Stay Away From The Bait Balls

We had two nice beach days due to the west wind making the ocean quite calm. We spent both afternoons at Bathtub Reef Beach, which is named for the deep water that was formed between a reef and the shoreline. The first day, the 82 degree water was quite clear and we lounged in the swells. We also took a walk up the beach and watched a fisherman reel in a 5 ft. nurse shark. We don't worry about nurse sharks approaching us in the ocean, because they are bottom dwellers and more like big catfish. On the second day, we noticed that there was a red flag up at the lifeguard station, indicating use extreme caution (2 red flags means no swimming allowed). Dave stopped to ask the lifeguard why and he said that there had been sharks feeding on schools of baitfish that had been passing by the area. When they are sighted, he said he puts up the two red flags, blows his whistle, and everyone has to get out of the water until they pass on through. His good advice was if you see the bait fish that swarm in balls, stay away! Sooooo... as we were sitting on the beach and getting ready to enter the water, which that day was a bit murkier, the lifeguards started blowing their whistles and put up the two red flags. Everyone (which really wasn't a lot of people at this time of year) stood there on shore looking for the sharks. That's when we started seeing big splashes and sharks were jumping out of the water! We were sitting close to the lifeguard tower since Dave wanted to make sure he heard the whistle should sharks be sighted. The lifeguard told him if he didn't hear the whistle he would blow an airhorn, and if that didn't get him out of the water, he would personally go get him. Every time a shark flew out of the water doing barrel rolls, we turned to the lifeguard and mouthed, "did you see that?" and each time he patiently shook his head yes. It was almost an hour before the all clear was given and we went swimming briefly to cool off (air temp was 88 degrees!). Awhile later as we were air drying off, the same lifeguard we had talked to earlier, came over on his ATV to talk to us. He was so informative and told us that those were spinner sharks, which I had never heard of or seen before, so it was very interesting. We had a great chat and we all agreed that shark bites are mainly a case of mistaken identity, especially in poor water visibility. He was really glad we were so interested in the area, beach, and ocean and we shared a lot of local knowledge. 

(Spinner shark photo 'borrowed' from the internet)

Earlier in the day, we had a much calmer encounter, this time with two manatees at the Ft. Pierce inlet. We had walked out on the fishing jetty and they were actually out in the ocean. First I thought the one was a rock in the sand, but it came up for a breath of air. After Dave took this photo, a second one surfaced and the two eventually got together and greeted each other, nose to nose. There were schools of fish around the manatees, so I guess no one told THEM to stay away from the bait balls. 😉

We never know what we will see when we least expect it, making this a great start to the winter season!

The Leaves Haven't Come Down, But We Have!

That's right, we took the opportunity to head south to Jensen Beach before the really cold and rainy weather set in up north (30 degrees the morning after our departure!). October sure went by fast and there wasn't very much exciting to report later in the month. We seemed to be waiting for all those pesky leaves to come down, but we could wait no longer. We did spend a day ridding the property of whatever leaves had fallen down (about 2/3 more left to change and fall), but by the next day it barely looked like we had done anything. Oh well, they will be there in the spring, if the rest don't blow back into the woods. Meanwhile, we had an uneventful trip down I-95, arriving here yesterday. The most exciting thing we saw along the way was tractor trailer on fire with the container being completely engulfed in flames (very dramatic and could really be seen, because it was at night). At least the driver had unhitched his rig from it and moved it out of the way. We also saw this oversize Grady White being towed. Looked like there was room for two more engines too!

When we arrived yesterday evening, all was well at our place, with many thanks to our friend Scott who made sure our air conditioning was working, removed our tie downs for the carport, and even did some of the weeding this summer, so things didn't look too overgrown. I have since completed all the trimming and weeding, the hurricane shutters are down, and Dave has started pressure washing the outside. Our Mini-Cooper Bitsy is back in service and the Honda Silverwing is almost ready for its first outing. We always seem to want to get everything done at once! Next will be getting the boats ready for another season, but first, some relaxing beach time. Tomorrow is supposed to be 88 degrees and west wind, so the ocean will be calm. Last winter we may have gone to the beach once or twice, but this time around we will try to go before there are winter crowds. We sure are looking forward to lots of fun, diverse adventures this winter! 

Time To Start Winterizing

It's time! Luckily we are having a few nice days of weather after Columbus Day to enjoy the north country before calling it a year. Yesterday Dave took his last ride on the Sea Doo and then winterized it. Today we launched the Chris-Craft Moxie and took our last picnic lunch ride down the lake. We knew there would be very few boats on the water this late in the season, but what a surprise we had when we realized that the large channel makers leading from the main part of the lake to the launch ramp had been removed! There were tiny, barely visible, red and green markers that were being substituted for the larger ones, as we entered the main lake. 'No wake' buoys and the larger shoal markers were also being removed, leaving just the smaller individual rock markers. It was a great test of our local knowledge and memory of where the channel and shoals were. We had never been out in the lake this late in the season, and the fall leaf colors were really starting to come out. I tried to get a photo while zooming down the lake with a heavy chop, but it didn't come out too well (from Dave's hair you can tell we were going fast though 😉).

Winterizing Moxie went quite well.

That is, until Dave lost one of the drain plugs in the bottom of the engine compartment and he had to reach really deep!

The Sea Fox, Foxie, is all set for the winter and tomorrow afternoon there may be one more sailing trip before the Zuma will be put away. Then all that is left is the house itself. Hopefully everything will hibernate well this winter and be ready for us to do it all over again next summer. 

One More Car Show

We discovered one more car show to go to this fall! 'The Way We Were' event was held in Ballston Spa and took up several streets in the middle of town. We had never even heard of this show, let alone attend, so this was all new to us. It was very impressive with what looked to be over 400 vehicles participating! Except for just a handful of cars that we had seen at other events, we didn't recognize any of them, making us wonder where they had been hiding. Ballston Spa was the perfect historical backdrop for this annual show.

It was really hard to pick and choose what to highlight in this post, but here are a few of the extreme ones. We start off with a pro street Willys coupe from about 1940...

Here is a 1964 Corvair that has been completely re-engineered to accommodate a super-charged big block Chevy engine in the front of the car, instead of the original rear engine configuration. Note the suicide doors and gull wing hood, along with the unusual seats and paint job.

We drove our 2002 Thunderbird to the show but did not enter it. It certainly is a lot like this original 1957 edition!

Here is a stunning Kellison Sandpiper dune buggy pick up. The top appeared to be on a hinge for removal. It had a novel round sunroof in it.

This was the biggest vehicle at the show. It is a 1970 Starcraft Class A motorhome on a Dodge chassis. It was a work in progress that was really coming out nicely. The owner spent a lot of time with Dave showing him the details.

These are two 1932 Coupes owned by the same family. The red Plymouth was Hemi powered. The Blue Chevy was powered by the original stove-bolt 6. Both cars were incredibly detailed.

Below is 1933 Dodge three window coupe. It was an old school hotrod with an amazing radiator ornament.

Yet another Willys coupe powered by another blown big block Chevy engine. The paint job was extreme too...

The most unusual car in the show was this 1936 DeSoto Airflow Sedan. It was completely original and a plethora of period art deco features. Note the his and hers tip out windshield and the Vent-o-panes in the rear quarter windows, not to mention that front grill! Dave contemplates its $33,000 price tag, which seemed like a great deal.

This is a pre-war Plymouth 5 window coupe...

Another show stopper was this 1950 Pontiac Silver Streak convertible. It was a total resto-mod with a blend of old and new. Note the gorgeous period visor and the illuminated Pontiac Indian head on the hood. 

This is a 1936 Dodge pick up truck powered by a twin turbo-charged Chevy LS motor. Check out the elaborate plumbing in the bed of the truck for the inter-coolers.

Below is a 1948 Austin A 40 Devon, 4 door sedan. This 3/4 sized car was popular in Great Britain and makes a great platform for an American hotrod. 

Possibly the most valuable car at the show was this 1970 Plymouth Hemi GTX, 4 speed.

This is a 1923 Ford Model T Speedster replica. It is a barebones version with a crazy windshield, sporting the NYS registration sticker to be legal.

The fins were at their peak in 1960, as was this Desoto.

An over imaginative builder owned this 1941 Plymouth sedan. Yes, those are polished brass spittoons on the air cleaner! The car was stripped to bare metal and clear coated, including the rust holes.

Under all the wild paint is a Chevy Blazer lowrider.

Thanks Dave for your help in captioning all the photos. He is a wealth of knowledge and has a great memory for things like this! What an interesting and fun afternoon and we'll try to be back there next year.

Where Have We Been?

Wow, I didn't realize how long it has been since I posted last! The amusement park auction came and went and it was fun to watch online. However, the prices for everything went up and up, so we didn't end up buying anything. 

Our weather hasn't been the greatest, especially for the first couple of days when Beach Cruiser, Barb and Barry came from Florida to visit us. Dave had found a boat for sale like the one they lost in Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas. This rare Blue Fin on a trailer happened to be close by in Latham and we checked it out for them first to see its condition. It is the perfect boat for them, and now we can explore together different places during the winter. The trailer's axle and wheel bearings needed work before it could even move from the previous owner's driveway, so Barry fixed what was needed while Dave held an umbrella over him in the pouring rain. The two days of rain were perfect for the guys to make sure the boat and trailer were ready for the long journey south, while staying dry in our 'shop'. When the weather began to clear (along with  morning fog lifting), it was time to show our guests around our property and trails. The four us also headed to Ticonderoga for the day to do some leaf peeping. The leaves were almost at peak color high up in the mountains.

Barb and I model 😉 at the lower La Chute Falls...

Back home, we decided to visit Waterford to see the lock and any boats that were docked. There happened to be a catamaran we recognized from Abaco, but no one was onboard. It was a gorgeous day at the convergence of the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers.

Yesterday we bid a fond farewell to the Beach Cruiser crew as they headed towards home. We had such a good time together and it makes us look forward to our winter in Jensen Beach! The time is flying by and it won't be that long until we depart too.

😎 Time to Dream On! 😉