August 18th 2016
Point Pleasant, NJ
I’m right back where I began, well almost.
Today started off perfect. Martha and Steve took Arlene and I to the boardwalk, just a few houses away. I could see Jenkinson’s, on the Boardwalk, but it was the Palm Trees that really caught my eye. Palm Trees! I’m in New Jersey, right? Turns out, they bring them in each winter. Can you imagine what’s involved with moving those trees each winter and where do they actually store them as they need heat and light? After our short walk to the Boardwalk, we walked to breakfast right down the block and then it was time to head out and find a launch site.
I had wanted to stay as far north as I could and found Bay Yacht Club on the map at the Southern end of the Point Pleasant canal, so we headed there unsure of what would happen. When we arrived, I found the perfect spot to launch and then I headed off to get approval. I wasn’t expecting much, but when I asked they had no problem with it so we took to the task of unloading Lex-T-Sea and repacking her. Martha and Steve were there helping us.
I was almost done when Martha said that Mary and Tom were on their way too so we waited for their arrival. I was so happy they were coming down after I forgot to get their picture last night. It wasn’t long before they arrived. I said my Good Bye’s and this time got photos of everyone and I was off.
It had been thirteen days since I was on the water and it felt like it was Day One again, though it didn’t take long before I was back in the groove. The hardest part was finding a heading. It was a bit harder to locate the channel markers. Actually, I could see the buoys, but could not figure them out as boats were not staying in any channel and were driving up both sides. There were markers for marine entrances and buoys headed in every direction, but once I got to my first island, I had it figured out and I was able to follow the navigational aids, but it came at an expense of using the Navionics App a lot on my smart phone which was eating up my battery.
I passed under my first bridge rather quickly and could see the next far out in the distance. The land is so low here, it looked like the bridge just came out of the water and returned to the water from my vantage point. A quick check told me that Toms River, NJ was just beyond it and I planned on making that the first place I’d check for a place to stay for the night. Off to my left was an island with what looked like an abandoned building. As I got closer I could see the building was in tough shape, but it must have been beautiful at one point. I’m guessing it did not survive Hurricane Sandy as many of the homes and buildings here had not. This was Ground Zero for Sandy and just about every dock and house I passed had either been rebuilt or was heavily damaged and sat unoccupied.
I was making good time and averaging between 2.5 and 3 knots. I made Toms River before 4pm so I kept paddling on past it. All of the homes I had been passing so far had no docks for me to tie Lex-T-Sea up too. Everyone here had long piers and lifts to take their boats out of the water and large sea walls in front of their homes. Jen, an old friend that had been following me on Facebook had reached out to me earlier when she saw I was in New Jersey again and offered to help find me a place to stay for the night when I got closer. I reached out her and it turned out I was getting close to her, but she lived an hour away on the Western side of NJ. Still, she offered to come meet me when I landed and take me back to their house for the night so all I needed was to find a place to dock Lex-T-Sea.
After I rounded Good Luck Point Ibegan looking for marinas. The first one was C&C Marina and it was about an hour away. Looking at the map it was down a channel in back water. There was another one about an hour and a half away, but when I tried to check them out on-line all I got was a web page asking it they were still in business. I didn’t want to get there to find out they weren’t so I set my course for C&C Marine.
I reached C&C Marina a little after 5pm. There were a few open slips that I could tie Lex-T-Sea off in, but no one was around. A sign by the fuel dock said there was 24/7 fueling and gave a number to call. I called it and got an answering machine so I explained whom I was and what I was doing and waited for a call back. I walked around the marina hoping to run into a boater or anyone that could help me out, but the place was void of people. Finally, a car pulled in, but I didn’t know if it was Jen and her daughter Sam or a boater. Turned out it was a boater and probably the only one who didn’t have a slip big enough for me to tie off in with them.
I tried calling the marina again and still no luck. A few minutes later Jen and Sam arrived. Jen offered to take the kayak and me back to her house, but I still had hope that C&C Marina would come through as it takes a long time to unpack the kayak and about an hour to repack it. Meanwhile, Jen started checking with some friends and found one not too far from the marina that could help if needed, but then I got the call from the marina. NO. NO? I’d never had a marina say no to letting me keep the kayak there. Not the little ones, not even the very expensive, super busy 79th St Boat Basin in Manhattan and no one had ever charged me to keep the kayak there. Here I was in some backwater channel in NJ without another marine in sight and they said no.
Jen and Sam began helping me unload everything out of Lex-T-Sea and packing it into her truck. I then loaded up Lex-T-Sea on top. Meanwhile, she reached out to her friends Sharon and Kevin and they agreed to help out. We met up with Sharon, Kevin and family at a TGI Fridays and joined them for dinner and then headed back to their house to switch my kayak to their vehicle and store my gear. Sharon asked me if I knew where I was, I didn’t. She showed me a map of where I started today and where I was now. I’m just down the road. My day completed, I was right back where I started.
Tomorrow morning Sharon will drive me back to C7C Marina where we will re-launch Lex-T-Sea and I’ll hope for better luck. I should reach Barnegat Bay Inlet tomorrow.
Day 48 Done
