Summerfest 2008

[J Levine]

I will concur with Frank on this one, given the choice between my radar or my GPS I will take the Radar for night. We went to both the Firworks that never happened in Brick on Thursday night and the fireworks that did happen on the Toms River last night and used the radar to navigate between all the traffice and find the nav aids.....including the moron that was running at about 30 knots last night at 11:00 pm with no running lights as we headed back to our marina. The only way I could see him was on the radar.

 

[Alex F]

When we were in process of upgrading to 320DA, the radar was on the must have list. Night cruising is my favorite. To help navigating, in addition to good electronics (two gps displays and radar) I mark all the objects (nons, cans, channel bouys) on my gps during the day time. This way when we get closer to them a 5-10seconds search light burst is enough to locate them. I also marked some routs on gps that really helps to follow at t night. My speed is always 5mph @1100-1200rmps burning 1.4-1.7mpg. This is the time to enjoy the nature, cruise and your boat. This gives me enough time to react to something I didn't expect to see in advance.

We arrived to Beach Haven yesterday and looked for the planned spot to drop the hook. Dom and Ron, the spot we've descussed in the other thread is a joke. While following the local channel in 15' of depth I slowly started approaching the cove only to find out that it has 1' of water. This was the time to learn what's it like to push 320 by hand. I turned of the engines as soon as I started stir the mud, to preven all the stuff being sucked by the engines. I tell you that it's a LOT heavier boat than 240DA. Twice the weight is not a joke. Anyway, due to tough times we got lucky and were able to get a slip at Morisons. BTW, very nice marina, but boy 2.3'....I thought my slip was shallow. But, in the end I'm glad we ended up in the marina, b/c it rained all night and I could run my a/c with a peace of mind, not worry about running it of genny.

Guys, if you in the area, BHYC has $4.09 for plus (WOW, we get that on the street) and $4.30 for deasel (on the street Exxon has it at $4.79). Before we left, we stopped by Ocean Beach marina for pumpout and they had $4.55 for gas.

The fireworks were very nice, although they had some delays. Very pretty view of the bay full of boats and 30min non stop action of fireworks, a beutiful thing.

 

[fc3]

Bay Head Yacht Club sells fuel?

 

[fc3]

Oh, never mind. Beach Haven Yacht Club. That's a bit of a ride, even if the fuel is 24 cents cheaper.

 

[comsnark]

Yeah, I was at Toms River last night as well. Really nice show.

I was amazed that fully 50-75% of the boats anchored left their running lights on.

The show for me was a bit spoiled for me because of the rain right at the end. After being rained on last year, I guess I was a bit too anxious to put up the biminis and front eisenglass.

The ride home was quite enjoyable.

Tonight, I just cruised the local neighborhood at 9-10pm watching the neighborhood fireworks. Then the lightning moving overhead scared me back to the dock. Call me chicken, but I prefer not to dock in the rain. I guess I gotta learn to read weather better at night. . because as of now we still don't have rain.

 

[rondds]

frank, if you're heading down the bay it's well worth the stop - but too far out of the way for a special trip.

i heard the summerfest fireworks were cancelled just as i cast off my dock lines. but we had a rendezvous raft up planned and i'd be darned if i was skipping it. 5 boats at one point and a good time was had by all. if they hadnt cheaped out and skipped getting barges, they wouldnt have had to be concerned about the wind blowing stuff back onto the beach.:smt013

next best thing to radar is idle speed, local knowledge, gps and a handheld searchlight. (see pic below and lack of radar on arch