You can read all the books you want, but until a water taxi beaches itself on top of your anchor line while you’re plying with your dog on the shore, you just don’t know what to do in that situation. One of my sailing teachers used to say that sailing ability is a mixture of training and EXPERIENCE. Emphasis on the experience. Finally, I’m starting to understand what he meant

Yes. This did happen to me.

I was sitting on the beach next to the PTown light house after a quick sailing trip with my wife, aunt, uncle, cousin, cousin, and dog, Tracy, Natasha, Ken, Cora, Cali, and Max. When the water taxi pulled back out, guess what. Our boat was soon sailing with no one on board!

I did the only thing that seemed to make sense. I took off down the beach, dove in, and swam after it. It’s a good thing it wasn’t moving any faster or I wouldn’t have made it. I was barely able to grab hold of the stern and drag my self on board.

When I looked up, the entire beach was watching. At first I was touched by their empathy for my struggle. Then I realized why they were really starting. In the frenzy, my dog max decided to help out and had swam out with me. When he finally made it to the boat and I scooped him up on board, he was greeted with a round of applause from the onlookers.

I have such a great dog. Max would jump off cliff with me if I asked him to.

It’s a good thing Ken was there to help get the boat back under control, or we would have been in a pretty tight spot. Lesson learned? If you anchor your boat in the sand, keep a close eye on it.

Photography by virtualphotographers

On Friday, I took the “Fast Ferry” out to see some of my Family who were staying in a rented house in Provincetown. Let me just say, that when they chose the name for that ferry, they weren’t lying. That thing absolutely flies. I don’t know how fast we were moving, but when looking over the side, you can tell that we’re moving fast enough that if you fall over, it might be a while before you see your next salted pretzel. (Yes, they serve salted pretzels on the ferry.) The total trip time was about 1 hour and 30 minutes. I’ve never felt so close to great beaches.

You never know who you’ll run into on the ferry either. While getting off in Boston, i ran into HubSpot TV host Karen Rubin. Karen has recently decided that the best way to get to the beach from Boston is to jump on the fast ferry to PTown. Well there you have it. It must be true, it was said by someone who is on TV.

You can get all sorts of snacks and drinks on the way to the beach. They have a full bar, pretzels, candy bars, sodas, and hotdogs. Since the ferry leaves the Boston port at 6:30 p.m. it’s nice to be able to grab dinner (that stuff above counts as dinner) after climbing on board.

Oh yeah. I almost forgot the best part. You can bring bikes and dogs along as well! So Max, Tracy, and I snuggled the entire ride over. There’s no way a car can beat that :)

The ferry isn’t just dog friendly. It’s also gay friendly. So, if you lean that way, and you’re looking for a place to cut loose with your hubby, you’ll be in good company as soon as you set foot on board. PTown is the queen of gay, but the ferry doesn’t go quite the far. Let’s just say that the ferry is about 0.5 PTowns on the gay-o-meter. Here is a photo from ptown that you can use for comparison purposes.

Photography by sfPhotocraft and Art02169

1. Have a bike that doesn’t attract attention. (No fancy road bikes, ghetto stickers are a plus)
2. Use a U-lock (anything else is ludicrous, and a u-lock is fast)
3. Everything should be bolted on. (No quick release anything)
4. Pay attention to what you are locking on to (one of my bikes was stolen by breaking the bike rack.)
5. Don’t marry your bike. (When your bike is stolen, your mind set should be, “sweet, I get a new bike!”)
6. Buy a cheap bike. (I picked up a schwinn cutter, new for $300 at bicycle bill’s)
7. Shop at a good bike shop, such as Bicycle Bill (They know good tips and don’t bitch when you ask to have them swap out your quick release.)

Photography by geishaboy500

“Fight Brewer!, Fight Back!, Fight Brewer!, Fight Back!, …” was the chant of the crowd on Mass Ave. in Boston today. A group of angry protesters assembled and marched under police cover in protest of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, who was visiting Boston today. According to FOXNews, Governor Brewer is in Boston for the National Governors Association Meeting. (It was the first hit on Google. I don’t read Fox News, I swear.)

I snagged a few choice photos of the crowd shaking their fists and yelling toward a crowd of almost entirely white onlookers. I wasn’t fast enough, however, to catch a Boston local whistling and giving the protesters the double-bird. I assure you, however, that he was there, basketball shorts and all.

The group of protesters was fierce, but small in comparison to the size of their police escort. The crowd was no doubt muted by the downpour. A local police officer, who had to work the protest in the rain, remarked that he was happy for the rain because it meant that the protesters would be gone faster.

The main lesson I took away from this is that if you want to have a great protest, it is absolutely essential that you have a loud, angry woman with a mega phone and a small child shouting at the top of her lungs. It just wouldn’t have been the same without her…

In South Boston, there is a fort called Fort Independence, which is open to the public most days. Towering 20 feet over Boston Harbor, Ft Independence is surrounded by grassy fields, volleyball courts, beaches, playing children, American flags, and fried food.

Tracy and I headed out to the fort because we heard that it was friendly to dogs and served soft ice cream. We had nothing to do and it was the day after independence day, so it sounded like a perfect little trip.

The area didn’t disappoint. Finding parking was a breeze and max met a friend and played on the beach instantaneously. Max’s friend even had his own ball.

Castle Island sports a huge phallus that is visible from the water. I’ve never seen it up close before, and it was pretty impressive. Above is a photo of Tracy and Max sitting next to it for perspective.

We weren’t able to go into the fort because it was closed. Maybe it was closed for the holiday.

There haven’t been many attacks on New England by sea lately, so at this point Fort Independence seems to be mostly guarding Pleasure Bay. Pleasure bay is walled off by a causeway and has a nice boat club inside.

The best part of Castle Island, however, is the ice cream and fried foods restaurant called Sullivan’s. The chicken fingers at Sullivan’s are to die for. Tracy had the fish and chips and it was “respectable”. Tracy had a maple and walnut ice cream that was “delish”.

Photography in respective order by: Fort Independence, Tom Rose, Google