One day, one boat, one marina and more tuna still to had!
Friday, 5 September
A well-practiced surgeon at the fish table.
“On the Hudson,” he said.
Wow! They catch fish like this one the Hudson River?
“No, no, no.” John responds with an amused smile and a shake of the head. “Hudson Canyon, out about 70 miles east-so’east o’ here.”
John is a laywer by profession and skipper of Seaquester, the big baby blue sportfisherman tied up a few slips down the pier from Steadfast this evening. The day’s catch—modest, says he—fills a wheelbarrow with 60-to-90 pound yellowfin and long fin tuna with which he busies now cleaning and slicing.
“Naw, I don’t freeze anything. I either eat it or give it away. Want some?”
There’s a lot going on here on a Friday afternoon. Horns blast, big boats backing out of slips; bells ring, gates closing as bridges open, upstream and downstream; sirens scream, bridges closing again; whistles blow, the NJ Transit rumbling through and, of course, boats go back and forth, up and down the Manasquan River. Oh, yes, and the current runs all the time (okay, there is a brief slack twice a day), at three-plus knots usually, ebb and flood, with a tidal range of five feet.
Commuters ride the NJ Transit train across the Manasquan River.
The latter makes it, ahem, interesting to tie-off at the tee-head at “Hoffman’s Sportfishing Marina.” At idle, the boat goes four knots with the current; turn bow into it, she’s doing three but moving astern.
The evening’s entertainment, once secured to the pier, is to watch each skipper coming home at the end of a day deftly guide a 60-or-70’ flybridge sportfisherman–a $2-3-million yacht–into a slip that’s not much wider than the boat. And this night, at least, in a nifty cross-wind to boot. It’s an art, for sure, and one not for the faint of heart. But these guys do it all the time without so much as a scratch on the gelcoat.
Larry explains the million-dollar dredging done in ’11.
With a brisk southerly blowing, Saturday becomes a lay day leaving time to enjoy a leisurely breakfast with the locals at “Eloise’s,” where the portions are ample and prices reasonable. This is as recommended by Larry at Hoffman’s. Larry and his son bought the marina three years ago, added another next door, and have turned these nine acres into a first class boaters’ haven in every way. As in the name, it caters to sport fishermen not sailboats but Hoffman’s is one of the highlights of the trip. It also turns out this is Brielle Day with arts, craft, games and all sorts of goings on in the center of this little town on the north shore of the Manasquan, just around the corner from “Eloise’s” and a few blocks from the marina.
Coast Guardsmen snagged “Magic” to safety as squall approached Manasquan.
But wait, there’s more! Shortly before lights out Saturday night, the pier is roused by the roar of a Coast Guard 47 backing down as she approaches the fuel dock. On her hip is a disabled 24′ sailboat taken in tow somewhere off shore near Mantoloking. The boat has New York numbers, her port of call is in Massachusetts. The skipper speaks only Russian but the Guardsmen somehow determine that he’s enroute to Florida and ran out of gas for his outboard. They were still sorting it all out at 2200 when the smaller RIB moved her to another pier ’til she could take on fuel in the morning.
All this excitement is in stark contrast to the 30-miles round Sandy Hook and down the north Jersey Shore to Manasquan Inlet. Standing off a mile or two to avoid the shoals, there’s nothing but ocean to port and, to starboard, what seems to be one uninterrupted strand of beach. Little Red did her thing all day, punching into a building southerly that stirred up a two-or-three-foot chop by days end. Somewhat tedious, for sure, but other than that not a bad trip.
This inlet’s one of the few easy ones along the Jersey Shore, deep and wide, so getting in is straightforward when timed to ride a flood current. Just swing past the breakwater and make a run for it.
And if you’re so inclined, there may be fresh tuna to be had on the pier.
Steadfast out.
At Sea with Steadfast 
Recent Comments