My love with the Jersey Shore began as a young boy, coming each year to spend two weeks with my family at some rented bungalow. When I was in my early teens, my parents bought such a bungalow, on the shores of the Metedeconk River near the Barnegat Bay. We would spend weekends in the spring and then again in the fall at the shore house, in addition to all summer long. My dad would stay back home and work, then travel down the Garden State Parkway Friday afternoon to spend weekends with us, then drive back north Monday morning.
One of the benefits of growing up in Central New Jersey was being exposed to the weather changes from the Four Seasons; cold and snowy Winter, balmy and rainy Spring, hot and sometimes humid Summer and the cool and at times brisk Fall. But being in a more 'temperate' zone, most times one season's weather would run into the next. When this happens at the end of Summer/beginning of Fall, it is said to be an Indian Summer. Often times a warm day with slight breezes would only be accentuated by the colors of leaves on the deciduous trees changing color. Nowhere is this transition more beautiful than along the Jersey Shore. New Jersey has 1,792 miles of shoreline along 127 miles of Atlantic-facing coast and 83 miles of bay front on Raritan and Delaware Bays. Plenty of beaches to walk and water to boat.
Vacationing and seasonal visitors to the Shore generally leave by Labor Day weekend, traveling back 'home' to start a school year anew. The crowds and traffic of summer at the Jersey Shore is replaced with an almost ghost-town appearance; the locals going about their lives and several die hard 'visitors' returning on weekends to enjoy one last trip to the Shore. One of the reasons I chose the style of boat that Vintage Viking is, a Convertible, was to allow us to use it as a weekend retreat. Combining my love of the water and of the beauty of surrounding landscapes make this time of year, the 'Indian Summer' of Fall, my most favored. Fishing is active for many of the coastal species, with my favorite, striped bass, being the fish-of-choice for me.
I had planned on spending the next several weekends taking Vintage Viking out fishing for striped bass. Since we had both Barnegat Bay as well as Barnegat Inlet at our immediate vicinity, we could be in prime bass waters in short order. But I was accustomed to fishing from Pipedreams, my 21-foot walk around, set up for wire-line and downrigger fishing. I hadn't spent much time rigging Vintage Viking for fishing. But I did register her for the Annual Striper Tournament run from Sun Harbor Bay Club, scheduled for the following weekend (November 16th). This would give me a weekend to take Vintage Viking out for a trial fishing assault.
Jesse and I traveled down to the boat about mid-day Friday. School was closed for Teachers Convention, and I had two appointments scheduled this day, and one was actually on the way to the boat! After the meeting, we stopped at the local boat-a-holics watering hole, BoatersWorld. Aisle after aisle of all the must-haves from their latest catalog. Lotsa stuff, some expensive. But I had to buy a tee shirt. Jesse got a Helly-Hanson coat. Amazing, a teenager that would actually like clothes for boaters.
We got to the marina just as the service technician from the local Crusader Engine shop arrived. I had arranged for them to come and look at the engines and give an estimate to replace them. I had developed a refurb plan based upon the surveyor's pre-purchase report, and the engines were the biggest part of the plan. While I dealt with the engines and the technician, Jesse looked thru the takeout menu from the local eatery for something for dinner. I travel down to the boat with a gourmet chef (Jesse was once on the Ellen Degeneres Show as a 10-year old chef. More on that later) and eat take-out! Quick selection, a phone call and dinner was ordered.
Having finished with the engine report, I drove Jesse to the eatery, picked up dinner and supplies at the supermarket next door, and it was back to the boat for some 'guy-time'. When he was young, Jesse would sleep overnight on Pipedreams, which made for a snug night. It has a cuddy cabin with a cozy v-berth with a porti-potty below it. Not much more than that. But we did have many a good night together. Breakfast was cooked in the cockpit on the Magna barbecue. The accommodations on Vintage Viking are definitely more spacious, and Jesse set about converting the dinette into a double bed after dinner was finished. We took a few minutes and went to the locker house to use the showers, since I hadn't been able to work on the boat's water system yet. But the hot water of the showers felt good. Even though the days are warm during Indian Summer, the nights are fall-like and cold. We returned back to the boat and got ready to chill out. We played cards for a while. After Jesse kept losing at cards, he decided to watch a movie. He had selected a few movies from the DVD collection I had onboard, and we watched movies until he fell asleep. When I called Alice later that night to say goodnite, I had told her how Jesse had fallen right asleep on the boat. Alice coined a new term; she called Vintage Viking the "man-cave". I think that will stick.
Next morning it was a little overcast and windy. The forecast had rain coming sometime later in the morning or early afternoon. Before long Jesse woke up and started cooking breakfast. About time; my gourmet chef returned! The chef is gourmet, but the meal was basic. Sausage, oatmeal, eggs, coffee and orange juice. But it was enjoyable to see him at work in the boat's galley. He gets so involved in his cooking, and then of course there is the mess he leaves behind. But to see his exuberance at what he does, even if its only breakfast. But the galley has an electric range, and Jesse isn't used to cooking on one. The sausage wasn't really cooked throughout and it kept returning to remind us later on.
As Jesse finished up from breakfast, I began to get Vintage Viking ready for a day out on the water. As we pulled out of the slip and past the end of the marina, we stopped at the gas dock to pick up some bait. The marina owner and his son Joey were more than happy to tell us what the local bait dujuer was and where the big ones would be. That's why I like this time of year. No crowds mean people have more time to devote to being....nice. I turned the boat up-channel as I pulled away from the dock and headed out into Barnegat Bay. Hot coffee by the ready, and crew a little queasy from the sausage.
Once we got out into the Bay, the wind started to kick up. That's the funny thing about Indian Summers. They can be fleeting. The more we got away from the mainland and closer to the Inlet, the more the wind whipped and the mist came. Once we got out beyond the Inlet jetties, the rollers started bobbing the boat. Jesse began to grow a little green around the gills (was this from the sausage?) and wasn't enjoying his father-son time anymore. He did give it the best that he could muster, but he kept getting greener and greener. By mid-day, the rain started falling, the fish weren't interested and Jesse was ready to heave. Captain's decision.....return to port.
The ride back in through the Inlet was short, and once we cleared the Sedge Islands at Oyster Creek Channel, the rain started falling heavier. i had to slow down so as to not pulverize my face from the rain. Lowering the front windows of the bridge enclosure rendered me near-blind, mostly due to the yellowing of the issenglass (new enclosure will have to get put on the bottom of the list) and the bimini top was leaking profusely from small dry rot cracks (new enclosure will need to move up to the top of the list).
As we neared midway home, I called Jesse up onto the flybridge. My thoughts were that if I could get his mind off his stomach he would feel better. I had him get behind the wheel and together we navigated the channel and headed back to home port. The rain continued, the wind increased, and the visibility diminished. But Jesse did a great job and after a while his color returned to something near-human.
We pulled into the slip, tied off Vintage Viking, dried off and heated up some soup. There's nothing like a hot bowl of chicken noodle soup, even if you're not sick, to make you feel good. The rain continued to lightly fall, and the marina was a calming quiet, and before long we were both taking naps. In a little while, I got the phone call from Alice. Jesse was due to work later that night and I had planned on driving him home. Via phone-texting with Alice earlier in the day, she offered to drive down to pick him up, so that I could stay on the 'man-cave' for another day. Great idea!! Unfortunately, I had given her wrong directions, and after a 45 minute drive in the wrong direction, she found herself in the middle of the Pine Barrens. Boy was she pissed, and rightly so. I told Jesse to get into the truck and I would drive him out to meet Mom at the Parkway exit. When she finally retraced her tracks and got back to the exit, she was hotter than wasabe. I must have apologized ten times, but it didn't matter. I screwed up the directions and she wouldn't let me forget it. But Jesse was off to his job, and I was on my way to the nearest hardware store to get parts and supplies to begin work on my list.
After stopping at Home Depot, Walmart and Lowes, I returned to the marina to begin my work. I had plenty to do and supplies to do it. I began with the water system. I fixed the hot water heater, fixed the leaks in the cold water piping, found that the water tanks hold water but the 12v water pump doesn't. After three hours, I was able to turn on faucets and have hot water. I was able to bypass the non-operating AC condenser pump with a hose run to the service hose bibb in the lazarette, and now the reverse-cycle heat/AC was working. And how nice it was to take a hot shower on the boat.
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