Boston Boating Blog

Wow – What can I say?  I hate those guys who take forever to update their blogs but this season was a bit crazy.  I had a new job this boating season for a startup company and well, needless to say, seven trips to Israel later and it was tough to stay on top of the blog.  I used the time to be on the boat instead of write.  (The good news is we sold the company so I’ll be more up to date on the blog this season.)

Speaking of time on the boat, this summer was great.  Good weather and Donna’s family came to Boston for 2 weeks and we spend some great time on the boat. We also took the family fishing on Reel Pursuit charters with our good friend Captain Paul and the man of the hour was Donna’s cousin Cesar who caught a 36″ stripped bass.  We cooked it up and ate it and it was delicious!

We also did a lot of relaxing on the boat with the family.  Afternoons on the water, anchored and swimming.  It was all good fun.

Every 4th of July Donna’s uncle and his friends come down to the boat and this year was no exception.  It was a wonderful day.  Uncle Herbie, Jimmy & Sharon and Arthur and Lauraine came down for a nice ride.  The sun was out, it was hot but the seas were very calm.  Donna had got some lobster meat the night before so we were doing to have a feast on the water.  We motored out of the harbor nice and easy and kept on going for an hour or so.  Again, once off shore it was beautiful.  Very clam and very cool.  Here is a great shot of Jimmy with the city skyline in the back ground and a great picture of Donna Julie and her Uncle Herbie.

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

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!

Stardate September 6, 2009

It’s one of the weekends we look most forward to, as well as one of the weekends we look least forward to.  We look most forward to this weekend because it is one of the three weekends we all hang out at the dock or in the harbor for the whole weekend and we are with friends.  This weekend was no exception and this weekend was perfect weather.  We look least forward to this weekend because it means that the summer is winding down (even though I try to keep the boat in the water until mid Oct) there are only a few weekends left.

Friday Donna and I took her niece and their parents for a fun boat ride in Boston Harbor – it was a great way to start the weekend.

On Saturday Donna and I did one of our most favorite things – we anchored out at Peddock Island and just relaxed for a few hours.  Then Paul from Reel Pursuit wanted to have some photos of his boat taken so he brought his boat

out into the harbor and we met up with him and Donna took about 300 pictures with the new camera – here is a great shot of Paul’s boat.

After we took our photos, Paul, Betty, Donna and I along with Steve all went to dinner.  We wanted to get some good rest because Sunday was our big Labor Day party.  This weekend, we decided to forgo all of the hot dogs, hamburgers and sausages and try something a bit more creative than a simple ‘meat fest’.  The thing we tried this weekend was that each boat was to pick a country they wanted to represent.  Then, they needed to bring to the party a food an beverage from that country.  We had a diverse set of countries selected, Germany, USA (ha – Donna and I took the easy way out), Spain, BVI (British Virgin Islands – yeah, the Pussers Rum killed me), Italy, and Cuba.  We had a blast.  Some people even decided to dress up for the occasion.  I made this fun Animoto video from some of the pictures - I hope you enjoy it.  (If the movie below doesn’t play, select the hyperlink above.)

Stay tuned for some updates for the last few weekends and pray for an Indian Summer.

Captain SteveK

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 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!

Great conditions as you can see.

Air Temperature: 78 Degrees
Water Temperature: 51 Degrees – wish I had my suit.

Donna and I took the day off and did some power lounging on our power boat. We had a great day – again!

We took a ride up to Gloucester and saw some more of the sites in the harbor. We also say some big fishing trawlers heading out to drag the ocean.

We also saw various other sites while in Gloucester – a nice old wooden boat being restored, the lobsterman coming in with a flock of sea gulls and a good samaritan towing someone in.

As we headed back to Boston Donna drove. She is really getting the hang of this whole captain thing and I am really getting used to relaxing.

We took some time and floated out in the open ocean and saw the sites. The Environmental Police came out and said “hi”. Two trips two boardings. We have some safe waters here in Boston.

I figured out how to use the GPS to tell me which course to follow. I knew I would figure it out.

During our ride, we confirmed the new arrival of the Donna Julie II. We are very excited for that.

We pulled into our slip at around 6:30, and again, we did a good job parking. Now that I am used to it, I am going to throw everything off with a bigger boat. Oh well. Practice, practice, practice.

Another great day on the water.