Boston Boating Blog

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

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

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 2nd / 3rd 2009

After my trip to Fan Pier I took a ride over to our marina and the whole gang is back in town.

The black boat on the left is The Donna Julie II (ours) the one in the middle is About Time, Frank and Dale’s boat and the one on the right is Reel Pursuit – Betty Ann and Paul’s boat from Reel Pursuit Fishing Charters (and a link on the right hand side of my blog) and I encourage you, if your looking for a GREAT fishing charter to give Paul a call.  He and his first mate Scott (fisherman on the weekends and a local fire fighter during the week) will give you the best fishing trip in Boston Harbor.

And across from us, not shown in the above photo is Pipe Dream II, Tony and Kathy’s boat.  We are all very much looking forward to a very fun summer.

Stay tuned, there is much more to come, and check out some entries from some guest contributors to the blog.  Ryan Chmiel added a contribution just the other day.

Stay safe.

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.

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.

Okay, so it has been a while since I updated this crazy thing. It is one of those things, you start and you have the greatest intentions, but then you get busy, and well, you know…

So this summer we have done a TON of boating. We have spent over 200 hours on the water, 150 on the Donna Julie II alone and this week we are headed out on vacation. I am not sure what we are going to do during the week but for Labor Day weekend, we are headed to the Vinyard. I am excited about this.

This summer we have seen some pretty cool stuff. We were out in the harbor when the turned the Constitution around. We saw the 4th of July fireworks from the dock. We have also made some good friends at the marina.

We have seen some pretty amazing boats in the harbor as well. This is a photo of the “Turmoil” owned by the Founder of Lands End. This is a beautiful boat used for exploring. After one of our new marina friends did some research we found that this boat had circumnavigated the North pole starting in the Pacific Ocean. The only boat to do this since the early 1900′s. Additionally this boat carried a Hinkley Picnic boat as it’s run about. (Very Nice)

Also, as you can see, my dad made a couple of trips down and this time he did some “skippering” of the boat. It has been nice to have him down for a visit. He takes the train, I pick him up, we do some boating, catch a burger and then he catches the evening train home.

A few weeks ago this summer, I went to Knoxville, TN to see the launch of the new Cobalt 47. This is one BEAUTIFUL yacht. It has a ton of cool features such as the Zuse drive system, a “skyhook” connected to the GPS system and an in-board modular control system by E-Plex. And for just $950K this boat could be yours. No, I didn’t go to buy one, but I do hope at some point during this winter I can help the guys at East Coast Flightcraft sell one and perhaps make some commission $$$.

Also, it is getting close to the time when I can start my captain’s license classes. Who knows, maybe if I sell a company or two more, I can retire and drive the Ferry back and forth to P-town…

Aside from just more of the same – heading out of the harbor on some new adventure, it has been status quo. I promise to keep up the blog – especially during this vacation and as we venture off to Martha’s Vinyard this coming weekend.

Keeping it between the buoy’s this is Captain Steve signing off.