With his anchor line now tangled and causing havoc, the guy in the 50′ SeaRay decided to cut his anchor line and high tail it out of dodge – only to leave the 3 rafted boats, now floating, uncontrollably, toward a number of other anchored boats.

It was at that moment Donna came up to the helm, turned on the blower switch and said “We are out of here!”.

Guys (and Gals), its ALL ABOUT BOATING SAFETY out there on the water.  Its not just you in your 50′ boat trying to show off, there are 100′s of other folks out just trying to have a good time.  Be cognizant of what is going on around you.  Just because you have a little $ doesn’t entitle you to anything out there on the water.  Think!  When traveling around a bunch of boats in an anchorage, it is obviously a no wake zone, so treat it as such.

This brings up another great story my dad sent to me which comes from Cape Town So. Africa.  I learned most all of my water skills from my Dad.  He is always making sure that you understand mother nature when your out on the water and be especially careful of marine wild life.  Donna and I love to go to Stellwagen and see the whales and sometimes, before you know it they can be pretty close.  This guy obviously got too close.

Now, I have to think that the whale did more than $5,000 worth of damage, but do you think this guy will ever get that close to marine wild life again?

My dad is actually coming to visit me tomorrow and we are going for a nice boat ride and I am looking forward to it.

Safe boating all you captains!

Captain Steve

It was a great day on the water.  We motored back to the dock and relaxed until the fireworks.  This year, just across from Constitution Marina there were a lot of fire works and very impressive.  Here is to another great 4th.

Captain Steve

]]> http://www.bostonboatingblog.com/another-great-july-4th/feed/ 0 http://www.bostonboatingblog.com/fishing/ http://www.bostonboatingblog.com/fishing/#comments Mon, 05 Jul 2010 15:09:31 +0000 Captain Steve http://www.bostonboatingblog.com/?p=543

Now who would have guessed this?  Tony and Kathy picked up a new boat.  The name of their boat is called Pipe Dream III.  Well, as everyone at the marina will tell you it is difficult to move your “house” whenever you want to go for a boat ride so Tony picked up a nice 23′ center console for bombing around the harbor.  Its a really cool boat.  The name of this boat is Day Dream.  Combine Day Dream, with Tony, Steve, Ryan and Paul’s spirit of adventure and you now have the newest boat in the Constitution Marina’s fishing fleet.

Day Dream makes a few trips a week and Tony and Ryan bring the fishing captain Paul out for lessons on how to fish Boston’s harbor a couple of times a week.  It is a great time all around.  The stripers are really running this year (as are all the fish) and as you can see here – even Ryan can catch a fish or two.

I am sure this boat may not do as much fish catching as Paul does on Reel Pursuit but I am sure there will be just as much fun.  I actually went out with the guys last weekend for a morning and it was a blast.  We had a great time, didn’t catch anything but had a great lunch at Marian Bay!

More fish stories to come.

Captain Steve

The Massachusetts Whale Boat Strikes Ground

On July 3rd, Donna and I were headed out of the harbor for a wonderful boat ride.  The sea was flat, it was really hot and I couldn’t wait to get off shore.  It is usually about 10 to 15 degrees cooler off shore.  As we were headed out of the harbor there was a great deal of chatter on the VHF radio, by the Coast Guard, about boats needing to go slow out by Deer Island and the South Channel.  It seemed that a boat had run aground.  Now this isn’t new – a lot of sail boats, not familiar with the area run aground – Donna and I have seen it a few times.

However, this time, as we came around the corner to head out to sea we saw the whale watching boat The Massachusetts.

The boat had run around and ripped open a gash in the hull with 170+ people on board.  A number of people came over to the boat and helped all of the passengers off the boat.  From what I understand there were only a few injuries and everyone made it off.  Sea Tow also showed up and was able to keep the boat from completely sinking and help salvage the boat.

It is very bizarre that this happened.  This is a very well marked channel and even buoys all around that show there are rocks everywhere.  I also have to believe that a Capitan of  a whale watching boat who has been doing this for a while would know this.  I am looking forward to the story that comes out after this.

On our way it it definitely looked like the Massachusetts was going to make it into dry dock and not to the bottom of the ocean.

Capitan Steve

It has been an interesting season at the marina so far.  I believe I had mentioned that Tony and Kathy upgraded their boat at the end of last season.  Now I am not sure I’d call them empty nesters but their girls are out of the house and they love the water.  They spent the winter visiting their boat in NC and then brought the boat up to Boston this spring.  It is beautiful as you can see on one of our trips to Peddock Island this spring.  The boat is a Meridan and has a great deal of living space on it.

Additionally, not that I may have mentioned it, but our good friend Steve has also been telling us for YEARS he is going to upgrade his boat a Carver.  He has had his eye on a Post for some time now.

Also, Frank, in About Time also wants to do an upgrade.  We too are thinking about it.  We are spending some much time on it in the summer that it just makes more sense to have a bit more living space on the boat.

Frank has had some bites on his boat and has also found a boat that he likes so that may happen.

Steve showed up at the Marina the other night in his new 46 Post – Congrats! and was able to sell his Carver.  Also, Donna and I have been speaking with Dan (who we bought our first boat from) and he has a leftover 37 Colbalt that could be a good fit for Donna and I.

The next trick is – can we all still be near each other on E dock at the marina?  Stay tuned to find out more!

I remember my mother telling me when I was much younger that if you truly had one good friend in your life that could consider yourself very lucky.  That thought has stuck with me over the years and I must admit I have always thought I was lucky because I have several “true friends”.  Now that being said I need to recap a bit on a this past Saturday of Memorial Day weekend.  As always we had a great party, good food from Blue Ribbon Barbecue as well as a strange concoction created by Tony.  We also played a bit of a prank on a local E dock Legend.  I will not go into all the details except to say a well coordinated effort was made to have almost 15 people dressed like Steve when he returned from picking up food.  It was an inside joke for those of us on E dock and I am sure that other people in the marina thought us a little strange dressed like each other.  However for us it was our way of giving Steve a hard time and letting him know that for all of us were are very lucky since we all share him as a true friend.  Steve you help all of us with whatever we need and we would be lost without you.  From all of us let me just say thanks.

Ryan

Toward the end of May the whole gang was finally back at the Marina and the season was shaping up to be a great one.  The weather forecasts for the summer weekends were looking good and it is going to be a fun relaxing summer.  We launched the boat in April just before I was scheduled to take a trip to London (canceled due to a silly volcano in Iceland) and then to Tel-Aviv.  As many of you may know I have a new job this summer (with not nearly all the perks = time off – as I had last summer).  I am working for a company called Storwize - they do real-time data compression and I am with my good friend there Ed Walsh (the guy in the bottom left hand picture) who is our CEO.  I digress.  Needless to say I have been doing  a bit more working this summer than boating but I am sure the end of the summer will see some catching up.  Donna’s family from Peru is coming this summer and we are very excited to take them for some boat rides.

In the spirit of getting caught up, I’ll have a few short posts here just to get us back on track.  Stay tuned!

Captain Steve

One thing I learned about the Israeli culture is that they work Sunday to Thursday.  So Friday and Saturday are their weekends.  This past Friday, Phil our Support manager, took me to Jerusalem.  All I can say is wow.  First, Phil was the best tour guide.  He had studied up on all the things he felt we would want to know about and took us around.  It was a magnificent trip.  (Phil also became a dad this week – Congratulations.)

These photos don’t do the country justice.  It really is beautiful over there.  Behind me in the picture you can see the west wall of and where a lot of folks go to pray.

Also, I’d love to do some boating on the Mediterranean some time as well.

Well, after a ‘late’ start – late being relative – the countdown clock said we would put the boat in the water on the 16^th but the weather was too poor.  However, the stars aligned (and a volcano went off) that canceled my trip to London so on Monday the 19^th the Donna Julie II was launched for the 2010 season.

The trip went well, and just like the day we left, the LNG tanker was leaving the harbor so we had to wait around for a while near Donna’s office (the Design Center) and then we made it into our slip.  I haven’t lost the parking touch.  We docked and we are now ready for the new season.

Next weekend I’ll be in Israel so I hope that the weather isn’t good enough for boating so I don’t miss anything.

More updates to come as it is the boating season again.

Captain Steve

So the big delay in the blog was after the Labor Day party I took off to Germany for 2 weeks for work.  It was a great trip.  The middle weekend I ran into one of my college roommates I hadn’t seen in 18 years – since college.  He and his family are living in Munich.  Chris took me around Munich and gave me a great tour and we got caught up – it was great.

The other season, come to find out, that a bunch of us are passionate about is the hockey season.

This year my friend Brian and I have a few seats to a bunch of Bruins games.  Ryan is passionate about the B’s and on Halloween Tony, Kathy, Ryan, Paul, Betty, Frank, Dale and bunch of other folks got a box at the Bruins.  They had a blast.

We will be looking forward to the Boston Boat Show this year.  It is always fun to look at new toys.  Rumor has it that Kathy and Tony upgraded already We shall see and are anxious to check it out.

Tony and Kathy held a great party at their house in NH for their daughter who is entering the Navy.  It was great to see them, they have a great pad, and a bunch of folks from the marina showed up and we hung out and had some FANTASTIC food.

Other than that not much is going on. Donna and I frequent our favorite Korean / Japanese Restaurant in Newton called Apgujung.  Jim is the bar tender there and he is super friendly and has become a good friend.  He even helped us celebrate Labor Day at the Marina.  I highly recommend checking out the joint.  Jackie, the owner is a great guy, always makes you fell welcome and does some great experimentation w/ Sushi and other dishes.

Steve and I are also working on Paul’s new web site for Reel Pursuit.  I am psyched to do it and I hope it lives up to Paul’s expectations, we want to make it great.

Donna and I are also redoing our kitchen, well I should say Donna is redoing our kitchen and I am sure it is going to be AWESOME.  If you don’t know, Donna is a kitchen designer by trade – the best in Boston I may add and is the Owner Operator of Venegas and Company.  If you need a kitchen in and around New England, its worth a trip to the Boston Design Center and check it out.

The marina Christmas party is in a couple of weeks and that should be fun.  We have a bunch more hockey to see.  I am planning on having folks over to watch the Olympics this year.  Olympic hockey is always great.

Well, I am sure there will be lots more news between now and the Boat Show – which is usually the start of the Boating Blog for the season, however not sure there will be many updates between now and then.  So, Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday’s and Happy New Year to all.  May it be safe and I look forward to boating and blogging next season.

Captain Steve K