Boston Boating Blog

Stardate August 16, 2009

I am one of the luckiest people around.  Last weekend I had the distinct pleasure of taking out what I would call my best friends on a trip to Stellwagen Bank to go see some whales.  These are friends of mine I have had for years and don’t get to see all that often.  They are ALL not only friends by mentors as well.  There is Ed, who was the CEO of my last company and sold it to the company I currently work for EMC. and Ed is local to Boston.  Next there is Bob who is the managing partner at Ridge LLC.  Bob has had every cool job on both coasts there is to have including working for Scott McNealy from Sun Microsytems and has some great stories.  There is John who is a brilliant engineer, partner at Ridge and sold his first company to Nortel for north of $5B, Bob and John are from Reno, NV (or Silicon Valley).  Then there is my friend Brian who is an investor, working for an investment firm and has such a great grasp of technology and business its staggering, another local friend.  Then my good friend Mike.  Mike is a business, technology and M&A guru, from NJ.  When we get together it is one story after another about technology, business, M&A everything and it is fun, exciting, intellectually stimulating and can even be heated at time.

This weekend they were all in Boston and we took a trip to Stellwagen to see some whales.  The trip out was fantastic. It was like a lake on the water all day.  I was a bit nervous as we got out there and floated around for a while we didn’t see any whales.  We made some lunch, had some great conversation and then, as always, Stellwagen didn’t disappoint as witnessed from this video from Ed’s camera and a couple of pictures.

You can see how flat calm the water was.  After we saw the whales we took off and headed back into Boston Harbor.  It was hot on the dock when we left, but being at sea we were at least 10 degrees cooler.  Also, at one point I checked the water temperature while we were out there and it was over 80 degrees.  That is super warm for the ocean.

We got back to the dock around 3:30 and decided to hang out and wait for our other good friend Tom (who went with us and took the great pictures of the sail boats earlier this year.  Tom joined us and we spent some more time, having a few cocktails, having some snacks and just having a great time.

Next weekend doesn’t look so great for boating due to the hurricane (Bill) coming through so perhaps I can get caught up on a bunch of stuff I need to do this summer, like mow my lawn for a change.

I want to say thank you to Ed, Bob, John, Brian, Mike and Tom for making the day a great day.  I want to thank Donna for letting me take off on such a great day and say I can’t want to hang out again, soon.

See you all on the water.  Captain SteveK

Stardate July 31 – August 4, 2009

Okay, I really hate bloggers that apologize for long delay’s between posts – I mean come on, I do have a day job.

So, two Saturday’s ago, friends of ours at the marina Dale, and Frank tell us that at our favorite hangout, the 2009 Aquapolooza (a large boat ‘raft up’ sponsored by SeaRay) is happening at Peddock.  Well, we steamed over to anchor up with the other 200 (that is right 200) other boats.  In the middle of the anchored boats was a very large party boat with 4 bands on board playing to their hearts content.  Everyone in the water was having a great time, even Donna. I got out our tube, blew it up and Donna was hanging out in the H20 having a beverage.  She then took a swim over to our friends boat and hung out.  Frank came and got me on the dingy.  Saturday was a lot of fun.

On Sunday we went home, did some errands and got ready for the next two days on the boat.  Sunday evening we cam back to the boat to sleep over (mainly because our air conditioner at home was on the fritz and we were getting some of the nicest days all summer.  We did what we do best, had a nice dinner, hung out and watched a movie on the boat and then went to sleep.

Monday was FANTASTIC.  We headed to Stellwagen Bank to see some whales.  People ask, why Stellwagen?  The ocean floor at Stellwagen goes from 200+ feet deep to about 90 feet deep.  Along the edge of the under water plateau, the water changes temperature and make it ripe for food to grow for smaller fish.  Big fish eat small fish as you go up the food chain so there are all types of fish on the bank.  (The picture on the left shows the ocean floor and the areas where fish gather.)

The trip out and back was great, the water was nice and calm but we only saw a few baby whales in the distance, nothing really spectacular.  We did follow a school of bait fish for a few minutes and Donna got on the bow of the boat and saw some tuna chasing them but that only lasted for a few minutes.  We floated around for about 2 hours, had some lunch and headed home.

The next day was super special.  We had yet to go to Spectacle Island, the island that evolved from dirt from the ‘Big Dig’ project in Boston.  We went with two of Donna’s favorite people, Uncle Herbie and Adele.  We had a blast.  We walked around the island, we walked in the water, we

took a little swim and we had some lunch.  Miss Adele was all to happy to eat Donna’s hot

dog for lunch.  After lunch we took a tour around the islands and then headed back to the marina so we could meet up with Donna’s colleague from work Meaghan and her friend and go for a little tour around the islands and just get out of the heat.  It was one of the first evening cruises we had taken all summer and it was wonderful.

The next day was ‘back to work’.  A total bummer but all in all we had a great time off.  It was very relaxing and I am very happy we are getting some good boating time in this summer.

See you on the water.

Captain SteveK

Meaghan tour

Stardate May 23, 24, 25 2009 – Memorial Day Weekend ‘09

Ah, one of the greatest days of the boating summer, Memorial day.  It started out ‘hot as hell’ on Friday evening and Donna and I along with our friends Kathy and Tony took a ride ‘off shore’ about 3 miles to cool off.  It was at least 20 degrees cooler near Graves Light than it was in the harbor.  It was fantastic.  This was followed by first, a fantastic parking job, again, by me, and then a few beers and not enough food.

I should also point out the great friends boat people become.  I arrived at the boat on Friday to find my water pump not working – I am sure some sort of user error on my part.  That said, I had no shortage of people offering to help me fix / replace it and offering up tools and tape.  On Saturday I picked up a new water pump – it was too choppy to go for a ride anyway, and by Saturday afternoon, the pump was replace and Donna, her friend Megan, her daughter Isabella and her friend and I all went for a nice boat ride.

We ended up near Winthrop and notices a boater (small motor boat) in distress.  His engine wouldn’t start, so we gave him a tow back into Winthrop harbor and he was most thankful.  See, I knew those captain’s classes would come in handy and SeaTow missed out on a few bucks.

Sunday was the day.  The E Dock Cookfest.  Way too much meat, and way to much Jamakin’me Crazy – a drink concocted by our good friend Tony.  Jamakin’me Crazy quickly turned into Jamakin’me Sleepy for some and a few caught a quick nap.

It started to rain a bit, but just as fast as it started it stopped and we were grilling again.

Uncle Herbie and Jimmy D made it down again this year.  It is always great to have them down to the dock.  They are like family now.  They know everyone and everyone knows them.

We also had a slight mishap on Sunday.  Pre-beverage even, Ms. Donna Julie herself took a dip in the water.  As she stepped off the Donna Julie II she missed the dock and went right into the water.  She is a bit black and blue, and was a bit shaken up but she is fine now.

There was also a funny story (isn’t there always).  Our good friend Steve on Dive Inn has

his favorite tin mug that every holiday he breaks it out and drinks what ever bug juice we decide to have for that weekend.  Steve loves to brag about his tin cup and how special it is and cold it keeps his drinks.  Well at some point this year Kathy and Tony found this illusive tin cup and brought one back for each of us and we surprised Steve – guess he’s not so special any more.

Then came Monday.  We followed our friends Frank and Dale in About Time as they, and Paul & Betty Ann and Steve went fishing.  Donna and I went for a ride around the Boston Harbor Islands and floated in the sunshine and relaxed for a while.

Around noon we decided to head it and, what I thought, was call it a weekend.  I radioed Frank to see if they had caught anything and they had not and were heading in to.  We got back in to the marina and deiced to fire up the George Foreman grills one more time and have a late lunch and early dinner.  It was a great afternoon to wrap up a

perfect weekend.  Mike and Ryan sat around telling us about their ‘Top Ten Day’ and how they had a ‘Top Ten Day’ (see Ryan’s post).  Not sure we had a ‘Top Ten Day’  but each day was pretty fantastic.

As my dad always says, a bad day on the water is better than any good day at work.  A men to that!

Check out this quick video I made on Animoto (you have to check it out www.animoto.com) of the weekend.

Looking forward to the 4th of July.  Not to say that next weekend wont be as great!

Posted by Captain SteveK

Captain’s Blog – Stardate 4/24 – 4/27 2009

Let me set it up for you – here was the outlook on the water for this weekend so lets just say we were very excited to be on the water this weekend.  The weather was to be summer like all weekend and it was.  First, we spent the evening on the boat on Friday getting ready for a nice weekend.  It was great to see everyone and we had Donna’s friend Catlin and her new boyfriend out for a lovely evening cruise.  It was great.  Seeing Boston Harbor in the evening from the water is beautiful.  We spent the night and then the next day Donna and I took a ride up to Danversport Yacht club to see the new Cobalt 37 (that is for sale by our friends at East Coast Flight Craft) in the water.  I was supposed to test drive it on Friday, however a few technical difficulties, as well as  time, didn’t give me the chance to take it for a spin.  That is okay, when it is time to upgrade, that will be the vessel.  Here is a shot of what she looks

like in the water.  It truly is a beautiful boat.  It was a great day for a ride too.  First things first, we needed to fuel up at our favorite fuel dock, Mystic Fuel (I mention them because they are really great – friendly and fair, good service and the place is very clean), so 125 gallons later (at $2.60 a gallon, and they aren’t taking my $.20/gallon discount card this year) we shoved off.  It was warm and it was nice to take a long ride from Boston to Danversport.  We even went though the bridge in Salem that needs to swing open.  The boat also ran fantastic.  We are starting the summer with 290 hours on the boat and we shall see what we get for time on the boat this summer.

Here is a photo of me, proud as the day is long on our journey.  After our trip north, we came back and hit another one of our favorite spots which is an inlet near Peddock Island in Boston Harbor.  We anchored and had some lunch and read some magazines.  Very relaxing.   That night we felt like we had sun stroke so we had dinner at the 99 restaurant in Charlestown and then hit Target for some snacks and supplies – like a nice movie to watch that evening.  I have to say we fell asleep right away.

The next morning we hung out with our friends at the marina for a bit – they are called out below and affectionately called, the “Cast of Characters” (see below).  There were a bunch of people saying that the boats from the Volvo Ocean Race would be coming in that day around noon.  Donna and I didn’t know what that was but after a few questions, we were told that some big sailing race boats were coming into the harbor.  Well, they didn’t make it at noon, but some friends of ours did.   We got a call from our friends Paul and Betty Ann (Paul runs Reel Pursuit Charter Fishing and is docked next to us) and they had come to the marina for a visit – as Paul’s boat isn’t in the water yet.  Donna and I picked up Paul and Betty Ann and we then ventured back into a nice leisurely trip around Boston Harbor and Spectacle Island.  On the way back, around 4PM we saw the Ericsson 4 Sailboat come into the

harbor near Deer Island Light, which marked the end of the journey to Boston for these guys after a month or so at sea.  It was pretty amazing, they had 2 ‘protector’ boats around them, 2 Coast Guard boats and the MA State Police.  Once the boat got into Boston Harbor near Logan Airport the Boston Fire Boat lit off it’s hoses and gave them a real parade through the harbor.  There must have been 30 other boat around them as you can see in the photos.

We then headed back to the marina to call it a weekend after a tremendous day on the water.  We got back and for the 3rd straight time, I have been able to easily dock the boat, I think I am finally getting the hang of it.  We cleaned the boat down and sure enough it became a cast of characters evening.  We started out having a couple of cocktails and before you knew it, 2, became 3, became 4 and we were laughing and having a grand old time.  We even laid out a secret plan to ‘Jack Rabbit’

people that miss behave at the marina this year – more on that later, but don’t get caught miss behaving.  The other strange thing was it went from 88 degrees while the sun was up to about 40 degrees, it was freezing and here you can see Mike and I bundled up, float coats and blanket.  It finally got too cold and the next day was a work day so we buttoned up the boat, said good bye to our friends and we are looking forward to perhaps a nice Thursday evening cruise and another fun weekend next weekend.  That is all for now.

Posted by Captain SteveK

The ‘Cast of Characters’ from E Dock

Stevie - Dive In - NICE!

Ryan - Life Less Ordinary

Mike - no name - Working hard!

There will be more photo’s of the cast of characters as the summer rolls along so stay tuned, and thanks for all your comments and feedback.

Captain’s Blog – Stardate April 19, 2009

(Late post) – After not heading to the boat all day on Saturday for fear of rain, Donna and I went down and spent the day at the boat and marina on Sunday.  We cleaned her up – spic and span and she is REALLY ready for a great season.  We also spent some time getting caught up with some of our pals; Steve from Dive In and Ryan from Life Less Ordinary.  We had some drinks, dinner and spent the night on the boat.  The new mattress pad worked out super well so I thank the folks at Portland Boat Mattress.  I watched Miracle (for the 40th time) and fell asleep.  We woke up to a cold Monday – Patriots day but we had a nice time walking around Boston and going to the IMAX at the aquarium.

This weekend is supposed to be ROCKEN… 75 to 90 degrees all weekend.  Time for some boating.  Also, all the folks from the slips around us will be in so I am sure there will be some fun times.  Donna and I are also going to take the 37′ Cobalt out for a drive, just for fun and to dream…

Catch up with me after the weekend for an update on what happened and follow CaptainSteveK on Twitter for real time updates.

Posted by Captain SteveK

Captain’s Blog – Stardate April 17, 2009

There it is, look at that weather post for yesterday.  Easily the best day of the season so far.  After a failed attempt last weekend – due to an torrential downpour, we postponed the boat launch until today.  I headed to the marina at 6:30 am, took a taxi to East Coast Flight Craft (where I have the boat serviced – and they do an outstanding job) where we would take the boat to Salem for an early launch on a high tide.

I happened to mention to Dale, great service guy at East Coast, that last year one of my trim tabs had stopped working, so in a jiffy, Dale did some troubleshooting and found the problem.  This put us behind schedule about 2 hours, but it was well worth it in the end.

We trailered the boat through Middelton and Danvers and launched the boat in Danvers.  Every thing went smooth.  Boat was waxed and looking sharp, it started right up when we put it in the water, I backed it off the trailer and was on my way at about 10:30.  It was warm, and sunny, and the water was nice a calm.  I brought the boat out the channel and after the no wake zone fired her up to about 2800 rpms and in no time flat was easily doing 30 knots.  I took the boat around to Presidents Row in Boston Harbor in about 45 min where I coasted in the rest of the way at about 10 knots and enjoyed being one of the only boats in the harbor.  I gave a call to Donna Julie, working in HER new showroom at Venegas and Company in the Boston Design Center.  I drove by the ICA, the New England Aquarium and the left side of the shoreline.  I put up all the ropes and fenders and called in to Constitutuion Marina on Channel 69 so see if my slip was ready to pull into.  It was, and with that I headed down the fairway and – all by myself, put the boat in to slip E 60.  I washed her down, powered her up, and covered her and we are now, officially ready to start the 2009 boating season.  Stay tuned for more updates and follow Captain SteveK on twitter for updates.

Posted by Captain SteveK

It is time and I am very excited. Dad is coming down from Maine on the early train and we are driving to Salem and launching the Donna Julie II. We will be brining the boat from Danvers to Boston into Constitution Marina.

Some times they say, an uneventful trip is a good trip and in this case it certainly was. We left the Danvers river at approximately 12:20 and made it to the slip at Constitution Marina by 2:30 – then it took me another 20 minutes to park – ha ha – I still need to get my parking act together. It was a good day on the water.

We did see one dive boat but other than that. Just a simple good day.

Looking forward to blogging all summer long about our adventures.

That is right. This winter I took classes every Monday this winter for 16 weeks (4 more classes to go) I worked on achieving my captain’s license. Believe it or not, this would actually allow me to drive a boat of 100GT (gross tons). Can you imagine that?

I have to say I really took the class to be a smarter boater. (I really wish other Boston based boaters would do this – it gets crazy out there off the north east coast in the summer time.) We had an OUTSTANDING instructor. His name is Capt. Dyson. Capt. Dyson has a diving business and is one of the smartest guys I have met. The class was taught with the highest level of professionalism as well as knowledge that was practical to knowing how to proper operate a motor vessel. I have been very very impressed with this course.

So, I can’t wait to get on the water and use my new practical experience. See you all out there this summer.

Ah, you know know what that means? It means that in a VERY few short months, the boat will go back in the water and we will be having some fun in the summer sun!

Donna and I (and my Dad one day) went to the Boston boat show. It was great again! It was fun to “shop” knowing that no matter what, you were going to have your boat in the water in a few months. Donna was pretty funny. She decided to “board” the Environmental Police boat. She told them, they boarded us this summer so she felt it was only fair. Check this out…

Next we checked out this new boat we saw on the show floor. It was painted battle ship gray and was like no other boat I had ever seen. It was from a German company and they had already sold a half dozen of them. This was a pretty interesting boat.

We also spent some time on the new Cobalt 46 Yacht. Danny from East Coast Flightcraft had one of the new Yachts and it is beautiful. It was defiantly the princess of the party, the prettiest boat at the show.

Well, this winter I am going for my captain’s license. It is called a 6-PAK and I am pretty excited. I will be blogging about that until we hit the water again. Stay tuned.