Raritan Bay Winter 2014

It has been a tough 4 months recovering from my motorcycle accident.  Recent surgeries have been completed and I have even been able to take a drive down to the bay.

Visiting the bay during this polar freeze is exciting.  The bay has a lot of ice floating around and really not safe for boating in a smaller craft.  There was only one fisherman braving the cold in Cliffwood beach.  I was only out there a little while and my ears and hands were hurting from the cold.  The marinas and boat yards have hunkered down for the winter with very little activity.  A cruise by Keyport Yacht Club showed two only cars in the parking lot and they were most likely members working inside.  Olsens had such a pile of snow at the beginning of the driveway you could not drive in, but I am sure John and the boys were working in the shop.  Union Beach was empty and not much has changed since Sandy came through in 2012.  The ice piled up on some of the shorelines gives one the impression of Antarctica.  As we cruise down toward the Highlands we see Keansburg is working on the amusement part with equipment sitting there covered in ice.

Losing half the season last year due to my motorcycle accident was a real disappointment.  My doctors have been working on me all winter rebuilding the broken areas, but it is not likely I will be having a early season.  So I will just have to see what is going on and post it here.

In the meanwhile I recently watched ALL IS LOST and was slightly disappointed in the movie.  Robert Redford wakes up to water sloshing around the boat, but the impact of a shipping contained does not wake him.  Give me a break, If my boat touches something I feel it.  It goes on and shows no urgency of the water pouring into his boat.  You would have thought he would have made a makeshift patch to plug the hole and used a board or mop stick to keep pressure against it. When his boat begins to sink there is a location beacon on the back of boat that was never used.  This had to be written by someone who does not sail.  It was not a bad movie, just keep me saying to myself, "What are you doing?"  His boat was not set up as a blue water boat even though he is sailing the Indian Ocean as he did not have a portable VHF, nor did his life boat have a location beacon.  All in all is was okay just because it involved sailing.

Hope to be back soon with more on Raritan Bay.

October bay visit

Went down to the bay to see what was going on.  It was quiet, I mean erie quiet.  Activity was very low. There were only a few fishing from the shore, the tide was higher than normal, and the boat ramp parking lot only had about trailers in it.  I wanted to see how many sailboats remained in Keyport Harbor, so I ran along the bay to Keyport Yacht Club to see what was going on there.  It was early so I really didn't expect many people there.  Very quiet!  I drove down the street to Olsen's and there was John power washing the bottom of a boat just hauled out.  Really taking advantage of the time and tide.  This is the busy season for them and much of their work is governed by the tide.  

Along the Keyport shore flooding was evident at many locations.  Some areas where I haven't seen it or just didn't take notice of it before.  The boat ramp had only a short distance of angled pavement showing.  The parking lot where the Ye Cottage Inn use to be now had the bay pushing water over the bulkhead into the parking lot.  The flooding down by Wagner's seemed the normal for a high tide and was just a nuisance.   

End of my 2013 Season

Sorry to anyone looking for more current things happening around the bay.  I had a motorcycle accident and have been recovering from many broken bones. On my first visit to my orthopedic doctor (a fellow boater) told me to have her hauled out as I was done for the season.  The Harley is still sitting in the driveway where my neighbor placed it for me.

I did take a trip to pick up the boat and bring her home where I could work on things during the winter. Having your boat hauled out early does have benefits.  When I called and explained my problem and I was incapacitated and not capable of climbing onboard and securing anything.  I arrived and the bottom was spotless, not one barnacle left.  At the end of the season the quickly job is obvious.  Everything onboard was tied down leaving little to do besides hook up and drive away.

The Keyport area was pretty active with the ramp parking lot just about full.  The pier is open now for a couple months and there are many putting it to use.  I would usually stop and talk to people, but I wasn't suppose to be driving, I was on pain meds, and if anything happen the wife would have disowned me.

I am hoping to make my off season trips as usual and enjoy the bay life.  Repairs still go on from
Sandy and we will investigate those and post.

At least we leave on a good note.

Fish on the move

Sunday was a great day out on the water.  It was a little cloudy which took away some of the hot sun and the breeze was very light.  The breeze was not a good breeze for drifting.  We set out early Sunday to make sure we could get the incoming high tide and the out going high tide later on.  We first tried the same spot we hit the blues last week off of Union Beach, but there were not to be found.  After several trolling passes in that area without a hot we moved across the bay to the channel along the shore of New York. we fished there for a while with only a couple bites and no takers.  The water was 55 feet deep and we fished the max depth, the drop offs to the channel and the flats on both sides without any fluke.  We did see a few shorts caught on other boats, but we caught none.  We worked our way back onto the flats in 25 feet of water where we finally did start getting some nice hits only to find out it was spot and grunts.  I finally hooked up and it turned out to be a dog fish. 

we decided to work our way back across the bay with bucktails trolling behind.  By the time we reached the #1 can we were amazed at no takers.  This time of year we usually have great luck trolling for the blues.  As we continued our voyage back to Keyport Harbor I hooked up just at the mouth to the harbor.  It was a nice blue that fought hard, jumped, and shook his head so many times I though he would surely spit the hook.  In any case I got him close and Blue netted him. 

It was a nice fish at about 30".  Not the monsters we were catching last week, but still a good fit.

We called it a day around 2:00pm and headed back to our mooring in Keyport Harbor.  We will have to get out and give it a try again next weekend with great hopes of catching some nice fluke.
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August 4, 2013 Fishing Report In Raritan Bay

Fishing in Raritan Bay has always been exciting for me.  Though I can catch more fish, in most cases, fishing fresh water, the size and fight are totally different.  Sunday we packed everything on board for a day of fishing.  We headed to Ambrose Channel to try our luck and were only catching short fluke.  We headed along the Staten Island shoreline following the channel occasionally stopping to try a drift.  After hours of doing this and nothing making the way to the cooler, we decided to try a different approach.  We setup or poles for trolling. All that I can say is OMG!  KABOOM!  Once we found the Blues we were catching some big fish.  One after the other.  Using bucktails sweetened with a spearing and trolling about 5 knots seemed to be the magic ticket.  Most of the fish were caught in 6' of water off Union Beach.  After losing lures, popping lines, catching fish too big for the net, and getting cramps in the arms, we called it a day early, 1:00pm.  It isn't too often you run into days like this. Outgoing tide, sunny day, good breeze, and plenty of bluefish to keep the excitement coming.

  These fish were all around the same size and hungry.  OK, so when isn't a bluefish hungry...  There were a couple that were bigger than this and we either broke the line, straightened out the hook, or jumped and spit the hook.  It was a great time to say the least.

Raritan Bay offers some good fishing.  The problem is finding out where to go.  The forums and bulletin boards do not allow you to say where you were fishing which is just crazy to me.  Why not share in the fun? I can understand those secret fishing holes, but if it is one of the known fishing holes, why not be able to say it?  This has be thinking of starting a forum where people can share there fun with others.

This fishing trip caught most of the fish at 40° 27' 30.42"N, 74° 9'46.13"W, off Union Beach.  As soon as we broke 5 knots, we would have another fish on.  A great day of fun. We did this until low tide and headed back to Keyport Harbor and the trip hope.  We did not keep any of these fish.

So get out there and try your luck, the big blues are here.

A moon tide on the summer solstice

June 22

As we took the dinghy out to Lil Provo today I immediately noticed that the mast was rocking back and forth. It made me look more closely to see what the problem may be.  As we got closer I saw a tangle of rope and steel cable and we got closer I could see the problem.  The standing rigging going to the spreader had half broken though and the strands of cable that broke had flung around and caught the flag lines in the broken strands.  It seemed to make the balance of cables loose.  Once I got on board I went and adjust the cable tension on the good cables and ran the jib halyard to the deck plate on the side that sprung and put as much pressure on it as I could. This secured the mast.  I then had to make a decision whether we would venture out into the bay.  Being the mast seemed secure I decided we would go out under motor and do some fishing.

We dropped the mooring ball and headed out into the bay.  The water was calm and almost like glass.  I had no problem with the cable damage as the mast was secure and not moving much at all.

We went about 2 to 3 miles and began to fish. While we were fishing we noticed a large number of sailboats were headed in our direction.  Eventually the sailboats arrived with a couple power boats that were carrying large buoys.  It was the Keyport Yacht Club regatta group and it was regatta day.  They set up the buoys and the boats began cruising back and forth.  We just sat there watching and fishing.

A few hours passed and they were still cruising around. We noticed they were going a lot faster than earlier and took a check of wind, current, and wave action.  It was starting to get rough and we needed to think about getting Lil Provo back to the safety of the harbor.

I started the motor and gradually got her up to full speed, just a little over 6 nots.  The wave action was making the mast rock side to side so I knew I had to find the line that would allow us to smooth out the ride.  I turned her a little toward the wind and it made the ride a little smoother.  We cruised back the 4 or 5 miles and made it back to the confines of Keyport Harbor.

While we cruised with in outer part of the harbor I realized the tiller was jumping up and down.  I couldn't figure out what it was and then realized it was bottoming out.  I changed direction toward the channel hoping to get to deeper water when suddenly the tiller pushed up and out of the brackets.  I had a hold of it and pulled it into the cockpit and used the motor to steer.  This had never happened before and I was concerned about the brackets leaking water into the bilge.

When we entered the harbor the motor started to die and did.  It sounded like we were out of gas, but checking the tank proved otherwise.  There was. Plenty of gas. It had to be a gas filter problem or maybe vapor lock.  Being we were already in the mooring field we needed to maintain control of her and not bump into any other boats.  I restarted tried restarting the motor and she started right away, but if I tried to run normally at low rpm she sounded like she was going to stall.  I gave her full throttle and she took off and gave me control.  I was cruising through the mooring field at full speed, something I would not normally do.  As we got close to the mooring I heard someone yelling and as I looked around there was a person on a boat yelling and waiving his arms. I thought he was upset with the speed I was going through the mooring field, but he pointed up and there was a person on the top of a mast.  I reduced the throttle and moved Lil Provo to her mooring.  Once there I looked over at the other boat and my wake was nil to the other vessel. No big deal, we continued to moore.


We took care of everything on board and made sure she was secure.

The boating season is here

As i sit in front of the gym waiting for them to open this morning, I am starting today's blog. It will be a busy day and this is the best way to do a brain drain prior to actually starting things.

6/1/2013

Today is the day where Lil Provo heads down to her summer home sitting on the water in Keyport Harbor.  She is all clean in and out, has the basic required gear on board, and is packaged up and ready for the trip east.  I have to pick up my salty dog buddy Blue and bring him back to verify the tail lights are working and just in case there are any issues on the trip, it will be nice to have someone who can help or share the pain.

Need to verify we have the right ball on the hitch as we tow a few different trailers.  Check the lights and make sure they are working properly. Run over the tie downs and load straps making sure they are secured and tight. Throw a couple extra ropes on the mast just to make sure it doesn't go anyplace. Make sure we have gas and oil in the back of the truck, a case of bottled water, and tools.

In looking at the boat the other day I noticed the boat was not all the way forward to the stop by the winch.  Nothing I can do about this at this point, she must have slide back an inch or so on the trip home. We'll just make sure we have her secured pretty good.

It may be a challenge to find a home for her at the boat yard as it was still packed with boats last week with very little available room.  If there are people working on their boats, the little space available will be used for parked cars. We have to get there early to beat this possibility. Then take off the tie downs, remove the ropes, get the boom out of the cabin, and make sure they have everything they need out and ready to raise the mast with the hoist on top of the building.  Then she can be placed on her mooring which is about 100 yards off the KYC dock.

Over the next couple weeks as I come down to take her out, I will bring more of the summer supplies down.  Things like the fishing tackle, snorkel or dive gear, portable radio, DVD player, cooler,  change of clothes, and whatever else I remember.

It is now time to pick up  Blue and start this mornings adventure.  First thing is to hook up the trailer to the truck and inspect everything TWICE.  I back up to the hitch and make sure we have the right size ball and plug in the wiring.  No tail lights!  Time to now see where the problem is. I pull out the back up wire from the back of the truck and change to a new trailer wire hookup. Ahhhh, some lights are working. Time to check bulbs.  Another 5 minutes and all seems fine with the lights.  Time to jump in and take our time towing the boat to the bay.  No rush!

The ride is uneventful. Thank goodness.  We pull in and look for a place to park the boat.  Blue gets out and helps with directions as I try backing her in and getting her in a safe spot.  Sometimes leaving her in the way makes them put you in right away. Hmmmm, should we?  I back her in and then take a walk to the office to confirm she is fine where she is and John tells me that is fine.

I have Blue grab a nearby ladder and I climb on board to remove all the lines I have holding the mast in place. Blue removes the tie downs and load straps. I go into the cabin and bring out stage boom which I leave in the cockpit along with a baggy of Clevis pins and round cotter pins I case they need an extra.  Next we get the rudder attached to the back and are pretty much done at this point.  We undo the hitch and I move the truck up a little to we can load the truck with items taken off the boat. I then walk around the boat and take my annual pictures of boat as dropped off.  This is a good practice to get into!

Instead of leaving we take a walk down to the ramp and notice there are now about 20 boats in the mooring field and KYC dock is finished and the launch is an horde right off the dock.  This means the mooring field will begin to fill over the next week or so. I take a few pictures out into the harbor and we return to the truck and boat.  Blue puts a cinder block under the front of the trailer so we don't have to reply on the crackdown wheel.  I go the fridge in the back of the truck and pull out a couple nice cold waters for Blue and I.  We head on back and detour along the Keyport water front which is very active.  We notice that Pedersen's has put in a bunch of new docks on the old pilings and still adding more.



Another successful beginning to another season.  We head home.

Next project is to finish the dinghy.  She's pretty much ready, but I want to replace the wheels on the transom with new wheels and relocate them so we don't have to turn her upside down like we have for years.  The idea is to set the wheels up so we can just pull her up the ramp with everything still inside.  Previously, we would unload her and turn her over and pull her up the ramp.  I began to think how inconsiderate this was for others waiting to use the ramp. So I plan to change that this year.  It will require some major work on the transom and rear bench seat, but it will be worth it.

First thing to due is turn her over and cut some holes in the front face of the bench seat so I can use bolts and not self tapping screws.  This will also allow me to back it with an aluminum plate to add strength. When done I can fill with foam.

This method will allow me to turn the boat upside down when I get her up to the spot I store her in the boat yard.

6/8/2013

Today we have to finish up the dinghy.

blue and I turned her over and I cut a hole in the face of the bench seat large enough to get my arm I side with a wrench.  I figured out where I wanted the wheels to be ans marked the transom. The bolts you get with the wheel kit are not long enough to make an easy installation.  I used a drill the next size smaller than what the bolt would require and screwed the bolts into the transom. After screwing a bolt into each hole I removed the bolts and pumped silicon into the holes.  With the kit they give you o-rings and washers to help seal out any water. Being I had no room for washers or o-rings, placed a glob of silicone on each hole. I placed the wheels on and screwed in the bolts which tighter right up.  I then went inside and put the self locking nuts on each bolt.  I was really surprised how much silicone came through each hole.  After all the nuts were tighter I ran a bead of silicone around each wheel plate to give some added protection from leaking.

Later on after the silicon had dried, I put a coat of paint on the transom.  And other fiberglass work I had done.  The dinghy is now ready and rolls along perfectly. Just the way I planned.

We will bring the dinghy down next week in hopes there is some room.  Today the place was still a zoo with absolutely no place to store the dinghy. Maybe with high tide during the mid-day time this week they will get more boats in the water and giving us some room for the dinghy.