GOODBYE ATLANTIC OCEAN

August 12, 2009

Today's (second) post is just a short one because we left Barnegat Inlet and made the 8 hour run up the rest of the New Jersey coast to Sandy Hook and are anchored in Horseshoe Cove for just tonight. The highest land mass along the eastern seaboard, the Atlantic Highlands, is an interesting site off our starboard side. So, we made it from Florida to New York in 10 days. That is a true trawler record!

Wayne was the one who added the part about seeing the humpback whales to the last posting. I just want to elaborate a bit about them and some other wildlife sightings and what it's like to be around my crew mates for such events. Besides, after the whale sighting the day went downhill.

Seeing the whales was really neat! The water was glassy calm, so it was easy to spot them, and they were traveling north just like we were, so they stayed abreast of us for while. They would just surface and blow some air and then calmly submerge again, with their flukes coming upright out of the water. We have never seen the humpbacks this far south before, and I was surprised they would be so close to shore (<3 miles) and in only 50' of water. They were not close enough to be able to get a good photo, and the morning light was shrouded with a foggy gray mist. The previous day, as we angled our way in toward Barnegat Inlet, I spotted enormous schools of golden colored rays in the water. I have never seen anything like that before, where there are dozens in each school, hundreds in all. It made me think of watching a swarm of butterflies. The rays are like butterflies of the sea; they are so graceful and beautiful with the golden upper sides and bright white undersides, and they glide so effortlessly through the water, gently twisting and turning. I am usually the one who spots the wildlife. In my enthusiastic state, I let a shrilling (or so the guys say) alert of “look”, “see”, or point at the sighting. That gets Ursa all excited, because she knows those words, and senses my body language that something is up. She may bark or start huffing and puffing and jumping up to one of the windows, or scratching to be put up to her new perch on the helm area. For some reason, the guys get annoyed at me for getting her excited. Yet they think The Queen is so cute when she is sitting up on the helm, where they put her when she beckons at other times. I'm just venting because they would miss seeing a lot of things if it wasn't for me, and what am I supposed to do when something exciting is happening? Am I supposed to be calm and gently say, gentlemen over to the starboard side of the boat, about 100 yards away at a bearing of about 45º there is a 1000# bluefin tuna jumping out of the water if you would like to take the opportunity to observe it in its natural state? Duh, by the time I got all that out, the thing would be down with Davey Jones again. Wayne's eyesight sucks, and Eddie is half asleep most of the time, so it is a duller voyage without my “shrills for thrills”. OK, back to today's voyage. The skies got dark, the wind kicked up, and the rain came down (remember the Gilligan Island's theme song?). Thankfully we weren't on the MINNOW, and FLUKE took it all in stride. We had water splashing over the bow and a couple of roofers. Visitor puked for the first time this trip, but the rest of the crew held everything down. However, a big sigh of relief came when we rounded the point at Sandy Hook and got out of the wind and into calmer waters. Eddie was cold and wanted to watch TV, but I shamed him into putting on his foul weather clothing and helping me put away our fishing gear until we head back to FL.

Since it is so cool today and we got in early, I talked Wayne into making a pizza to celebrate our arrival in NY and what will be a new adventure for us up the Hudson River. It was great!

Ogling the Pizza