paulthenurse
Contributor
Sunday morning 4:30 am. Up and out by 5:00 and on the road to Philly. Arrived at St Joes by 11. All Spawns stuff upstairs into the dorm in 3 trips. "See ya, don't forget to write. Bye." Go get a steak and cheez and on the road to Joisey. Arrive at Alice's mothers by 4. Errands, then dinner and a movie. Ishouldknowbetter continues her unbelievablely long streak of picking horrible movies. Save the $10. 'The Devil wears Prada' is a couple of hours of Chinese water torture for those members of the audience who stand to urinate. Fall asleep on the way back. Lumpy mattress.
Monday morning 5:00 am. Up and out the door by 6. Uncle Charley was a late arrival. (I only need 5 minutes, I could have slept for almost another hour! Grrrrrr!) Fight the incredible traffic heading into NY at that hour and make the first boat to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Gotta tell ya, that green lady is some cool! Never been there before and I could have stayed all day at either place. But we had a 6 and a 7 year old with us and by early afternoon it was time to head to the barn. I wasn't able to find any of my ancesters but did manage to find Alice's grandfather's entry log. (Interesting story. Alices mother and her parents and brother went to Germany in 1938 to visit her fathers family and go stuck there when the war started. She was around 12 at the time. Her Dad, a German national, got drafted into the German army and was eventually captured by the Americans. She tell incredible stories of being outside, watching the planes flying overhead and bombing nearby targets, and thinking that, "It's OK, they are Americans, I'm an American, they won't hurt us!" She didn't get back here for 8 years, her Dad didn't get back here for another 4 years.)
Tuesday morning 5:00. God, this is getting old! Up and load the car and on the road to Brielle. Traffic's not bad, it's all going the other way. We make it to Brielle by 6:15, find the Sea Lion and load up. It's been raining and blowing since Sunday and the skipper reports 6 foot seas. Alice had the forthought to take a Dramamine before going to bed and took another when she got up so I wasn't worried she'd be sick. At least not too bad.
So the whole 'Joisey Roll' thing. Yikes! It sure looks suicidal but it actually ain't that bad. You hike your outboard leg up onto the gunwhale, get on your knee and pitch yourself over the side while rolling to land on your back. And I can't say enough good things about the Sea Lions' ladder, even if it is amidships on the starboard side. It was a breeze climbing back onboard, and in 4-6 foot swells, that's saying something.
So the Delaware was a steamer that burned to the waterline in 1898. It had a cargo of, among other things, glass bottles. It's only a couple miles off shore so we were there fast. We got a quick overview and then the mate was over the side to tie us in. He came back shortly and gave us the good news, 15 foot vis. We dropped down onto a 60 foot long prop shaft and swam aft to a 10 foot (?) prop. There was monofilament EVERYWHERE. I got snagged up in it twice and Alice did also. A real PITA. We swam back to midships and found the steam engine and the two enourmous boilers. Pretty cool! We got 34 minutes at around 75 feet. I REALLY liked the strobes on the anchor line. Not that you could miss the drive shaft, but it was still nice to see those bright strobes.
Dive #2 was forward. We worked the starboard side, and followed the break. I was trying to coax a bug out of a hole when I saw a glint in the sand. I found the bottom of a glass bottle! Then, a few feet away I found another! And right next to that I found an almost whole bottle! It has Jacksonville written on the side. I was feeling pretty good. And then Alice found the coolest thing of all. SHe got a piece of blue china. I think it's called delft, or something like that. The piece she found has a design on it. It's about the size of a silver dollar. We also grabbed a lump of the coal. And all of this without a crowbar or a neato-keano hammer/chisel combo that the locals sport about.
I can't wait to go back!
Paul
Monday morning 5:00 am. Up and out the door by 6. Uncle Charley was a late arrival. (I only need 5 minutes, I could have slept for almost another hour! Grrrrrr!) Fight the incredible traffic heading into NY at that hour and make the first boat to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Gotta tell ya, that green lady is some cool! Never been there before and I could have stayed all day at either place. But we had a 6 and a 7 year old with us and by early afternoon it was time to head to the barn. I wasn't able to find any of my ancesters but did manage to find Alice's grandfather's entry log. (Interesting story. Alices mother and her parents and brother went to Germany in 1938 to visit her fathers family and go stuck there when the war started. She was around 12 at the time. Her Dad, a German national, got drafted into the German army and was eventually captured by the Americans. She tell incredible stories of being outside, watching the planes flying overhead and bombing nearby targets, and thinking that, "It's OK, they are Americans, I'm an American, they won't hurt us!" She didn't get back here for 8 years, her Dad didn't get back here for another 4 years.)
Tuesday morning 5:00. God, this is getting old! Up and load the car and on the road to Brielle. Traffic's not bad, it's all going the other way. We make it to Brielle by 6:15, find the Sea Lion and load up. It's been raining and blowing since Sunday and the skipper reports 6 foot seas. Alice had the forthought to take a Dramamine before going to bed and took another when she got up so I wasn't worried she'd be sick. At least not too bad.
So the whole 'Joisey Roll' thing. Yikes! It sure looks suicidal but it actually ain't that bad. You hike your outboard leg up onto the gunwhale, get on your knee and pitch yourself over the side while rolling to land on your back. And I can't say enough good things about the Sea Lions' ladder, even if it is amidships on the starboard side. It was a breeze climbing back onboard, and in 4-6 foot swells, that's saying something.
So the Delaware was a steamer that burned to the waterline in 1898. It had a cargo of, among other things, glass bottles. It's only a couple miles off shore so we were there fast. We got a quick overview and then the mate was over the side to tie us in. He came back shortly and gave us the good news, 15 foot vis. We dropped down onto a 60 foot long prop shaft and swam aft to a 10 foot (?) prop. There was monofilament EVERYWHERE. I got snagged up in it twice and Alice did also. A real PITA. We swam back to midships and found the steam engine and the two enourmous boilers. Pretty cool! We got 34 minutes at around 75 feet. I REALLY liked the strobes on the anchor line. Not that you could miss the drive shaft, but it was still nice to see those bright strobes.
Dive #2 was forward. We worked the starboard side, and followed the break. I was trying to coax a bug out of a hole when I saw a glint in the sand. I found the bottom of a glass bottle! Then, a few feet away I found another! And right next to that I found an almost whole bottle! It has Jacksonville written on the side. I was feeling pretty good. And then Alice found the coolest thing of all. SHe got a piece of blue china. I think it's called delft, or something like that. The piece she found has a design on it. It's about the size of a silver dollar. We also grabbed a lump of the coal. And all of this without a crowbar or a neato-keano hammer/chisel combo that the locals sport about.
I can't wait to go back!
Paul
