Weekend with Friends

This weekend definitely was one of the more fun weekends. Walter and Jeff invited us over to Imagine, their 49 ft Gulfstar Motor yacht, and we spend a great evening on Friday chatting with friends. Kevin and Linda,  who are next boat to them, and Cia, Jeff's long-time friend also joined us.

Cia making sure we have enough wine

That night we decided to go visit Cia at the place she is temporary residing. It is a farm in the suburbs, complete with it's own sledding hill. We drank, had absolutely great food and went sledding in the middle of the night

Walter and Jeff, after Walter busted his sled



Danielle and Cia with their sleds



A Sunday at the Marina watching the Patriots



A view of the outside docks



It was a beautiful sunny day, so we took a walk on the docks to see what the extend of the snow was, and just to stretch our legs. In the wintertime, one becomes really inactive sitting on the boat all the time. I am resolved to change that, perhaps at least join the sports club that is down the road from our office.



The Patriots getting crushed



.

Danielle and Annie

 

After tour walk, we went to our friends and nighbors Ed and Annie's boat. They are living a much more minimalistic lifestyle than us, but are perfectly well and happy with their camping stove, TV and propane heater. They are probably spending one-fith of what we are spending on electricity and propane. Dave was ther too, and I am looking forward for him becoming a WYC member, most likely this summer.

There we watched the Patriots getting crushed, while having good times and dinner with friends

Summer plans

Buzz came to visit yesterday. The swimming pool was open like it is every Friday. So we hang out in the largest hot-tub in Boston, then went back to Waterdancer where Andrew, Buzz and Danielle continued till 4 am, while I happily snored away on the couch in front of the fireplace.

Danielle is into her book reading phase, and she wants to go to Nantucket. Interestingly, the picture below is actually a php script that will load a different picture every time you look at it :) enjoy !

Well, we started to make travel plans. We'll sail to Red Brook harbor, stay there for a few days, then go to Nantucket, and stay there for a week. After that we will probably continue to Cuttyhunk. I am not sure yet what exactly our summer plans are, but it is fun to start planning on a cold winter night !

Snow Storm

The huge storm sweeping across the country has finally reached us. Both Danielle and I are off from work.
It has been blowing pretty good last night, but the marina is very protected.
Last night, we went out to Ironsides last night with Andrew and  Susan.

Hanging out on Waterdancer

Walking the dogs

We Then we hang out on Waterdancer, walked the dogs, and enjoyed the cockpit. It was cozy to enjoy a glass of champagne while the snow started coming down. The  20,000 BTU propane heater made it actually a pretty cozy to be under the shrinkwrap n the cockpit. Next year I should build more windows.

Enjoying a champagne in the cockpit

With the 20,000 BTU heater

Waterdancer's shrink wrap is holding

The ramp did not fare as well

 We spent the night rocking and rolling with the 40 knot gusts.
The snow really started coming down after midnight. It is still snowing as I post this. The shrinkwrap is holding, faring much better that the shrinkwrap over the ramp.  I actually love these snow days. One of the good things about living aboard is that you don't have to shovel any snow.

A Catalina under snow

I took a walk over to D dock to check on Jose's boat. He has a remote thermometer on his stern, so it is easy to check if the heater in his engine compartment is working. We are planning to take a walk with the dogs and then go up to Max and Dylan's to see what is up there.

 At the end we went to Mark's boat, had some sangria and chatted the night away.

Winter Blues, Constitution Pool, missing blog entries.

Well, it is getting deep into the winter time. A few days ago it went down to the single digits. Seriously considering a Espar.
Exciting things are happening this Sunday. Danielle is cleaning up the cuddies, and I am trying to update some blog entries... yupiiee !

Well...we will be going to the Constitution Marina heated pool in a few minutes. When we come back, I will try to post a few more entries int our blog. It will be time-cyclical, with stories about our trips in August, Danielle's trip to China, our move to Constitution, and our fun winter life !
Have not decided on the format yet. Perhaps, instead of fudging the dates, I will post them as one big entry.
Gotto go to the pool now ...

Worlds End

After the Rainsforth Island cookout, we decided to spend Sunday evening and Monday at Worlds End. It was a quiet day, with very few other boats around. We took the dinghy out to the Marina at the other end of the bay, watch clam diggers, and in general had a great quiet day.

July 4

Danielle's Uncle, Matt, and his better half, Maria and Matt's son Chris came over to visit us for the weekend. We sailed both out on July 4 to watch the USS Constitution to make a turn around at Boston Harbor. Then we sailed out to Graves Lighthouse went across Hypocrite Channel and sailed back to Winthrop past the Boston Harbor Lighthouse.
That night we were treated to a spectacular fireworks show off Winthrop Harbor.
Our guests enjoyed the warm weather to sleep in the cockpit. So much for cleaning up the V-Berth :)

Next morning we decided to have breakfast off Great Brewster Island. So we sailed out bright and early at 9 AM and dropped anchor at off Great Brewster. A while later this huge powerboat pulled up on us. It turned out it was Paul with his girlfriend, parents and son. They dropped anchor a few hundred feet off from us.

Matt cooked an excellent breakfast, after which we set up the hammocks, the shades and had a very lazy day. Later on Bill and his friend joined us and we took the dinghy out to the island.

That evening we had a wonderful sunset sail going out towards Egg Rock and then back into Boston.

All in all it was a perfect weekend, good weather and great sailing. Chris really did get a kick out of sailing the boat. It looks like we found ourselves a new helmsman.

June 21 Lazy Monday

Danielle was away all weekend for the recitals of her dance school. So on Monday, we took off and anchored off Great Brewster Island. The weather was perfect to spend a lazy Monday at anchor.
We did not get to sail a lot, but the idea was just to get out of there



On the way back we encountered one of the largest Tall Ships heading out of Boston. It was the Spanish Schooner Juan Sebastian Delcano. I ended up getting a few nice shots.

Our Annual Birthday and Season Opener Party

Our annual Season opener Party was scheduled for July 5. We had Matt come over as our musician, and many friends from many harbors joined us :)

Buzz and Marcy sailed down with us back from Misery Island. Chris and Erin, Ed and Annie and other friends friends from Constitution came over. Most of the party was held at the Tiki Bar and everybody had a great time.

Misery Island, Salem June 4, 2010

On June 4, 2010, we had a great sail to Salem, where we met up with our friends Buzz and Marcy on S/V Emeraude. They live on a mooring on Emmy in Salem.

We rafted up on the north side of Misery Island, and had a great evening.

It was great to see them again, and Misery Island is one of my favorite spots, especially if it is not that crowded.

One word of caution though. If you drop the hook, or grab a mooring on Misery Island, I would suggest that you stay away from being close to land. The mosquitoes can be quite a bunch. We always carry big Citronella candles with us. They provide great mood light and keep the mosquitoes away in the evenings

Next day, Buzz did have to do his annual "Replacement of the alternator belt in the middle of the Ocean" routine after we towed them out into the clear. Then we sailed back to Boston to celebrate our combined belated birthdays, as well as the beginning of the season.

That party may make it into the blog when I have time. In the meantime, we had the absolutely perfect wind sailing from Salem to Boston. I could not resist doing this video to KD Lang's rendition of Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen .