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 23, 24, 25 2009 – Memorial Day Weekend ’09
Ah, one of the greatest days of the boating summer, Memorial day. It started out ‘hot as hell’ on Friday evening and Donna and I along with our friends Kathy and Tony took a ride ‘off shore’ about 3 miles to cool off. It was at least 20 degrees cooler near Graves Light than it was in the harbor. It was fantastic. This was followed by first, a fantastic parking job, again, by me, and then a few beers and not enough food.
I should also point out the great friends boat people become. I arrived at the boat on Friday to find my water pump not working – I am sure some sort of user error on my part. That said, I had no shortage of people offering to help me fix / replace it and offering up tools and tape. On Saturday I picked up a new water pump – it was too choppy to go for a ride anyway, and by Saturday afternoon, the pump was replace and Donna, her friend Megan, her daughter Isabella and her friend and I all went for a nice boat ride.
We ended up near Winthrop and notices a boater (small motor boat) in distress. His engine wouldn’t start, so we gave him a tow back into Winthrop harbor and he was most thankful. See, I knew those captain’s classes would come in handy and SeaTow missed out on a few bucks.
Sunday was the day. The E Dock Cookfest. Way too much meat, and way to much Jamakin’me Crazy – a drink concocted by our good friend Tony. Jamakin’me Crazy quickly turned into Jamakin’me Sleepy for some and a few caught a quick nap.
It started to rain a bit, but just as fast as it started it stopped and we were grilling again.
Uncle Herbie and Jimmy D made it down again this year. It is always great to have them down to the dock. They are like family now. They know everyone and everyone knows them.
We also had a slight mishap on Sunday. Pre-beverage even, Ms. Donna Julie herself took a dip in the water. As she stepped off the Donna Julie II she missed the dock and went right into the water. She is a bit black and blue, and was a bit shaken up but she is fine now.
There was also a funny story (isn’t there always). Our good friend Steve on Dive Inn has
his favorite tin mug that every holiday he breaks it out and drinks what ever bug juice we decide to have for that weekend. Steve loves to brag about his tin cup and how special it is and cold it keeps his drinks. Well at some point this year Kathy and Tony found this illusive tin cup and brought one back for each of us and we surprised Steve – guess he’s not so special any more.
Then came Monday. We followed our friends Frank and Dale in About Time as they, and Paul & Betty Ann and Steve went fishing. Donna and I went for a ride around the Boston Harbor Islands and floated in the sunshine and relaxed for a while.
Around noon we decided to head it and, what I thought, was call it a weekend. I radioed Frank to see if they had caught anything and they had not and were heading in to. We got back in to the marina and deiced to fire up the George Foreman grills one more time and have a late lunch and early dinner. It was a great afternoon to wrap up a
perfect weekend. Mike and Ryan sat around telling us about their ‘Top Ten Day’ and how they had a ‘Top Ten Day’ (see Ryan’s post). Not sure we had a ‘Top Ten Day’ but each day was pretty fantastic.
As my dad always says, a bad day on the water is better than any good day at work. A men to that!
Check out this quick video I made on Animoto (you have to check it out www.animoto.com) of the weekend.
Looking forward to the 4th of July. Not to say that next weekend wont be as great!
There was no large flat screen TV or comfortable overstuffed chairs. We were not at one of the many spectacular sports bars that the city of Boston has. To be honest with you the weather was not even that great. To make things even worse in my initial description of the evening the Bruins lost in overtime. However watching a play-off hockey game on the back of my boat a few hundred yards from the Garden with four really good friends is tough to top. The marina can bring together people who would normally never know each other if not brought together through a love of boats and the water. So for me sitting on the back of the boat with some Canadian Beer and bags of chips and watching the game on a 19″ TV was perfect. Thanks for joining me that evening Paul, Sacco, Mike, and Steve I had a great time and look forward to many more.
