Boston Boating Blog

Stardate July 19, 2009

Sunday was an exciting day.  It was the first day this summer when Adele, Donna’s niece was coming for a boat ride.  The rumor was she had been wearing her life jacket all week in preparation for her trip.  We had a ton of fun.  Adele, her mom and dad, Monica and Ryan, Donna and her mom, Gloria and I all took a 4 hour tour around Boston Harbor.  We saw the planes take off from Logan and we went by George’s Island to see the forts and then we ended up anchored off of Peddock’s Island where the Iroquois, the yacht owned by Red Sox owner John Henry was also anchored.  This is a very beautiful boat.

We see this boat around the harbor quite frequently.  We hung out for a while and had brunch and then played with the hose and got Captain Adele all wet and then headed back to the marina and we let Captain Adele drive for a bit.

It was a very nice day for all of us.

Looking forward to next weekend. I am participating in a fishing tournament sponsored by Sperry Top-Sider.  Captain Paul from Reel Persuit will be taking a few of us from the marina on the trip and after the last trip, I am really looking forward to this.  Hope to see you all out there.

Signing off, Captain SteveK

Stardate July 11 / 12 2009

Well the weather is really shaping up for July.  It was a great weekend.  Starting Friday afternoon I took Uncle Herbie and his close friends Jimmy and Sharon on a tour of the harbor to see the Tall Ships that were in town.  While Mayor Menino messed everything up for the Tall Ships (first time they have been here in 10 years) we still got to see them and it was a great sight.  I have to say, it was funny seeing the Boston Police boats in the harbor with their ‘extended’ families on the boats seeing the sights and then on the local news Sunday night for ‘misappropriation’ of funds / equipment – call it what you want.  It wouldn’t have been so bitter sweet if they hadn’t been such jerks on the water – but I digress.

Saturday was AWESOME as well.  My Dad came down to the boat for a trip to see the ships.  Can’t get any better – he loves boating, tall ships and the water – a true tripple play – well and he got to hang out with Donna and I – how does it get any better?  We took a nice tour, again, of the harbor and saw some very cool ships and then we took a nice tour of the inner islands.

The reality is my Dad took the trian down from Maine and paid $50 just to see if I had actually learned how to drive / park the boat.  I have to say, I did a good job given the pressure.

So Mayor Menino did everything in his power to screw up even the tall ships coming into Boston, but I have to say it was a nice weekend in spite of it all.

On Sunday, another great day, our friends Brian and Jenny came down for a boat ride along with our bud Steve from the marina.  Again we drove around the harbor to see the ships and then we anchored off of Peddock’s Island again to relax and feel the cool breeze.  While we were there we saw one of the coolest boats EVER.  It was probably 90 feet long and very sleek and stealth.  As we drove by it had its back open and had launced 2 jet skies and a tender.  Beautiful boat.

After we got back to the marina it was one of those nights where EVERYONE was there and having a great time.  By the time Donna and I got out of there it was 10PM and we missed dinner.  Oh well, I can eat any time.

Until next time this is Captain SteveK signing off.

Thanks for reading!

Stardate 7/4/2009*

Well, three times a year we have a BASH at the marina.  Memorial Day, Labor Day and yup, the 4th of July.  This year was no exception.  It ends up being a lot of laughing, lots of company and a huge eating fest with tons of meat – sausage, hot dogs and hamburgers.

The day started around noon.  The usuals were there, Paul, Betty Anne, Frank, Dale, Donna, Steve, Ron and Mary Ann and myself.  The visitors

were Megan (Donna’s friend) and her daughter Isabella and Megan’s Dad, Steve, who we affectionately call Steve 19.  Then of course, it wouldn’t be one of the holidays at the marina without Uncle Herbie and Jimmy.  Then more folks showed up.  Scott, Paul’s first mate and Betty Anne’s nice showed up Kerri and her friend, who we met the previous week, Julie.  Also, for the first time, Donna’s cousin Felipe came to the boat.  Scott, Kerri, Julie and Felipe came to the marina later and stayed for the fireworks, the rest of the folks headed home to watch the fireworks.

Earlier in the day the U.S.S. Constitution was moved from it’s slip and taken out into Boston Harbor.  This year I was on the dock at the marina versus being in the water.  I was actually closer to it than you can get if you were to be out in the water.  This year it was a bit less impressive.  The ship is undergoing some construction so as you can see, the masts are half off, and the deck is covered as they do their work.  Regardless, it is exciting to watch the oldest commissioned Naval vessel move from her slip and the production it takes to make it happen.  There were 4 tugs, 2 smaller Coast Guard boats, 1 Coast Guard cutter, multiple Boston Police boats, multiple Environmental Police boats and, of course, tons of boaters trying to catch a glimpse or trying to bypass the show to get up the Charles to anchor for the evenings festivities.

After I watched the Constitution head out, Jimmy and Uncle Herbie showed up.  Jimmy’s wife Sharon made an outstanding grape salad.

Then the meat fest started with the George Forman grills.  We spend a lot of time grilling and cleaning and getting ready for the next meal, or should I say meals because once the grilling begins, it usually doesn’t end until the traffic from the fireworks is over.

It started to get dark and at 8:41 4 F-15′s did a flyover the Lenny Zakim bridge and up the Charles River, it was pretty awesome.  Steve and his family headed up to the Charles to

watch the fireworks, but more importantly, they stop every year and linger around the locks to see all of the boaters, with little to no experience try to navigate the locks.  It’s not hard, but when you have 1000 boats trying to go through in a day mixed with little experience and perhaps a few adult beverages, you get chaos.

We had the radio’s on the boat going and Ron even brought out his TV so we could hear and see the Boston Pops, live with Neil Diamond.  Oh yeah, ‘Coming To America’ and ‘Sweet Caroline’.  We were belting it out on the dock for all of Boston to hear.  And then the show started.  Boston ALWAYS does a great job with the fireworks.

After they were finished, we cooked up another 10 hotdogs, I think we all had one and then hit the hay.

The next day was beautiful too.  I think we ‘willed’ the weekend to give us nice weather.  It was too windy all weekend to get in a good boat ride, but it was really nice to be outside all weekend.  On Sunday we all just sat around, enjoyed the sun, worked on our boats, relaxed, read, ate some more meat and had a fun day.  Well, right up until the Boston Police Department showed up.

Each year, around the July time frame the BPD comes by to make sure everyone has their morring permit.  (Why on God’s green earth they would show up on a holiday weekend on a Sunday at probably double time pay when the state is in such dire straights with the economy is really assinine but I digress.)  Well, because Donna and I moved this year, the address on my boat documentation and the address for the moring permit were differnt so they couldn’t send me my permit – forget the fact that I paid for it 6 months ago and have called them 3 times to see where it was and each time they said, “Oh, yeah, we see you have paid, no problem, we are just a bit behind and we will mail it out to you soon.”  Yeah right.  Anyway, I got that taken care of this week so we shall see if they finally send it.

On a side note, Ryan, Mike and Kevin headed to Newport for the 4th.  I am anxious to see if Ryan is going to send me some photo’s to update the blog.  We missed them this year but I am sure they had a great time.

Signing off for now, Captain SteveK

Oh, the tall ships are in this week – stay tuned for more pictures and an update. Read the rest of this entry »

Stardate 6/27/09

I know a lot of people have been complaining about the weather, but really.  I look at it like, there are really only about 18 to 20 good boating weekends in New England and you have to make the most of all of them and I think Donna and I do a pretty good job.  We are about 35% of the way through the boating season and we have already put about 50 hours on the boat.

So, even though the weather forecast didn’t look good for the weekend, Donna and I headed down on Friday night and spent the night.  It is

always good to watch a movie on the boat and be rocked to sleep.  We got up the next morning and it was beautiful.  We decided to make a steam out to Stellwagon – we still haven’t done that this year.  As we were heading out to sea, we were around Graves Light and I could see the fog coming at me faster than I was headed toward it.  So we turned around and when to our favorite anchor spot by Peddock Island.  Well, something when very right that day and we picked the perfect spot.  The fog did roll in, but we were in the sun for about 6 hours.  It got so foggy we couldn’t see the city but above us is was very nice.

It did start to get a bit chilly and cloudy so we headed back to the marina.  When we got there, Paul, Betty Anne, Steve and Betty Anne nice and some of her friends were all there.  They had said, the day was beautiful on the doc too but it looked like it was going to rain.  The thing I love about the marina though, it didn’t matter.  We all hung out, under the tarp on Paul’s boat and played some games, had a few drinks and a ton of laughs.  I forget sometimes – its a family there – a very fun family.

Next weekend – 4th of July – I can’t wait!  Until then…

Posted by Captain SteveK

Okay, I am not one to complain, but the boating season in Boston is really only about 16 weeks long (unless your hard core like Donna and I and pull out about 20 to 21 weeks) but its not that long.  Especially when you consider that you really only use the boat on the weekends and there are maybe a handful of weekends where you get an extra day here or there.

The past two weekends have left us with only an afternoon or evening at the boat, some dinner with great friends and then home to get out of the rain.  I mean, it doesn’t stop Donna and I from watching a movie or two on the boat, in the rain and then heading home.  Oh well.  Maybe next weekend we will get out for a nice long ride.  Still looking forward to that first trip to Stellwagon to see some whales.

Let me leave you with a really nice photo some of the gang took after a rain storm.  See you on the high seas.

Posted by Captain SteveK

Stardate June 4^th 2009

We reinstated the Wednesday dinners at the marina this year, but this week we did it on Thursday.  We have ALL been craving Tony’s lasagna since, well, in my case, last year.  Tony made a double batch (I think he actually made like 10.)  We devoured his lasagna in minutes.  It was FABULOUS!  THANKS TONY!!!

And for a little walking music – here is a breif Animoto video I did of our boats at the marina.

Posted by Captain SteveK

(Let’s hope this is still the case when Monday Night Football comes on!)

The text message I got from my friend Kevin this past Monday night after work was simple, BOAT RIDE = NOW. My reply was even more simple and to the point, DONE. That is how it all began, we had the engines turned over and the lines off Second Beach faster then ever before. We had a simple plan, take a quick run into the harbor and come back to the Marina. We could not have asked for better conditions in the harbor as the water was like glass and the weather was perfect. We could have ended the night at that point when we docked at the marina, but are friend Mike had just returned from his first day of work after 2 months of vacation. He had the look on his face of a kid who has just had his summer vacation come to and end when he has to return to school. In one of those strange moments that we all come up with the same thought Second Beach was heading back out to go through the locks and catch the sunset on the Charles. We hit the dock which we have affectionately named point “alpha delta” and turned just in time to watch a phenomenal sunset. The return trip to the marina was amazing, I have traveled over the Zakim Bridge many times in my life but few know what it looks like from underneath on a boat at night. I will leave you all with this final thought. Try something different next Monday and I am sure the rest of your week will continue to get better.

Posted by Ryan

Note from Captain SteveK

Ryan, I have to say these pictures are AWESOME and you truly have captured what life is at the marina and on the water.  Here’s to a great summer!

Stardate May 29^th 2009

Okay, so I am a bit late on my posting.  The nice thing about having a decent amount of knowledge in the social networking arena is it helps me to propagate the blog.  Last week I saw a comment on my Facebook page from Amy suggesting that Donna and I take the boat up to Salem and go to one of their local watering holes at the marina there.  Amy is John’s wife.  John is a good friend and colleague from work.  Donna wasn’t feeling up to it this weekend, so I offered to John and Amy that if they were up for getting off the North Shore for a bit and wanted to come to Boston I would be more than happy to take he, his wife and their two kids for a fun ride around the harbor.

Around 1:30, after I spent an hour helping our local sailing buddy Mike with his sails (trust me it was like the blind leading the blid), John and the family showed up and we took a great ride around the harbor.  It was a bit breezy but we got to see the city from the harbor and we saw Codzilla running about as well.

It was a very fun afternoon except for the parking job that day.  The wind had died down right up until it was time to park, isn’t that always the case?  I made it down the fairway and just in time for the turn, the wind came up, took the front of the boat and pushed it right back where it came from.  Well, of course I panicked (but kept cool) and with the help of ALL of our friends on the dock, I was able to get the boat into the slip.  Whew…  We did have a fun ride.

Stardate May 16, 2009

It was time.  All good things must come to an end.  Donna J – the real thing, was in NY for an event, but I went out into the deep blue sea to watch the Volvo Ocean Racing sailboat leave Boston Harbor.  It was a foggy day as these guys headed to Ireland.  Also, the race began, which must have been planned for a year, and, while again tuned to channel 67 on the VHF, we heard the announcer say, base on the fact it was too foggy to see them, that an oil taker was coming down the middle of the harbor.  Delta Loyd and Telefonica Blue stopped racing and according to the announcer were waiting for the marshals to signal a restart.  That never happened and all the boats kept racing.  Very strange.  I figure all the Bostonian power boaters were just tired of the sailboats and just said, ‘who cares’.  Pretty poor form for Boston if you ask me.  Anywho, all the boats raced around their respective buoys an headed off to Ireland.  It was great to have you all and we look forward to your next stop here on Bean Town!

Posted by Captain Steve

BTW: If you have been following me on Twitter as Captain SteveK – I am moving to my original identity – skenniston.  I’ll be sending out a Twitter note too.

Stardate May 9th 2009

This weekend my friend Tom wanted to see the Volvo Ocean Race – Boston In-port Race Series.  At first I thought that it would be just ‘okay’ fun.  I have to say I was blown away.  First, there were over 200 boat that headed out to Graves Light just outside of Boston Harbor to watch the race.  On the way out, we saw one of the most interesting boats made.  It is called the Forge and was at the Boston Boat Show for the past two years but this

was the first time I had seen one in the water.  Very interesting boat.  The race was supposed to start around 12:00.  I think due to the lack of wind the race officials were trying to see if they waited for a bit, if the wind would pick up.  I mean what good is a sailboat race without wind.  It was amazing to watch these boats set up for the start of the race.  It was also interesting to watch as the race started, it looked like one set of boats went one way and the other boats went the other way.  It was all in their strategy to get the best tack to get ahead of the other boats.  Very cool to see.

While we in floating around and watching and trying to figure out what was going on, I was flipping through the VHF Radio channels and came across a British guy giving a play by play of the race.  He was the funnest part of the day.  He had a ton of funny analogies for what was going on in the water including the title of this piece.  You have to laugh, a 5 knot wind, boats going anywhere from 5 to 7 knots is not really a drag race, but that is exactly what he called it.

I am not going to try to show off all the cool photos.  Instead I am going to point you to a web site, where all the photos taken are courtesy of Tom who took some outstanding photos (http://bostonvolvooceanrace.shutterfly.com/).  I will show off only one photo.  It is the American boat Puma – pronounced Peu-ma by our now famous British announcer.  Nice pics Tom!

The race ended and we headed back into the harbor.  The boats take off to Galway Ireland on the 16th of May so I encourage you to check them out at Fan Pier before they leave.  I also understand that Ireland will be hosting the festivities on Thursday and Friday nights (the 14th, and 15th) so you know there will be lots of Guinness.  When they do leave on Saturday, it promises to be real exciting.  They will leave Fan Pier and head down the channel toward the Constitution.  They will go around a marker and head back up the channel and out past Deer Island and off to Ireland.  GO PUMA!

Lastly, my other hobby, watching the Bruins, they play the Hurricanes this week and need to win in order to advance to the next round of the Stanley Cup.  Go B’s!

Another great day on the water.  See you around the harbor.

Posted by Captain SteveK