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

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

Stardate or carbon date?

On Saturday my good friend, whom I met while working for this new company Assaf, brought us to the Sea of Galilee.  The Sea of Galilee is in the middle

of Israel (north and south) and on the Israel, Syrian and Jordan boarder.  We drove to Tiberias and along the shore of the Sea.  A long time ago this Tiberias was a big vacation spot in Israel as it was on the water.  However, over the last few decades the sea has evaporated leaving a lot of land between the hotels which were once on the Seas beaches.  Now the big place to vacation in Israel is Elat.

As a part of this evaporation however a few young scientists were walking along the sea’s edge and found some wood sticking up out of

the mud.  They began to dig and when they did they had found a treasure.  As they dug in the middle of where the wood was sticking up, as they removed too much mud the sides of the wood would cave in.  Also, as the wood began to dry out it would disintegrate.  They brought a team of people in to look at what this structure may be and how to preserve it as they try to unmask it.  A team of researches did a number of test on the wood as well as nails in the wood and came to the conclusion that this was a 2000 year old boat.  (Now some people believe it is the boat that Jesus sailed on in the Sea of Galilee – me, well, I would need a bit more proof – but none the less – this was an awesome site to see a 2000 year old boat.)

After 10 years of careful digging, keeping the wood wet, spraying the boat down with foam so it would not disintegrate, and then floating the boat to land to be preserved it now rests in a museum in Israel.  Pretty cool and I thank Assaf for bringing me to this place because he knew my passion for boats.

Later that day Assaf, in true form, brought us out to eat.  Eating with Assaf is truly one of the best experiences I have ever had.  We went to a Lebanese place and ordered enough food for an army.  Our table was full of little dishes with tons of great food.  We had a great day.

100' below the Red Sea

After sharing this experience with one of the original developers for Storwize, Shai, he told me that he does a lot of diving in Israel.  Here is a photo of a boat he took while diving in the Red Sea.  Shai provided me with a brief story of the boat:

—————————————————————

“(mosquito) Yatush – Wreck dive:

The origins of the name ‘Yatush’ (mosquito) is the type of boats working in the past in the Dead Sea.  For some reason this name stuck to this boat although this is not a ‘Yatush’ type boat rather a ‘Netz’ (Bertram).  The Israeli Navy bought it from the USA but turned out to be unfit for the Israeli Navy operations.  As a result, a few years later, in 1986, the little boat was sunk at 30m and is now one of the popular wreck dive sites in Eilat.”

Thanks for sharing this Shai.

So far this has been my only boating experience in Israel but I am sure I will be back for more.  On top of that, I am home now and it is a great weekend – time to head to the Donna Julie II.

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 what has happened this winter?  Well, quite a lot.  Dan from East Coast Flightcraft and my buddy Brian and I all shared some season tickets to the Bruins.  Yeah, they had a crap season but it is still a nice get away for an evening.  Speaking of hockey, the US played some great hockey in the Winter Olympics this year in Vancouver but just couldn’t pull it out in the end.  Too bad, I love the Olympics, wish we could have repeated 1980.

Also, I got a new job.  I now work with the CEO from my old company at a company called Storwize.  I have never worked so hard in my career but I have to say, I have also never felt like I have been able to add so much value.  The company is great.  We do something very unique – Real-time, random access compression of data storage.  (Maybe not the most interesting topic for boaters, but a very cool technology.)  I started a new professional blog, The Storage Alchemist, The job has also brought me on my first trip to Israel (2 times) with a trip to the Gloan Heights for some wine, and I have been to London a couple of times as well, and not to mention all the travel around the US.  The boat will be a great place to unwind from the job when I get a break.

Donna’s Showroom at Venegas and Company is also EXPANDING!  That’s right, her new company is doing super well and she is growing.  You can also visit her Linked In and Facebook pages.  I am very proud of her.

Right after the 2009 season ended we took at trip to NH to visit Tony and Kathy for a send off for their daughter who joined the Navy.  Hope she is enjoying it now that she is passed bootcamp.  Also, CONGRATS to Tony and Kathy, they upgraded their boat this season.  I can’t wait to see it!

We got the blog listed on the home page for The Constitution Marina - I have to that Bruce from Save the Harbor, Save the Bay.  This year we are not only going to blog about what goes on during our fun times this summer, but we are also going to try to do a little more good and be a bit more informative about what is going on around the harbor.  I mean, we wouldn’t be having all this fun if we didn’t have the harbor to begin with right?  (I promise I won’t get ‘preachy’ – but I can’t vouch for Bruce who I have also made a contributor to the blog – Bruce, WELCOME!)  If your not big on traveling around a bunch of web sites you can always find Save the Harbor Save the Bay on Facebook and see what they are up to.

Just as a quick shameless plug, they are hosting a fund raiser on March 31, 2010 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Boston.  Take a quick look at the short video “Water Power” – It is two minutes and worth a watch.

As in true form I’ll give you an update on the Boston Boat Show of 2010.  It was great to see my old friends from East Coast Flightcraft (ECFC), but the overall show was not good this year.  I heard a rumor at the show that in 2009 4800 boats were repossessed in the US and now there are only 800 of these boats left.  The bad news, new boat sales are down and that makes me sad for guys like Dan at ECFC because they do such a great job with selling, service and support.  The good news, used boat prices are actually going up as the inventory goes back down, so if your looking to upgrade, get ready.

Lots of weather this winter and spring did a number to “D” dock.  My I am sure the dudes at the marina will have it all sorted by the time we bring the boats in for the summer.

Photo’s courtesy of Ryan who I am sure will be posting some great stories this summer as well.

And finally, you all have to check out the new Boston Fishing site.  Paul’s site is fresh and new and he is getting ready to have a great and prosperous fishing season.   Tell all your friends, book some corporate fishing, he has even stepped into the 20th century and even takes Paypal!  Way to go Paul, best of luck this summer and catch a ton of fish, especially tuna!

Okay gang, that is all for now.  Be prepared, I may update the face of Boston Boating Blog and I plan on doing a lot of updating, I have a new camera and video camera so there promises to be some multimedia this summer.

Can’t wait to see you on the water!