All Aboard for Nautical Nails!

It's finally starting to feel like summer, and it couldn't have come quickly enough!  I love the summer, and not just because I'm always cold, and the summer is the only time I feel like I'm warm.  Summer means my birthday is right around the corner, which means fireworks will be going off, bonfires happening, fishing trips and grilling delicious food (amongst other things).

When I was a kid, we spent every weekend (and sometimes full weeks!) up at my camp in the Adirondack mountains.  The camp was right on the Raquette River, literally.  The boathouse was directly under the living room, so you would always hear the water rocking underneath you.

What I loved most about the camp was being out on our boat and exploring the river.  There were so many islands full of driftwood and little toads and wild berries that it seemed silly to be staying on the main land.

Fishing was also a big deal.  My dad only likes two things: hunting and fishing.  This meant that I would be woken up at the buttcrack of dawn all summer and be thrown into a life jacket, tossed on a boat and expected to wait there patiently for 6-8 hours while he fished.  Don't get me wrong, I love fishing and I like fishing in a boat a lot, but I do not like not being able to pee.

Between the long fishing trips, explorations, cruises, waterski adventures or just rides on the boat, I spent the majority of my childhood summers rocking on a river from the bow of a boat.  This is why it only seemed natural for me to theme my 'start of summer' nails nautically!
Now, I know that you guys are sick of hearing me talk about Zoya Jacqueline, but I can't get over how useful it's been!  It's featured here as the base to all of my nails.  The blue is Orly's Boho Bonnet, and the gold is from my SoEasy Stripe Rite striper.

Altogether this look was fairly simple, but there were a few issues that came up.  Orly's Boho Bonnet is a gorgeous color, but its quite sheer.  This meant that I had to do two coats of the color for the stripes across Jacqueline so that they didn't look 'sunwashed'.  This, in turn, caused it to look a little lumpy on some nails (pointer finger, for example).

The other issue was that the gold was sometimes too shiny to see the anchor and the wheel, as pictured above.  This is most likely the fault of Seche Vite making things so shiny, but still.  Thats my only beef.

So what do you guys think?  What's your summer nail inspiration?