to arise that morning.  Then approximately one week after we have the engines prepped and cleared, we will cast off all lines, fire up both of our diesel engines and point the Lady’s bows east then south.

As these next few days come about, I will be trying to take enough photos of the re-installation, the final flooring installation, the galley table and settee install and the look on this old man’s face as we move into the South River, then into the Chesapeake Bay heading toward the mouth of the Potomac River.

Stay Tuned, it gets exciting from here on out.

 

 

Sunday, July 31, Edgewater, MD – Several new things have occurred since my last update.  All good things and we are happy to have these upgrades installed and functional.  The first is the Lady’s exterior look with new canvas for the bridge.  She will also sport a brand new dingy/tender for the rack on her upper after deck.  Our electronics experts have been busy also, installing the new integrated command and control system.  Read on!!

We now have the new bridge canvas system installed.  The photo on the right is the Lady with her old white bordered canvas, and the one on the left is the new Navy Blue bordered canvas.  The new window panels are amazingly clear!!

The Lady’s new canvas totally wraps around the entire bridge section.  New access panels allow us to go out onto the top after deck where the tender/dingy and the davit are located.  For those of you who wonder, a davit is a crane that is mounted atop the yacht after deck that allows us to lower the tender/dingy from the deck over the edge and into the water along side or behind the yacht’s swim platform.  The picture on the left shows the davit, it is the long white arm showing just above the deck rail.  The black thing down on the rail is a weight with a closure hook to grab what ever you are going to life with the crane or davit.  The picture on the right shows a view of the after deck from the bridge and the metal rack where the tender/dingy will be tied down when it is hoisted aboard the Lady.  Just to the right in the photo, note the large metal rack.  This was placed on the yacht when it was being built.  It was designed to carry the Harley Davidson motorcycle the first owner had and wanted to make sure it was available at each and every port he visited.  The davit was used to hoist the Harley on and off the boat.  In the center of the picture on the right is the open hatch that leads down to the main salon.

These next photos are a view of the bridge as it is undergoing the upgrades for her electronics. These pictures are shots of the bridge helm station from port to starboard across the dashboard.  In the left picture is a shot of the integrated systems console, it has a protective cover over it but when underway, it will provide us with radar sweeps, voyage chart plots (works like the navigator system in your cars, but for the water), course headings, speeds, and depth beneath the keel (bottom of the boat).  Since our boat draws about four feet of water, and there are two large stabilizer fins on each side, we must always be aware of how much clearance we have above the bottom or any obstructions.  The systems console is a touch screen command unit.

In the center of the picture is the digital compass and next to that are two stacked units that make up the yacht’s auto-pilot.  The middle picture shows another view of the auto-pilot units and the white covered device just above the towel is the new digital radio with GPS and AIS interface.  The AIS paints the systems console with images of all boats within the range of the radar system and will inform us of what size, the speed and direction of those other boats.  Will help me steer clear of any hotshots with a jet boat and two six packs under his belt.  The third picture shows the radio, but it also includes an image of a teak slab where the old radiotelephone unit was mounted.  That was removed and trashed as well.  On the left side of the bridge next to the system console screen, is another teak mount where the old LORAN computer system once sat.  That unit was also scrapped and the teak mount will now be fitted with a rack to hold my big Keurig coffee maker. (A captain has to have his coffee ya know!).

The two photos below are shots of the starboard and port side of the Lady.  On the port side (has the work rack platform), note that the deck rails have been removed beneath the windows on that side.  Those windows showing above that missing rail were removed when they pulled the starboard engine out of the boat.  The yard technicians then replaced the window to keep rain out, but did not totally secure it, since it was expected that they would be taking it back out when the engine was ready to be reinstalled.

The other photo is a shot of the starboard side, showing the new canvas AND just below that is where the name boards will go when the graphics fellow has them read to be reinstalled.  Note the four dark dots, these are where the mounting bolts will go to hold the name board snug once reinstalled.  The name boards are Teak planks.  A good view of the galley windows is shown in this photo also note how large they are.  That is a good thing, because that is where they used a fork lift to remove the engine.

 

The satellite antenna system was also installed over Thursday and Friday of this past week, the electronic engineers strung cable for the television sets from the antenna mounted on the arch, down into the boat and to the entertainment center in the salon.  They also strung cable from the satellite desk top controller in the entertainment center to the TV position mounted in the salon and another cable run down to the master stateroom/cabin.  TV sets were mounted on the wall in both the salon and the master cabin as well.  Loose television sets are not a good thing when the yacht is underway.

A lot of progress on the livability aspects of the yacht were accomplished this week.  And yesterday, Saturday, the diesel engineer who is working on the port engine (the one that still worked) and he installed all new coolant hoses, a new impellor (pulls water into the boat to cool the engines), and was supposed to install a component in the fuel system.  He wanted to do a test to ensure that the fuel system component already installed was the problem.  Imagine, an engine mechanic who doesn’t install unneeded items just to raise the price!!!!

Okay, enough for today.  Tomorrow, Monday, I am hoping to go up to the ALBAN distributor to pick up the exhaust manifold and the parts kit.  The last two items were supposed to be in house Monday sometime.  I will then put them in my SUV, program the GPS system with the diesel guy’s address and then deliver the parts to his shop.  Where I will also look over my engine and get a commitment on delivery and reinstallation.

Have a good week, and keep watching this page.  More to come, we are starting to get into the active stage again and the 1st Mate, our two Sea Cats and the Skipper will be looking forward to finally getting to occupy our floating home.

 

Well, here we are nearing the end of July!  Today marks the end of the third week that we have been waiting for the engine to be prepared for reinstallation in the Misty Lady’s engine room.  Tuesday next, will mark the fourth week since the engine was removed from the boat, through the port windows.  Remember it was to take about two and a half weeks from removal to reinstallation!

The engine technician had contacted me early last week and said that he was having difficulty finding two exhaust manifold units to complete the engine.  He said that he had contacted a company who could forge a new set but it would be September before they would be ready.  Needless to say, I balked!  Unacceptable I told him.  No way were we going to stay in this hotel until September, simply was not going to happen.

I decided to expand the search for engine components, contact other folks to aid in the search along with my own efforts.  I then contacted Alban (which is a national Cat dealer).  One of the boat owners in the yacht center had mentioned that he allowed NO ONE but Alban to touch his diesels.  So, remembering that conversation, I contacted the local dealer.  Now remember that the diesel technicians working on the engine has quoted me from three weeks to two months to get those parts!  The Alban folks indicated that they could have the entire exhaust manifold kit in house for me to pick up within 5 to 8 days!!!  Guess what I did?  Yep, placed the order and got the dealer moving to help us get the parts in and the engine repaired.

Today the temperatures will stay in the high 90s and feel like the low 100s.  So the diesel technician who is taking care of our port engine will most likely NOT go aboard to work on the fuel system for the port engine.  I have asked him to be very cautious about working on the boat in this heat.   He probably will bag it and come back down during the coming week, if the temps cooperate.  Don’t want anyone suffering heat stroke!!

The bridge canvas and the bridge settee was supposed to be installed yesterday, Friday.  But I received a message from the canvas guy that they were 99.9 percent complete and would have the canvas ready for installation on Monday or Tuesday!  This aspect has also been a long running effort, started with just the rear canvas because of storm damage to those panels.  Then the winds and stormy weather continued to tear at the other canvase panels and ripping two more of the larger side panels with gaping holes.

I decided that it was silly to try to stick with the old canvas and ordered a full replacement around the entire bridge.  This also gave me the opportunity of going with a different color scheme.  The new canvas will be navy blue rather than white.  Bring about some color to the outside look of the Misty Lady.  When he does the installation, I will photograph the new canvas installation and post the photos.

The graphics company has been working on the new name graphic for the Misty Lady.  We expect those to be ready shortly.  We will hopefully coordinate that for when the Lady is returned to the water.  Then we will have the renaming ceremony where we pour champagne over the bow sprit to offer Neptune a glass and beseech him for fair winds and calm seas for our seafaring travels.

We have already charted out first voyage, once we have returned the Lady to her home port.  We will be headed down to the area called Hampton Roads and visiting ports in Hampton, Virginia Beach, and Norfolk.  Then several voyages on the Potomac to various historical spots in the interim.  Next spring (late spring of course) we will point the Layd’s bows toward the north and visit Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Island.

Want to come along?