Sailing Topless - With a Pedicure???

Editors Note:  If this is like the other post under the "Sailing Topless" title, I expect I'll get a few hits each month over the ensuing years from folks who Googled these two words probably expecting something quite different from the content of this family-oriented sailing blog.  If you are one of those people, please accept my apologies... while I am an accomplished photographer, my wife would literally kill me if I tried to produce the content you seek (though it might be fun briefly before death occurs).  Please understand that for us "Sailing Topless" simply means going out for a day sail without raising our bimini top.  We wish you well in your search.


Now, about that pedicure...

Anyone who's been a parent for a significant amount of time (in my case, 28 years) has had the pleasure of beaming with pride at the quality young man your offspring is becoming...

... and they've probably also had those moments where their inner voice is saying something like "Good God, son, what is happening to your brain?!"

This post is about a weighted average of those two experiences.

First, to set the stage, you need to know that I didn't get to go sailing last weekend.

There was a heat wave with temps in the high 90s, zero wind, and heat indices well above 100.  I knew that Seas The Day would basically be an oven and decided to stay home in Delaware.  It was the same with the Fourth of July holiday.  In fact, the heat pretty much stayed with us for well over a week.

The saving grace was that this weekend looked absolutely gorgeous... temps in the high 70s, low humidity and a nice (if a bit light) breeze of 8 to 10 kts.  I reached out to John early in the week and he was available so it sounded like another father-son sailing trip, though this time with actual sailing involved.

Unfortunately when I reached out to confirm yesterday, I found out John wouldn't be available until 12:30 PM AND that he had a 3:00PM stop time to get to a work event he had to attend.

So that's why we were sailing topless.  With only a brief time to sail, I didn't want to waste time putting up the bimini top.  So shortly after 12:30, we boarded the launch and headed out to Seas The Day.  Once there, we went below to eat a quick lunch, and that's when I found out WHY we couldn't start until 12:30...

My son decided to get a pedicure.

Let me say that clearly:  My... son... decided... to... get... a... pedicure!


Oh, the shame!

My inner voice was not going in a flattering or prideful direction... I expect some of that came out of my outer voice as well.  I remember thinking "You wasted half of the best weekend sailing day in a year for a PEDICURE????"  I vaguely heard something along the lines of "But it was only $20!" as a defense, but really.

There is a legitimate reason for a man to get a pedicure... he is either too fat or too stiff to reach his toes himself.  Yes, I know that I'm getting close on both those accounts, but I'm not there yet.  Neither is John.

His friend, Laura, supplied me with photographic evidence that, no, this was not some sort of hallucination....

So be it... we can try our best to train our children well, but at some point we just have to let them loose and hope that they don't...

... hope...

...

Anyway...

John was an incredible help after lunch when he assisted me in putting swimming noodles on our mooring.  This activated the "beaming with pride" (and thankful) part of my parental brain.

Soon we were underway, going just outside the mooring field and then pulling out the sails for a quick trip out into the bay and back.  You can see that John is starting to become an accomplished sailor and a great help on the boat.  He was ribbing me a few weeks ago that he "hasn't seen the headsail in ages" so we pulled out both sails just so I could prove to him that I still knew how to use it.

As expected, it was an incredible day.  The only thing I could have asked for were a couple more knots of wind (it was a bit light, ranging from 6 to 10 kts).  Well, and it could have lasted longer. ;)

We got him back and everything battened down in time for his work event - with time to spare (after the launch ride back) for the required drink at the KYC bar.

After John headed off to his event, I made the mistake of stopping for dinner locally before driving back down to Delaware.  It put me right on the Delaware Memorial Bridge as the sun started to set.  Talk about sun glare!

Of course when he reads this, John will probably start shaking his head thinking "What has happened to Dad's brain... taking photos while driving?  With SUN GLARE even!"  (Honestly, it seemed important to document at the time.)

I expect as I age, he will have more of those moments.

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.