weatherpruf

two yamaha 115s, 25 foot 1986 whaler, my friend is the original owner...built to last. we've been beating ourselves up for 40 years....we had enough gas and plenty to spare. we did bring an extra ten gallons in case we had to run to the stacks, that's where all the fish are, but that's getting far for us. but we go far down the jersey shore too; there are no fish left in raritan bay just the fall striper run. so we often have to go to the shrewsbury rocks or the mud buoy or the donut, where the old ambrose tower was. needless to say, the marine forecasts can really mess you up when the get it wrong; and they often don't mention big swells from offshore storms, which can make you sick in a hurry. we also will fish coney island and the rockaways if the fish are there.

yeah we really thought we had wasted the day until around 1 pm, when it laid down. i mean, ya gotta admit that was a long boat ride. raritan river to the arthur kill, kill van kull, ny harbor, east river through hell gate, and into the sound...and we still had to go a little distance in the sound as well. but it was still better than sitting at the gw bridge for 3 hours....or getting stuck on the cross bronx.

took a ride by boat from sayreville nj friday to the western sound....was fishing by some lighthouse east of new rochelle....wind was snotty in the morning and not what we expected, but it laid down by afternoon. wound up with about 25 keeper porgies, not great but not bad, given the early winds. left the dock in nj at 6 am didn't get back til 9 pm due to the late bite; we left the sound at around 6 pm. had to go slow in the dying light through the east river and harbor. water felt a bit cold to me but it could have been the east wind cooling the surface....

you never know; i went out on the sound porgy fishing last year in early oct or so and just threw some ice in a bucket; it got so hot by noon the ice melted and i had to scramble lest the fish spoil; had to empty out the food cooler and toss the fish in the remaining ice; as it was a soft cooler, ice is a no no and it leaked out all the way home, which was a 3 hour ride back to nj....

the tragedy of chernobyl is still ongoing and will continue after we are gone. it is hardly the past.

the job of the united nations was and is to prevent nuclear war. it has done that. so far.

and both siding things is how we got to this horrible situation. its ok to say one side is better than the other when it comes to the environment. facts are stubborn things.

was bearable offshore. fishing sucked, as usual. 2 keeper fluke in 14 hours. a couple ling, and one sea bass for each of us, which is the limit in nj. not a soul on raritan bay, in the middle of summer, in july, with perfect conditions.....they really have accomplished their goals with all the limits....people have just quit fishing. we did see several trawlers.....a whale and a ton of small sharks....not dogfish, but real sharks.

they are still fine to eat.

my wife got stuck at the costco in north plainfield the other night as did my best friend; didn't get home til midnight; costco acted as a shelter and provided rotisserie chickens, water and cookies for all the stranded folks. they should be commended.

i'm getting everything this year, including cantaloupes i didn't plant, and plum tomatoes i did not plant......due to the cool spring i planted broccoli late but i got a bumper crop just as the heat hit; i've got peppers and eggplant out the wahzoo, but tomatoes are not ready yet. starting to get cherry types now.

i see them right here in the local park. they are in all counties in nj now; you can spot them in raritan near the landfills too.

well, as someone who just dealt with a horrific situation in raritan bay a couple hours ago, i can tell you that there was no talk of thunder and squalls when we scheduled our trip; forecast was high of 97, sunny, light winds to increase out of the southwest this afternoon. instead we got clouds, lightning, pouring rain, and 5-6 foot seas with monstrous white caps. we are very happy to have made it to port alive. a 25 foot whaler was tossed around like a tin skiff.

nuclear reactors are catastrophically expensive, take 20 years to build, no one will insure them, and they are almost entirely dependent on government subsidies. and no one can solve the waste issue. and we are far behind on shutting down fossil fuels. does this site tend to attract the wingnuts, or what? yes, why can't we be like france...universal healthcare, paid family leave, paid childcare, free school lunches, free university, generous paid vacations, not one bankruptcy due to medical bills....sign me up. right now. oh, and better soccer, if that's your thing. did you ask about scientists coming here? is that a serious question? we are gutting science programs, because scientists discover and teach things some people don't like......we were on the cusp of an mrna vaccine for hiv, but it caused hives, a minor reaction that can probably be tweaked, and shows the vaccine was likely working. but it's been shut down.

same here

will be in maine for memorial weekend. bringing insulated pants and boots.....

the leaves will show cold damage on peppers and eggplants; it will be a silvery sheen; then those leaves will die off. if enough of them go, rip the plants out and start over.

i just got my broccoli in; it's a little late but we'll see. the first bunch buttoned; that happens from cold snaps followed by warmth. nursery took them back. i grow japanese eggplants and they generally collapse if we get a cold rain; same for bell and banana peppers. tomatoes are tougher. i plant zukes from seed and haven't done so yet. i have few bees so i plant self pollinating varieties, after years of no fruits at all, now i get tons. i'm also plagued by blights and can only plant certain varieties, like better boy or celebrity; in all the years, going back to the 70s, i have never had success with rutgers tomatoes, not even the new hybrid. can't grow italian eggplants either; the blights just kill them early.

tell it to anyone out on the sound or raritan bay, if they are crazy enough.....

and just after i planted my crops....for a few years i held off til jun 1st, but got suckered this year with some warmer weather. peppers and eggplants do not recover from that kind of cold. the nurseries and big box stores just keep selling the same people the same type of seedlings as the previously purchased ones die off....and yet my broccoli bolted early because it got hot for a few days.

March was mild enough for me to put the boat in the water in the 80s; sometime in the 90s it started getting too cold. Even now, most boats won't start their seasons til April, or even mid April; 40 years ago they would all be ready to go in early March; some of this has to do with the collapse of various fisheries, but it's also weather related.

It is NEW Jersey; never just "Jersey." Carry on.

Cincinnati with near 30, and I question that 20 inc average, it's just not real snowy there. I don't see my mom's hometown of Evansville, IN listed, wonder if they had more as well; there were times in the past when these cities were indeed buried, but it is far from the norm.

It was the ice on top; that was very rare, several inches of ice and so snow removal operations were stymied; I had to use a garden spade to dig out; people dug tunnels, in effect, in the urban areas to get their cars in and out, and it. stayed frozen for days. In Kocin's book, he has a phot of people trying to scale a wall of ice in Manhattan.

If you like torrential rains and flooding sure, but I can get that with a summer storm. It had some flurries here at the tail end. There was also the Perfect Storm of Oct 1991, notable for the book and movie...but that was a, well, what was it really?