PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Dawn Nevill was downright giddy on a sunny winter morning just before Christmas in Portsmouth.

The 71-year-old Queens native turned Cape Charles convert was in town to pick up her new 65-by-22 foot baby: the Elizabeth River Ferry III.

The blue and white boat that ferried passengers between Norfolk and Portsmouth for over 40 years was just retired in 2023. In November, it was put up for public auction online, where Dawn swooped it up for a cool $160,000, fending off a late bidder in the process.

“I was bargain shopping and it worked,” joked Dawn, who was hoping to spend under $200K.

She says she never imagined doing this sort of thing until she saw the auction listing. She’s never had her own boat — not even a kayak — despite being the daughter of a sailor. But an idea popped into her head that she just had to pitch to her husband Jim, who was an ocean away in his native England at the time.

“He said ‘what would you do with it if you got it?’ I said well I’d have cruises at lunch time, dinner time, I’d have live music put a bar on it and party on,” said Dawn about the plans to take the boat out of Cape Charles.

“I’m going ‘oh yeah ok, well so much for the retirement plan,” joked Jim, who moved to Cape Charles just over a decade ago after the pair met online. Their first date was at Cheesecake Factory, and they got married in Vegas by Elvis in 2014.

Watch above: Dawn talks about meeting her husband, getting married in Vegas.

“This just arrived out of nowhere and we thought we have to do this,” Jim said. “So it’s inspired Dawn, she’s got the energy back and good luck now with medical treatments, so she’s bubbly and bouncy again.”

You wouldn’t have known it on this day, but Dawn’s been getting blood transfusions and chemotherapy treatments for the past seven years.

“I was bleeding internally all the time … we had a bed and breakfast and a restaurant and I was the one cooking, did a lot of work, and to work 12 to 14 hour days to not even being able to work for two hours is horrible,” Dawn said.

Watch above: Dawn talks more about her condition, recovery, and the future.

She credits her recovery to the staff up the road at Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital.

“The nurses are beyond compare and the few doctors I love, it’s a wonderful team … Dr. Kerbin, that’s the cancer person that put this together for me. The chemotherapy that I’m taking stops blood vessels from forming or bleeding, and it works on some people and some people it doesn’t. And thank God it does work on me. So we’re pumped.”

With just four treatments left to go, she’s ready to raise the anchor and cruise into a new phase in her life — one that’s a little busier than previously expected.

“So this rascal is going to take up a lot of my time, and it’s better to not plan a funeral and to plan runs on the boat, cruises, things to make people happy.”

The ferry could take about 150 passengers at a time in its old gig. but Dawn says she’ll cut that down by half to make sure everyone’s comfortable, with a max of about 85 for wedding parties.

“I want the Eastern Shore girls to be able to have your weddings on our boat … so if you’re getting married girls on the Eastern Shore, give me a holler.”  

In addition to weddings, Dawn hopes to take cruises out to the nearby Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, and the famous “concrete ships” off Kiptopeke State Park.

She wants two bathrooms and two bars onboard, and maybe even a chandelier. The ferry will also get colors — red, white and blue — and a new name: the Chesapeake Queen.

“I want it look like a New Orleans steamboat. She’s isn’t but I want to make her look like a riverboat because she already has the paddle on the back. I just wanted to pretty it up and make it look authentic like it has tin ceilings in different places. I just really want to make it look like something from the 1920s.”

Dawn says she’s just thrilled to offer the experience for those in Cape Charles, which has evolved a lot since she first moved there in 2002.

“The few people that we’ve told are really excited. And everybody said ‘oh my goodness it’s so great for Cape Charles cause we don’t have anything like that. And I’m glad she’s staying here. She’s gonna be on the Bay, she’s right here, locally, yay!”

Dawn and Jim have already assembled a crew to operate the boat, and if all goes as planned, they hope to start the cruises in late spring 2024 … not long after Dawn’s last treatment.

“This is the start of my new, the start of the rest of my life.”