LI Rendezvous - 2012

I heard there was going to be an article about how a reporter and a photographer were kidnapped while walking the dock at Liberty Landing Marina and forced onto a boat against their will to take photos of a guy and his family when they were supposed to be photographing and reporting on a 23 boat rendezvous.


[video=youtube_share;OS_2RRQZodw]http://youtu.be/OS_2RRQZodw[/video]
 
Last edited:
Now I know why Alex is bringing his own photograhor to the Sea Ray Homecoming event. Just read the preview this morning.
 
It's all about you, Rick.

ScreenHunter_06 Aug. 17 09.40.jpg

ScreenHunter_05 Aug. 17 09.40.jpg

ScreenHunter_04 Aug. 17 09.39.jpg

ScreenHunter_03 Aug. 17 09.38.jpg

ScreenHunter_02 Aug. 17 09.38.gif
 
Reading my copy of Sea Ray Living, and who do I see? Alex on page 8 and Dale page 71. Looking forward to the fall write up.....BTW for the win, can anybody here take credit on page 38? :grin:

Seriously very cool to see familiar faces! Nice job.
 
That's the one!

Dale
 
When returning back to NJ from LIS area my 7yo son asked if we can do some fishing since we'll be in the ocean for some time. He remembered that I told him that the best fishing is in the ocean and after our fishing trip at MYC with Captain Jim and our CSR Friends he's got first hands experience. So, I thought that it was a good idea, especially that we had plenty of time to return to homeport.

As we were making our way closer to NJ I figured that I'll pick a spot few miles off Manasquan Inlet, we'll do some trolling and if nothing will happen we'll get closer to other fishing boats and do some bottom fishing. So, we got closer to MI. I needed to head just over 3NM line to "unload". Shortly after we drop drop out lines and started trolling. I have to admit that I have very limited knowledge in trolling, so I picked up some stuff based on recommendations in one of the stores in MV (Manamsha) and gained first time knowledge fishing on Jim's boat at MYC. Anyway, I used two rods and we trolled on a single engine at about 3.5kts. Some time goes by 15-20min we get nothing. I have no doubts that between clueless about a good spot for blues and poor rigs was the main reason we had no bites. But, the opportunity was too good to pass by. After another 10min or so my daughter started saying "...oh, this is getting boring....blah, blah...". I figured we tried trolling and nothing. About 1/2NM south of us I see bunch of boats fishing, so I figured we pull the lines and I'll just go to them for some bottom fishing.

Just as I set the autopilot to our course all of a sudden I hear a huge splash ....BANG..... I turned quickly and saw an object on my port side dropping in the water. For a moment I thought, a dolphin? It's possible but the top buddy of this thing was much larger and the splash was huge with water gushing in all directions, much greater than I've seen from dolphins. The kids saw the splash and we're now staring at that direction. I turned the boat hard to port and was trying to aim for the direction where we saw this thing. The we finally saw it. The huge exhaling followed by the water fountain.

102_7677.jpg


The next thing we know, right before our eyes the huge mass comes out of the water for a big jump and splashes back in the water. We were simply shocked!!! I always wondered about it, but didn't think that being 3 miles off MI I would see a huge whale. From that moment on this beautiful creature performed the best show we've ever seen (and we've seen number of them in the parks). The whale made number of jumps all kinds of twists and flips. I had the camera but it was not easy to take the pictures since he was few hundred feet away and I had to use almost all zoom I had. But, here are few shots that came out ok.

102_7666.jpg


102_7669.jpg


102_7674.jpg


102_7675.jpg


102_7682.jpg


102_7683.jpg


102_7685.jpg


The show went on for about 10-15min and we lost him out of site. He was no where to be seen. I still had those two lines out and was proceeding very slow. I had a feeling that he's there close by and I just have to find him. So, I proceeded very slow to the direction I thought he might be. As I go very-very slow, still on one engine, my kids were looking out of the sides, which were opened. All of a sudden they're yelling "OH MY GOD, daddy STOP". The whale happened to be just under the surface only couple FEET away from our stbd side. As I turned to port I grabbed the camera again and was able to take these shots. BTW, if you think I'm exaggerating about the distance take a look at the the next pic. Look at the bottom zipper. See the white object to the left? Follow it to the right. That's his buddy under the water. He had one wing down, but if he would turn to flip over he would touch the boat with the wing that was down in the water.

102_7688.jpg


As I continued to turn to port making sure we don't collide he flipped over on his belly and resurfaced. The next image I think will live in our memories for many years to come.

102_7687.jpg


This when I could have a clear visual of the size of this thing. No question, I said to myself, oh boy...I'm way to close to the this thing and I better create a safe distance. This is when I engaged the 2nd prop and slowly moved away with respect.

You can only imagine the excitement from my crew. My son said, dad....this was the best fishing trip ever, even though we didn't catch anything, it's about the cool stuff we see during the trip.

That my friends, is the kind of boating you get on our mighty Atlantic Ocean.
 
Last edited:
Nice, Alex, very nice.
 
You my friend have had one heck of a summer's worth of boating adventures.
 
Alex,

Sounds like a very special day. Awesome pics.

But, I'm sure you know how powerful and dangerous a whale can be. Since you mentioned Captain Jim, he was also "visited" by a whale on his sportfish, and it wasn't so friendly. He was trolling, when suddenly the entire aft end of the boat was lifted several feet, then dropped back to the water. A whale had partially surfaced under his boat! Fortunately, the boat didn't start taking on water, but there was significant damage, and he had to limp back to port.

It's their home - we are guests.

Dale
 
Air O'Nautical said:
You my friend have had one heck of a summer's worth of boating adventures.
Click to expand...

Not without your help, Mark. I'm glad we were able to spend some time together. I'm just sorry we didn't have a chance to hook up in Block. But, I'm sure we'll have more opportunities in the near future.

MasterFab said:
Alex,

Sounds like a very special day. Awesome pics.

But, I'm sure you know how powerful and dangerous a whale can be. Since you mentioned Captain Jim, he was also "visited" by a whale on his sportfish, and it wasn't so friendly. He was trolling, when suddenly the entire aft end of the boat was lifted several feet, then dropped back to the water. A whale had partially surfaced under his boat! Fortunately, the boat didn't start taking on water, but there was significant damage, and he had to limp back to port.

It's their home - we are guests.

Dale
Click to expand...

That's some story, Dale. You're not kidding that we're big time guests in this mass world of ocean waters and I do have great respect for the nature. If I had seen clearly where this whale was "hiding" I would never come so close. It was a pure coincident. I'm glad Jim was able to comeback to port safely, though.
 
Last edited:
Alex. That whale must subscribe to sea ray living and wanted to get your autograph.


 
cod said:
Awesome Alex........... What a great experience for your kids!
Click to expand...

Thanks Steve.

Every trip is a new adventure and unforgettable experience. We're true believers that boating plays a huge role in raising a family and keeping it close together full of emotions and joy. Just this season alone my 7 y/o son learned the following:
1. He's now the captain of the dinghy. He sets it up, takes down with the lift, starts the motor (regardless warm or cold) and of course navigates it.
2. Learned fishing, including trolling while catching blues and stripers.
3. Did parasailing.
4. Learned how to ride a scooter.

These were just top few that come to mind on the dime.
 
Russ Calasant said:
What's next?? If you bought a lotto ticket I don't want t hear about it!!
Click to expand...

You know Russ, for about last 10+ years I'm buying lotto tickets every week. But, regardless of the effort I'm still dragging my a$$ to 3+hrs commute every day to/from work in the city.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,118
Messages
1,426,474
Members
61,034
Latest member
Lukerney
Back
Top