How can it possibly be August already? The winter seemed so long with the terrible weather we had and now the summer seems to be flying by. We spent 4th of July at Watch Hill Fire Island. It has always been a tradition for us since our sons were young to go there as soon as they got out of school at the end of June and spend the week there until after the 4th of July. And even though our boys are now adults, our tradition continues. This year looked a little different for us.
We left for Watch Hill on Friday June 26th and planned to be there until July 5th. Our younger son, who isn’t so young at 20, started out the trip with us. We also had our Golden Retriever Baci, onboard as well. She is now 15 months old so when she was last there she was still a puppy. We kept wondering if she would remember being there all last summer or if she would be her nervous self. Only time would tell.
Our older son was on the SUNY Maritime Empire State VII Training ship. He left on the ship in the beginning of May and would be gone until July 16th. He is a 1C (1st Class Cadet) DO (Division Officer) in charge of a section of the MUGS (Mariners Under Guidance). To say that we are proud of him would truly be an understatement. He is a Senior and this is his last cruise. Their first port of call was Charleston SC. Then they were heading to Malaga Spain and eventually Southampton UK. They were due back to the area prior to July 4th, where they would participate in the 250 celebration in New York Harbor. It would definitely be a lifetime experience.
4th of July at Watch Hill is always so much fun! FOWH (Friends of Watch Hill) is a non-profit organization that helps support the park itself. My husband Jay is the President of FOWH and every year on the 4th we celebrate Christmas in July. We have a member who uses his bow rider boat and onboard he has Santa, a Rabbi, an Elf and this year our new addition was the Grinch. They play Christmas music and go up and down all of the marina basins where all of the boats are decorated and toot their horns. The kids (and the parents as well) are always so excited for this event. After they finish visiting all of the basins they come up to the commons area of the marina and the kids all get to sit on their laps, parents take pictures (I can’t tell you how many people told me that those pictures are their annual Christmas cards) and get a toy. It’s fun for all! Even our Baci got dressed up for the occasion. If you follow FOWH on Instagram or Facebook you could see the videos and pictures that I posted of the event. I even submitted it to Long Island Wise Guy on Instagram and got posted there as well.
As we were on vacation I was thinking about my next article. It really was supposed to be about our first trip up the Hudson to Haverstraw Marina but I figured that I would take a little break from my story telling. As much as all of my friends love my stories each month when I share them on my personal Facebook page, I felt that I wanted to do something a little different this month.
Since it is the height of the boating season I figured I would talk about boating safety and things that personally drive me crazy lol. If you were to ask my boating friends what is my biggest pet peeve about boating they know the answer right away – “fender draggers”. This has driven me crazy for years. When my boys were little they would even say “Mom look! A fender dragger!” I understand if you sometimes forget to pick one up on occasion…we all have done it at one time or another and yes, we have ourselves a few times. What I can’t understand is when people have one or more hanging off the sides of their boats. How can they not see or hear it slapping against the hull when they are on plane? Do you think people just don’t know or just feel it’s easier just to leave them hanging? I’ve been curious all of these years why people do this. For those boats that have colored hulls they have to do damage to the gel coats with the wear of the fender rubbing back on forth on it. I’m always like “that poor boat” when I see a colored hull boat that could be potentially damaged from hanging fenders underway. And what about the boats that have those teeny tiny fenders? They can’t really do anything to protect the boats either at the dock or rafting up. It’s always a good idea to have the appropriate size fenders and for that matter appropriate size docklines for your size boat.
Dragging swim ladders…I know that again, it’s very easy to forget things when you’re getting ready to leave being on the beach or rafted up in places like Zach’s. But it’s something that really should be checked before you start heading back to your home port. I also don’t understand why people leave their shore power cords still plugged in when heading to places like Zach’s to anchor for the day? I think that has to be just being lazy that you can’t take them out and store them away properly before heading out for the day.
Let’s talk life preservers…..our older son who goes to Maritime, was nine days old when he spent his first day on our boat. My husband had a life preserver for him even before he was born. It was an infant one with the headrest. As he got older, we would go to West Marine and buy him the weight appropriate size ones. We would put it on him and my husband would pick him up by the shoulder pieces to make sure that if he was to go overboard that the jacket would protect him and he would not slip out of it. Thankfully we had two boys lol so we were able to share them (color wise) as they were outgrown and eventually we passed all of them down to friends who had younger boys. I cringe when we see boats that pass by that have children in the coast guard approved orange life preservers. I understand if they are guests on the boat for the day as we have all been in that situation and needed life preservers for our friends’ children. But please for your child’s safety, if you own a boat please purchase for them the appropriate coast guard approved life preserver jackets. We even have a life jacket for our 65-pound Golden Retriever.
I think the thing that really drives me crazy the most is the important situation that should be addressed because of how dangerous it is to bow ride. I can’t believe how many people we see doing it…adults and children like. If you are an adult and choose to do something like that well that is your decision. But I can’t believe how many people let children on the bow of the boat while underway on plane. God forbid the boat runs around or hits a big wake and that child is thrown from the boat…that is a disaster that could have completely been avoided. Remember a few minutes of fun for them might not be worth it if something could happen to them.
Speaking of running around…always make sure that your cabin door is closed underway. Again, if you run aground anyone that is in the vicinity of the door could be thrown into the cabin and injured. There have been so many stories over the years of people being seriously hurt when the boat that they were on unfortunately ran aground and they were thrown into the cabin. Having the door closed could have avoided serious injuries.
Please make sure that all of your safety equipment is up to date. Make sure that your flairs are not expired, you have a sound producing device (either a built-in horn on the boat or a hand-held device) and a distress flag. Make sure that all of your navigation lights are in working order – running lights, anchor light and stern light.
Wishing everyone a very happy boating month of August. Hope we continue to have beautiful weather and the winds stay calm. Thank you to my hubby Jay for helping me write this month’s article. See you all in September when I share with you our first trip up to the Haverstraw Marina.