First report here. Looks like a great site.
Man, talk about an adventure. Seemed as though we did not prepare the proper offering to the weather gods on Sunday.
Hit Barnegat Inlet - or what I think was the inlet 'cause I really didn't see it - at 6:30am and made our way through the soup to the North Ridge. Still really foggy and a lot lumpier than the forecast. One of my guys sees a shape developing in the fog and out comes a commercial fishing vessel. Looked like a dragger, but I'm not sure. He made back-and-forth passes over a two or three mile stretch as the fog finally lifted and we thought we were in for a decent rest of the morning.
Literally no one home today for us on the north ridge and wind and seas started building, looking really confused with the occasional 6-footer thrown in for laughs. One of my guys got sick, so we started back to finish the day inside.
We get 1.5 miles from the inlet and see the next in the series of sucker punches from mother nature. A nice, thick curtain of fog staring us in the face as though it was a force field protecting the inlet. Crap. We thought it had burned off by now.
The scene was pretty intense as captains started calling each other to piggy-back on the way in. One guy stopped short, declaring that he couldn't find the inlet. Another runs past way too fast and looked like he caught himself just as he was about to put himself on the rocks of the north jetty. Hairy scene to say the least. But – just as the curtain closed on the outside, it opened up halfway into the inlet to beautiful clear skies and much nicer, flat water.
Not to digress too far, but man, some of the boaters out there that day really have no business being on the water. From flying head-on into the fog on the way out – with no lights or fog signals, to guys drifting for fluke right on the edge of the fog curtain where they sat without a care as white-knuckle captains finally get a chance to exhale as visibility increases – only to emerge smack dab into a close quarters situation in the inlet. For me though, the one that took today's boobie prize was the boat I saw going out into the fog, way too fast WITH KIDS ON BOARD! Sorry, but even if the skipper of that vessel was at the top of his game, exposing children to that risk made no sense to me.
Anyway, we get back inside, start drifting the ICW buoys under sunny skies and a slight chop, when the winds pick up and the first in a series of thunderheads find us and stay on top us, chasing us back to the barn. No lie, these things looked like they were gunning for us, popping up and whipping the bay into a frothy lather and dumping on us. By now we were laughing our butts off as weather event after weather event made today one we will talk about for a long time. Wind, rain, fog, lightning, serious chop both inside and out. A smorgasbord!
No fish in the box, but I gained priceless experience on the new rig in situations that tested both mine and my boat's mettle. The boat performed very ably and we felt safe the entire time. The electronics worked as they are supposed to and my confidence in them grows with each trip.
