The 2025 Shake Down Cruise

Safe Harbor Plymouth launched Amazing Grace on April 25, which may have been a record early-season launch. I targeted May 2nd for the shakedown cruise to Boston and booked Marina Bay for the weekend.

It was a great weekend, but I did have a little commissioning drama getting there.

Spring Surprises

We had several winter projects that all needed to be wrapped up before we could bring in the cleaning crew, and this proved problematic.

Over the winter of 2024, we only had two workers on board – Dave Johnson from Safe Harbor Plymouth and SK Marine. Both are extremely neat, and the boat didn’t need professional cleaning before our first cruise.

But this winter we had more projects and more workers on board. When you only have one guy on board – and he knows it, he’ll probably leave the boat the way he found it.

But this year, we had 4-5 different contractors on board, which meant no individual was accountable for putting things back the way they found them!

Let me be clear, I am not criticizing any of the great guys who worked on our boat over the winter. Rather, my experience reinforces why it is the Captain’s duty to run inspections and shakedown cruises because even with the best team, you’ll always find something!

I pushed them to have the boat ready by May and if I’d let them take their time, I’m sure they would have had everything just right.

Commissioning Drama

The boatyard finished commissioning Wednesday afternoon, but when I boarded the boat Thursday morning, it was still quite a mess.

I talked to the service manager, and he had a decent explanation, but it still took me over an hour to clean up. They had covered all the carpet and stainless steel with protective tape. The boatyard wasn’t sure who hadn’t finished and left them.

All the packaging that the new gear came in was still strewn about, and anything that had to be moved had to be put back in place.

On top of that, every on/off switch on the boat was in a different position than it was in October.

My Shakedown Cruise Checklist

Having been burned by systems that worked in October but failed during the shakedown cruise, I made a checklist and went through each item on Thursday.

Do you have anything else on yours?

New Thruster Drama!

Over the winter we had done a major thruster upgrade (replaced stock motors with brushless and upgraded the stern thruster from 210 to 300 KG thrust). We also added the Dockmate Positioning System.

Everything checked out until I got to the Dockmate. The calibration/Seatrial wasn’t scheduled until May 8 and NEBT wasn’t finished with the installation. However, the install had progressed to the point where the codes that paired the Dockmate to Amazing Grace had been erased.

Bill (NEBT) valiantly attempted to get the device working before we left for Boston, but it was impossible. No problem, I just texted Mitchell at Marina Bay and requested a starboard docking.

And So It Began…

Thanks to the commissioning delay, we pushed the shakedown cruise out by 24 hours. Our guests would arrive late Friday, we’d all stay aboard in Plymouth that night, and depart around 9:00 Saturday morning.

Mrs. Horne and I got to the boat early to make beds, set out linens, and clean the cockpits.

Around 1:00 we headed to Anéjo for a light lunch.

This is truly one of the best Mexican restaurants in America. Each taco is a work of art.

I always order wings plain with sauces on the side—it’s neater, and the wings stay warm and crisp longer.

Besides the blue cheese dressing, Anéjo serves two sauces: a sweet Mole and a hot habanero.

I’m a hot sauce guy, but the habanero is almost inedible, and the mole is very sweet. Nice time, I’ll ask for another sauce container and mix 3 parts mole with 1 part habanero.

After lunch, Peter joined us on the Skydeck on a balmy early May afternoon.

My ongoing struggle to restore the teak decks to new condition took a turn for the worse when a well-intentioned contractor thought they’d do me a favor and power wash the teak to surprise me!

On Friday I met with two teak specialists to hand sand out the power-wash scars, and restore the teak to that new look.

I never appreciated the nuances of teak maintenance until now! Hopefully, once it’s restored to new, the crew can keep it that way.

Friday Dinner in Plymouth

I feel like I talk too much about food, but Mrs. Horne keeps reminding me that this began as a Dock and Dine blog, so you keep getting photos of food!

I love all the live music in Plymouth, and I was determined to find some over dinner Friday night.

The only spot I could find was at Crabby Shack. I really appreciate restaurants that diligently post their entertainment calender of their website or social media pages. I really don’t understand how a place can hire an entertainer, but never tell anyone!

We headed over to Crabby Shack around 6:00, and there was indeed live music. Unfortunately, the performer was out on the back porch and only a handful of tables could hear him.

Even worse, after negotiating a table with folks who we leaving, we discovered there was a 30 minute wait and we had to put our name on a list.

We did, and I immediately gathered up the crew to check out other restaurants, waiting for the Crabby Shack to call us back.

East Bay Grille

East Bay Grille is right around the corner, so we went in and checked out the bar for open seats.

There were none, but as we headed out I asked the hostess “Any chance getting a table?”

She said “Right this way…”

I know I’ve talked about East Bay Grille before. The food, service, and atmosphere are very good, but their reservation system is a bit of a mess. They are on OpenTable, but they never seem to have anything available.

We spoke to them about it and it turns out they only put certain times online for booking – specifically, the times most people don’t go out for dinner!

Knowing this is great news. You can call them for reservations or just walk in at 7:00 on a Friday night and probably get a table.

As always, the food was great, beginning with their bread service of fresh (warm) traditional dinner rolls with softened butter.

There were plenty of great options on the menu, but my eye caught Boom Boom Shrimp on the Specials Menu for a mere $16.

I’m a bit of a connoisseur when it comes to Boom Boom Shrimp. The GOLD STANDARD is The Black Whale in New Bedford (or Brotherhood of Thieves – same owner). I have found some that were very similar to Andrea at Misquamicut Beach in Rhode Island.

I’m pleased to announce that the Boom Boom Shrimp at East Bay Grille is 100% legit!

I also appreciated the $16 smaller portion. I suggest they make it a regular appetizer option.

I made a mental note to add The East Bay Grill to my list of favorite restaurants in Plymouth.

Bluebird Saturday

I was determined to complete the shakedown cruise the first weekend in May – no matter what the weather served up.

We had invited our original crew – Gail and Rudy along with our Chief Engineer Peter to Marina Bay for Columbus Day, but scrapped it due to strong northeast winds.

So it made perfect sense to reassemble the same crew for the shakedown cruise.

The forecast for Saturday was a brief calm that built to 25 knots before noon.

Cape Cod Bay is under a state-mandated speed limit until May 15 to allegedly protect Right Whales.

I knew it would take an extra thirty minutes to reach Boston, so I set our departure for 9:00 AM.

It was a good move, and we enjoyed flat, calm seas all the way to Boston.

Sunset Pier

We had thoroughly enjoyed Sunset Pier last September, so it was our first Dock and Dine of 2025, and it did not disappoint.

The new sides of homemade potato chips jumped out for everyone. They are just thick enough to let you know they were homemade, hot, salty, and crispy.

The old Black and Blue “Pizza Ficelle” has been renamed, but generally remains unchanged and excellent!

My only comment was that the horseradish was a little heavy and overpowered the Roquefort. I might order it differently next time.

The Fingerlings were cooked perfectly, but the harrisa seemed to be more forward than the last time.

The food was superb, but the menu was much smaller than last fall. It’s missing the options that enabled Sunset Pier to be a fine dining option for dinner.

The incredible Lamb Chops are gone, along with the more substantial “shareables.” They did add a variety of Tacos and appetizers, but I think that just reinforces the lunch feel of the menu.

Things To Do at Marina Bay #1

After lunch, we went back to the boat. The boys hung out on the Skydeck reading, napping, and discussing serious matters of science, politics, and business.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Horne and Gail decided to take a day trip to the nearby JFK Library. This meant loading Uber on Mrs. Horne’s phone and teaching her how to use it ❤️.

They thoroughly enjoyed it. I asked them both what struck them the most, and they gave me interesting answers…

Gail – “I never heard the story about JFK’s PT boat being cut in half in battle. The crew swam to a nearby island where they befriended a native. They wrote a message on a coconut and the native brought it to their rescuers.”

Mrs Horne – “I knew JFK was our youngest president, but never appreciated how young Jackie was. She was only 34 years old when JFK was elected! Imagine becoming First Lady at that age!”

Kentucky Derby Day!

In 2024, we created a very simple pool for betting on the Kentucky Derby:

1. Everyone secretly picks a horse to win, place, or show.
2. Once Mrs. Horne has made her picks and (timestamped them), we all text her our picks, and the game is set.
3. The buy-in is $30/person, and we all go to Port 305 for dinner while we watch the race.

Of course, none of us knows anything about horse racing. Everyone grabbed their phones and started researching odds and expert picks.

I did that last year and won. This year I did something different. I fired up my Gemini and Grok AI engines and asked them!

Both bots picked Journalism to win and Sovereignty to place. Grok picked Luxor Cafe to show, and Gemini picked Sandman.

I then compared Luxor Cafe to Sandman and got intrigued by the first Japanese horse in the derby, so I picked them.

The AI Bots did very well!

• 1st: No. 18 Sovereignty
• 2nd: No. 8 Journalism
• 3rd: No. 21 Baeza
• 4th: No. 3 Final Gambit
• 5th: No. 20 Owen Almighty
• 6th: No. 9 Burnham Square
• 7th: No. 17 Sandman
• 8th: No. 12 East Avenue
• 9th: No. 19 Chunk of Gold
• 10th: No. 14 Tiztasic
• 11th: No. 16 Coal Battle
• 12th: No. 7 Luxor Cafe
• 13th: No. 2 Neoequos
• 14th: No. 13 Publisher
• 15th: No. 1 Citizen Bull
• 16th: No. 5 American Promise
• 17th: No. 15 Render Judgment
• 18th: No. 11 Flying Mohawk
• 19th: No. 6 Admire Daytona

Much to everyone’s dismay, I won again. Being Captain means making tough decisions, but it really wasn’t tough to decide to put my $150 winning pot toward the tab for dinner.

Mrs. Horne thoroughly approved 😂

Port 305

Although the Derby was the featured attraction at Port 305, we also enjoyed a delicious dinner.

Rudy was disappointed in his fish tacos. The flavors were fine, but the ratio of cole slaw to taco was stupid.

Peter and I split the Black Pastrami Sandwich. It was very good, but I think it deserved a better bread. The brioche was a tad pedestrian against the incredible pastrami.

There was a horrendous thunderstorm passing across northwest New England all day. Fortunately, we remained on the southeast edge through dinner.

Sunday

This was the first time we’d had five on board for a long weekend and on Sunday morning, we needed a pumpout. There is no pump out boat in Marina Bay, but we were very close to the fuel dock where the pump was located.

Everything went well until I was returning to our dock and I noticed the display on the thrusters turned red.

I texted Bill (owner of New England Bow Thruster), and we ran through a number of diagnostics. Ultimately, the batteries that powered the new 300 KG stern thruster were low.

Bill had me run around looking for the charger breaker, but it was nowhere to be found (more on this later).

Things To Do at Marina Bay #2

I had told Mrs. Horne that I’d bring everyone to The Encore Casino if the weather was nice. The weather was going downhill, and the boys preferred spending the afternoon at the Break Rock Brewing watching live music.

Armed with her new Uber app, Mrs. Horne and Gail hailed a car and headed off to the Casino.

Brunch At Victory Point

The girls weren’t hungry, so they took off for the Encore while we headed to Victory Point for brunch.

For me, brunch means BLOODY MARY!

Victory Point makes a good Bloody, but you have to request a salted rim.

Rudy wasn’t in the mood for brunch, and he ordered a specially crafted pizza.

Rudy substituted spinach for arugala and it came out marvelous!

Peter and I went for the Eggs Benedict…

It had all the traditional flavors, but suffered from a few execution flaws. The hollandaise was “broken” and the egg yolks were overdone. The home fries were just French fried little cubes.

We still enjoyed them, and Peter made a good point – they only serve breakfast once a week for three hours, so they don’t get a lot of practice!

Rudy spotted a table of colorful ladies who looked like they were a day late for Derby Day.

Of course, he went over and took their photograph.

Sunday at Break Rock Brewing

Among the hip bars and restaurants in Marina Bay lies an authentic brewery – Break Rock. It actually the only brewery in the blue collar city of Quincy.

It was cold, gray, and getting colder as we walked done the nearly deserted boardwalk toward the brewery – in fact we questioned if it was even open.

We entered and got hit with a definite air of pandemonium! Because they have no permanent food preparation on-site, the state of Massachusetts allows patrons to bring their dogs; and there were over a dozen dogs roaming around.

But that was just the beginning. They have a large nook just to right of the live music stage that can be reserved for private parties and on Sunday, it was hosting a birthday party for 2-year olds!

Mixed in among the dogs and the toddlers were plenty of beer drinkers shouting over a musician who sounded quite good.

There were no empty tables, so we all scanned the room looking for folks who were sitting in front of empty glasses.

Within five minutes, we scored a great table right in front of the musician, Nate Ramos.

It was a perfect spot – not only for music, but we could also watch the Sox game and the home team was up 3-1 in the seventh inning.

Rudy and I are IPA purists (I seldom even sip a lager these days) and the Break Rock IPA is fantastic.

It’s a classic New England IPA with a subtle citrus overtone; one that it so subtle you can’t make out the actual fruit. It also sports a beautiful haze.

Nate Ramos Live

We sipped our beers and enjoyed watching Nate perform. He is a very talented young singer/songwriter. Vocally, he sounded like a smooth version of Chris Stapleton. He fattened up his guitar sound using a looper to create bring in a second chord voicing. His best numbers were his originals!

Given our perfect proximity, it would have been near criminal to make a music video. So I did…

I can’t remember the last time I spent an afternoon sipping beer and watching live music. The boys were in heaven.

One more thought about Break Rock Brewing before I move on. The toddler party peaked my curiosity and I did a little research on hosting a private party.

The full description is here, but I’ll sum it up:

• You need at least 30 people
• You must guarantee a minimum in sales, but it’s only $250-$500 (1-2 beers per person).
• You can bring in outside catering.
• They add a 20% gratuity on top.

This looks like a great place to have a very inexpensive private party, especially if you can book it during a live music performance.

The Chanty

The girls returned from the casino in an Uber, and we all headed over to The Chanty for dinner.

Unlike Saturday night, when there was an hour wait for a table, we walked in and sat down.

The Chanty offers a very reliable kitchen and one of the biggest menus in Marina Bay.

I seldom order tips because they’re usually tough, but the Chanty’s have a great steakhouse grill flavor.

The Tots were sublime. Everyone shared, and we didn’t finish them all!

The girls split the Chicken Ziti with olive oil.

They said it was a little dry; perhaps they should have tried the Alfredo sauce.

The haddock was moist and the coating was crisp. What more can you ask from Fish and Chips.

The Chicken Parm was big enough for two. Peter enjoyed the first piece, but the second was overdone and dry. Fortunately, he was full.

Stormy Monday

The forecasts for the weekend were all wrong, but in a good way. Until the front came through Sunday afternoon, it was dry and unseasonably warm.

The forecast for Monday was also wrong, but in a bad way. Went I went to bed, my weather reports all called for a moderate northern wind and light rain.

When I woke up on Monday morning, it was foggy and the wind was blowing briskly off the Atlantic.

NOAA had already declared Small Craft Warnings and called for winds building as the morning went on.

As we left Boston Harbor I reminded the crew that this was a shakedown cruise and it was good we were in bad weather!

Things were okay as I headed east to clear Minots, but the wind wasn’t blowing from the north. The wind was ENE, which was fine for the first ten miles, but it would be coming over our port aft quarter when we turn south to give us an unpleasant roll.

It was also a shakedown for my camera work, and despite the harrowing seas, I shot about a minute along the way and created this short video.

A few minutes after we turned to the south one of the crew got seasick, which nearly set off a chain reaction for the others. Fortunately, everyone else hung tough for the rest of the trip.

The Rest of the Thruster Story

The new thrusters performed spectacularly, but I was still nervous about the warning light that appeared Sunday morning.

Accordingly, I tried the back down the narrow channel to the dock in Plymouth jogging the engines and saving the thrusters for the final landing.

I was about three feet away when the aft thruster shut down. A little yelling and line tossing got us in safely.

It turned out the Thruster Team never wired the power to the battery charger for the stern thruster, and we had run all weekend on the initial charge!

The battery life was impressive, but I could have done without the drama.

All in all, it was a very successful shakedown cruise.

Next Up: The Flotilla Party and Mother’s Day in Plymouth!