Sept 3-4 2006, TIMBER

On Friday and Saturday the tropical storm Ernesto rolled through Cape May, and it sounded like it was the worst storm in years to hit the Cape May area. Capt. Dave M. was on hand and checked on everyone’s boats for them. The VHF antenna on my boat fell over, and more of the stitching on the Bimini Top popped out. On Sunday I went down planning to replace the antenna. When I got there Jim showed me that the antenna had just popped out of the base, so we put it back in and sealed it with some silicone. I also noticed the Canvas shop next to Hands Bait was open, so we hurried over there. The guy said to go get the top, and bring it over here right now. We did and he re-stitched all the seams on the top in about 15 minutes. He told me it may last another season or two.

On Monday we headed out to the Cape May reef. We were out of the slip by 7:00 AM. There were some large swells on the way out but nothing too bad. I had my first and only keeper fluke in the box by 8:05. We managed to catch a few small blue fish, a big croaker, and a few shorts. We packed up a little before noon to head for the harbor, hoping to get home early.

What’s wrong with this picture?

As I went to dock the boat I bumped the piling, and Jim was pushing me off. The next thing I see is the piling sinking, because it had just broke off at the bottom. I think my exact words were “Now what are we going to do”. We decided to pull over at the fuel dock, and fill up and tell the guys what just happened. They didn’t seem too upset, in fact they said a few others had broke during the storm. They found me a new slip on the same dock, much further down. So we transferred my lines and hose down to the new slip, and then brought the boat down there. Needless to say we didn’t get home as early as we hoped.