Sailing with John

John (my son) was off work this weekend, and the original plan was to go up Saturday for a day sail with him.  But the weather looked sketchy (that turned out not to be true) and I delayed the trip until Sunday hoping for less rain and the chance for his friends to join again.

The friends had a previous engagement, we got the less rain... also a lot less wind.  It was one of THOSE days where the report looked promising (7 to 9 knots with little gusting).  And it seemed pleasantly breezy as I drove through Keyport and we headed out on the launch.

But there's something about Seas The Day crossing above 40.44889 latitude (roughly the entrance of the mooring field) that causes all wind to stop on the Raritan Bay.  We actually watched a circle of calm follow us out to the #1 buoy then spread across the bay.

So we sat, drifted, and talked...

And ate lunch...

Then of course as we needed to head back in (I've learned that I need to be on the road by 2:00 on a summer Sunday to avoid a huge traffic tie up crossing the Delaware Memorial Bridge), we watched the wind surround us and only hit Seas The Day as it was time start the engine to head back.

So we motored back to the ball in perfect 11 kt sailing conditions.  So be it...  it was still a great day!

A Trip to the Ship Graveyard

Today's trip was an excursion with an actual destination - a ship's graveyard.  We had passed this on a trip back from NYC last summer and I immediately thought it would be a great place to take Deb and Nathan & family on their next sailing excursion with us.  (Their son, Brian, seems to love all the different things to see when sailing.)

So today they joined me along with Fanny, a colleague visiting from Germany and we boarded the KYC launch and headed out to Seas The Day.

Despite the good prognosis earlier in the week, we had relatively little wind and ended up motoring over to the Great Bed's Light where we had the requisite photo op (an annual occurrence for my cousin's family).

From there we headed up the Arthur Kill between NJ and Staten Island.  We soon encountered some of the interesting marine traffic in this waterway.

After the major traffic passed, I offered Fanny the helm, which allow me time to eat a quick bit of lunch.

Then we ended up at the Ship Graveyard.  I didn't take any photos this time, allowing the kids to enjoy the view.  Here is a photo from last year's trip.

From there we turned around and headed back down the Arthur Kill with Captain Brian taking the helm briefly while I went below...

Maryanne's favorite seat was on the pushpit...

As we started to cross the Raritan Bay back towards Keyport, the wind picked up just enough to pull out the mainsail... we might have just reached 3 knots on the trip back, but after a few games of Rock/Paper/Scissors, the kids settled in for a nice nap and we were in no rush for the day to end.

Finally, we had to turn on the engine and wake everyone up.  We motored back, then joined John for drinks on the KYC deck before Deb and Nathan had to gather the kids and head home.  

We finished the trip when John (my son) took me and Fanny to Neil Michael's Steakhouse in Hazlet, NJ for an early Father's Day dinner.  

GAR Note:  Fanny is an accomplished photographer.  While she only had her iPhone with her, she had some great shots and shared these four...

Deb also shared her favorite photos of Maryanne and Brian from the day...

Photographing the Sailing Regatta

Keyport Yacht Club holds its Bill Volk Regatta early each June.  Although I understand essentially zero about sailboat racing, I love photographing this event each year.  It can be very colorful and the Raritan Bay offers lots of neat backgrounds for the photos.  In fact, this year I was offered a seat on the "official" photography boat but turned it down when I heard they were planning to sit by the starting area - there's only so many photos you can make looking in the same direction.

That meant taking Seas The Day out.

I was spoiled the first time I photographed this event in 2014 as Tom, one of the launch captains, took me out in his boat which could zip around the field, and he was great at helping me line up great shots.  I decided to take Seas The Day out with only a day or two's notice.  Since I couldn't find a skipper to help, I ended up both as single-handed skipper and chief photographer.

That meant that I was missing some shots when I was busy with the boat.  But that's OK as I still ended up with almost 300 frames.  My favorite 3 are above.  Below are a few more of my favorites with the rest at my SmugMug page.