Day Bite!

When the ocean is on it's not the time to slow the energy down with words.  Want to stay in the moment.  So while it seems fitting to tell a tale about a pretty crazy day bite of sharks, I don't want to poke holes with language.  Keep the high going . . . !  Waves, waves, thousands of sharks, areal sharks jumping into the air, business is booming, waves, waves . . . time to experience . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We tried to repeat it, but today the fishing was interrupted by yet another swell.  Yet another consecutive weekend SINCE JUNE 8th with rideable waves!  So had to go surfing instead on some fun 2-4ft rising swell.  Offshore and waves tomorrow . . . keep it going . . . best summer ever . . . forget working . . . on the high . . . time to live fast!

 

 

 

 

 

Eve of the 2013 Sharking Season

Finally the water has warmed up after all the south winds in June, meaning sharking is within the realm of possibility.  Along with the very warm water, the rays showed up en masse this week.  The creatures put on a show of 'fins' and wakes in the surf that a casual observer would have assumed was a shark invasion without further investigation.  Though rays are not sharks, I believe they are in the same family, and it has been said that rays and sharks often travel together.  It also looks like a shoal of sand eels is in tight to the beach.  I'm not sure if sharks eat sand eels, but what they are certainly good for is attracting higher members of the food chain.

The full moon- my favorite moon- is on Monday.  This makes the best tides for sharking from Sunday through Thursday.  That evening/early night high tide is enough reason to fish, but of course there are the other variables as always.  With the forecast as it is right now, I will offer what I think about these variables and how they relate to the possible productivity of the fishing.

Surf height forecast:

The surf forecast looks so-so.  I prefer flat or a very small swell, weak enough so that using a 4oz sinker is is possible.  It's not like I have been sharking for a hundred years, but all of the crazy nights happened when it was flat or with a small swell and not much happened when it was rougher.  Monday looks like the best day given the forecast, while the surf on Wednesday is close to the larger threshold.  Overall, it looks like it will be possible to fish on most days with just some inconvenience from the surf.

Wind forecast:

 



 

The water was very warm last week, but the south-southwest winds today may cool it down some.  But the lighter north wind on Sunday and an east wind on Monday are excellent for warming the water.  Given the surf height and east wind forecast, Monday is looking like the best night so far.  Southy winds are back on Tuesday and Wednesday, but may remain light enough so as not to disturb the water too much.

Thunderstorms forecast:

Many a fishable night with excellent conditions has been lost to the thunderstorm.  It's not that the fish care about thunderstorms, it's that setting the hook with a graphite rod pointed straight into the air during an electrical storm on an open beach is really not a good move.  Lightning is serious, and the thing about summer thunderstorms is that once they get to the ocean they can start to move in weird directions or slow down or build back and this is especially the case when upper-level steering currents are weak.  A bite last year was aborted due to an approaching thunderstorm.  It really sucks to have to leave the beach when you're getting hit by sharks, but I still think that's better than getting hit by lightning.

The thunderstorm forecast looks fairly typical for this time of the year, being 30-40% chances.  So that means it's always something to be aware of, but it's not worth cancelling an event until it's about time to go because the chances are also fairly good that the night will be clear and the thunderstorms will be somewhere else.  With a forecast like this, the call for whether to fish or not to fish has to be decided at nearly the last minute.

If Monday has the smaller surf, east winds, and if electrical bolts aren't being hurled from the sky it might be a pretty good night.  Thursday is my second choice.  As always, this is subject to change.  It's not because those in weather "never know anything" or "the weatherman never get it right" it's because the short-term weather forecast is constructed by the input of a vast number of atmospheric variables, and even with the huge quantity of input it is quite impossible to entirely model the atmosphere since it is impossible to collect every atmospheric variable at every location on earth at every second.  So I'm impressed the short-term forecasts are as accurate as they are taking into account all the data gaps, but that is just my take on it.

Hopefully there will finally be some pictures of fish coming soon.  Enough of the lean times!

Best June Surf in Memory

Did you ever have a time when things get better and better and you say 'I can't believe it could get any better'?  Well I can believe there is no limit to how much better things can get because that's what I saw happen.  June 2013, compared to other months of June in my memory, has had the best surf of any month of June.  Consistent and varying were the most accurate adjectives to describe the swells rather than weak and southerly which is more typical for June when the Bermuda High begins to dominate.  A pattern set up for waves on the weekends with the swells lasting into the workweek, or there was also an occasional workweek swell.  And the waves broke as good as ever with the new sand bars made by 'The Storm'.

One of the best days of June surf ever

When the waves are good catching fish is the farthest thing from my mind, but it's not like there were many fish around to cause a distraction from getting barrelled.  From what I hear, this month the fishing was really bad, capping off a lousy spring season.  Father's Day was the best day for me- I almost had them do it all to myself on an isolated beach, but it was quite an anti-climax like someone pulled the plug in a bathtub.  But other than serious empathy for fellow people who fish or make a living from people doing that, when its 6-8ft peaks with a straight west wind I might as well be on another planet somewhere.

June 2013

There was a pattern this month for a more northerly Bermuda High, which allowed larger and more consistent fetches of southeasterly winds to develop on its western side.  This 'flow' was often enhanced by storm systems that entered from the west and stalled.  So when the weather repeats in this way, it means a lot of waves and a lot of cooler water and apparently no fish.

June 2013 was quite similar to June 2003.  Too wet in the east and too dry in the west.

Preliminary data shows June 2013 usurped the title for wettest June in New Jersey from 2003.  Both months were similar in that the east was too wet and the west was dry with a heat wave.  The heat wave in the west this June was more severe- Death Valley, CA had the Earth's warmest June temperature on record.  What followed June 2003 was Hurricane Isabel in September.  Hurricane Isabel was considered the worst hurricane in parts of the Mid-Atlantic since the 1933 Chesapeake-Potomac Hurricane, a benchmark storm.  It seemed the Bermuda High tended to be more northerly and weaker on its western side in 2003 like this year, making an open door for an Atlantic storm.

Isabel approached a weakness in the western portion of the Bermuda High, which allowed the hurricane to turn west-northwestward on 13 September, northwestward on 15, September, and north-northwestward on 16 September.  The latter motion would continue for the rest of Isabel's life as a tropical cyclone.  Isabel Report

But outside of the surf and weather, as far as fishing, the sharks are the next chance for it as I consider the 'bass season' to be well over.  The best moon days- not counting the multitude of atmospheric variables that override or enhance fishing with the moon are as follows:

NEW       JUL 07-11
FULL      JUL 21-25
NEW       AUG 04-09
FULL      AUG 19-24

It looks as if the swell will fade to the background and so there may be a chance for fishing the new moon next week.




 

Casting for a Bass

I've heard a good number of people say that catching a big fish is easy in the spring, and like they do that eye roll and sighing motion as they say it, in a partly arrogant manner.  To me, having the perfect ratio of bait and predator, in close enough, then to blitz, and then to find a spot amongst the human element of the blitz sandwiched between a bunch of nuts heaving hooks and metal past your head, and then to hook and fight a huge fish and not tangle or have it come off or lose it getting over the lip in the wash, and to have your arms shaking and your heart pounding and your voice suddenly a lot louder, is to me quite a miraculous event.  Though some have found that this spring, without an event like that pending Will, Doug, and I had to do it the second best way- read the water and make some well-sighted blind casts. 

A lonely beach and fog- if 'it happened' no one else would have been there to see 'it'.  And I'm sure we would have had a damn good time alone in the forest.

At first sight of the water, my brain automatically went into computer fish mode.  How many blitzes have I had in the fog?  Not many.  What about after days of south wind?  Not good.  Brown water.  Eh.  Do I see bait?  No, nothing obvious, look closer, no.  2-3ft 'wet' south swell.  Don't remember much good in these conditions.  The wind coming off the water is chilly, uh too much upwelling.  Okay . . . we're going to look around for bait and better water.  I want smaller waves, a warmer wind, greener and clearer water.  That's where the life will be, and that's where we'll just walk down to the water and make some casts with the most likely lures.  That is the best chance to catch a fish today.  Until I can figure out a way to do better than what I think is the best I can do, I guess I'm stuck with that.

Success! Doug pictured with a nice casting bass on a white surface swimmer.

Before we started our adventure, earlier in the day I had a feeling of where it would be best to settle in and cast.  When I saw the cleaner water, some dolphins, a possible school of bunker a distance off the beach, and a nice sandbar in the place I was thinking about earlier in the day I thought good.  Let's cast it!  Doug, I'm going to use the wood surface swimmer, go real slow and maybe one will come up on it.  It didn't take very long before a fish stopped my swimmer right behind a wave.  I think I just had a hit.  Cast again. 

While retrieving I heard a hoot to my right.  Doug was on!  That's a bass, look at the way the rod is working.  After a nice fight, Doug sanded a slender but healthy looking 30 inch or so striped bass.  Yes!  I looked around- there were no obvious signs of life in the water- and there was even a rainbow.  Oh yeah, if we get into a subtle bite on swimmers, oh that would be great!  Shut up insatiable part, isn't this nice enough? Yes, yes it is.  Sometimes all it takes is one- and it doesn't even have to be mine.

Morning Bite on a New Beach

I've always loved the slight mania that comes with spring, something to do with the longer daylight and warming temperatures, although without many warming west winds this season it hasn't been very warm next to the water yet.  While dealing with a constant sea breeze that makes living near the water in the spring somewhat dissapointing and mania-reducing, I was still very excited to show and describe the new sand bars to Will.  For all the damage that was done, and I can't speak for that since I was in the eye of a hurricane so to speak, where the weather was calm, but from my perspective the absolutely beautiful beach structure is the reward for enduring a major storm.

A new break in the line of oceanfront homes- just behind one of the best sand bars in many years.  Just because every cloud has a silver lining, that's no reason to go around making clouds if the clouds are in your control.

I consider myself to be a scientist at times, and I am glad when my theories manifest as true.  Since writing the reading the water page of BeachfishingNJ.com during a time when there was a drought of storms, I had to remember how it is that storms change the beach and what happens in the months after one.  A big storm takes the sand out, creating a uni-bar and trough.  Then as the sand migrates back to shore, it often ends up configured in the most beautiful and useful structures for fishing and surfing.  Broad point bars, inside bars, outside bars, bars connected to the beach, some not, great edges, ledges and holes- it is really a bathymetric paradise right now.

So, I said to Will our best bet based on the preceding action (which was none really) would be to get up early, buy some fresh bunker, and chunk.  No driving around like crazy.  There's a time for that, but not when the water is chilly and above is a prevailing south wind and wet ocean fog.  I figured it'd be nice to put out some bait, while having another rod ready just in case the action happened to start.  It wasn't really bait fishing, it was double-tasking while lure fishing.  With military precision and with a goal of dominating the land, we arrived at the beach around 05:20 and set out some lines in the "right spot".

No that is not a dolphin.  It didn't take long for before Will was wrestling with a large smooth dogfish.  Just after that a giant sea robin went for my bunker tail.

The thing about not having any one else around is that you can do whatever it is that you want without anyone telling you that you can't because you are getting in thier way of them doing what they want.  Translated to mean we picked out the nicest spots and the lines were baited and went out.  The same looming fog was out there for yet another day, but the weather was mostly non-interupting.  It got pretty exciting when Will's rod got slammed, and the excitement was only somewhat tempered when we realized it was only a big dogfish.  Next up was me, bang, fish on!  Probably another dogfish- no it was a giant bunker chunk eating sea robin.  That's not exactly a one-two combo for hauling big bass in, but we continued fishing.  There were more hits and rod wiggles from the B team fish, which was at least some thrill.  I kooked it out and drove a circle hook home into a big dogfish that took drag.  I think it's a bass!  I think it's a bass!  So what if it wasn't, one of these days it will be.

Into May

Steven, Carl, and I commemorated the six month anniversary of Super Storm Sandy by having a lonely beach in the rain with a bucket of clams and hi-lo rigs.  It could have been sold to me as hey we're going to stand in the rain next to the sea and catch sand crabs with mouse traps- I'm usually not fond of clamming- but now no excuse is needed to be near the water.  And I won't even bring a sand spike, I thought, so I'll have to feel everything.  And it felt great casting out for the first time in six months.  We had some 'good water' nearby, to which I decided to try after no success in the 'not so good water'.

I'm getting them, I know it, right in there.  And it didn't take long for a hit.  Steve, hey, they're in here.  More bait, another hit, set the hook, no fish.  Another hit.  No fish.  If it wasn't for the ocean getting much needed oxygen to my brain, my response would have been anger.  On the next hit I tugged it just right and was finally on.  What the heck is this thing?  It was hardly perceptible on my 10ft conventional with 30lb mono.  No surprise as to why my shark outfit didn't move.  In came a mere 10 inch bass attached to the lower clam.  It was the cutest bass I have ever seen.  Steve dutifully photographed the little one.  I told you they are in here!  Isn't this great?  No one around and the fish are biting!  I got out two more, each one was bigger than the next, at 11 and 12 inches.  I'm proud to say I smoked Steve- kind of got him for when he out fished Donald and I three to one in the Columbus Day snapper blitz last year.

The surfing benefits from the endless spell of E winds, but the spring bunker blitzes usually don't

E wind, E wind, NE wind, chilly and damp, chilly and damp, weird wind swell, more E wind, E wind with sun, E wind with clouds, more strange wind swell, E wind with fog clouds, chilly, E wind and cool nights, E wind and clear skies, E wind today, E wind tomorrow.  Air in the 50s, the 50s, the 50s again, 50s, 50s, 50s.

As long as the E wind dominates, it's usually the swell that dominates, and the spring blitz fishing gets put on hold.  There are exceptions of course, but classic spring water is clean and green with smallish waves and a W or new SSW wind.  Things usually don't start happening in the middle of a spell of E wind and so long as the E weather continues, the water's edge should remain free of madmen casting treble hooks into frothing fish.  In a way, I don't even want that right now.  With the shore obviously still scarred, it has been nice to get acquainted with my new life near the water in a state of peace.  Surfing last night in the fog with only two other souls- and no one else for miles- is fine with me for now.

 

 

 

 

 

Stupid Storm Sandy

Until about 4:00pm on that day, October 29, I was having a great time up at the beach in the Super Storm, watching the wild sea and speculating as to what it was going to do.  Once the sea started to surge, well before the high tide, it wasn't as fun.  Once it started crashing over the dunes, ripping out gas lines, and causing a fire it was scary and anger-inducing.  Six months later- half a year- every time I see the small beach and sand castle-like beach front homes, or hear about the cops writing tickets for walking on the beach, or listen when someone tells me about how their home was looted in the days after, or walk my dog along the road and see garbage and cigarette butts and parts of homes I think this is the stupidest fucking thing. 

People do the stupidest fucking shit to the Earth, their home, and then it ruins their homes- and they do the stupid fucking shit again and again.  Got to bring in the heavy equipment and burn more gas, have to get the power back on so the leaking nuclear plant can allow us to watch TV.  I have to get back to spending like $200 a month on gasoline so the weather can get fucked up even more.  Again and again.

The day Stupid Storm Sandy struck there was a stagnant high near Greenland and the temperature was as much as +21F above average.  Earlier in the year, in the summer, under a different stagnant high 97% of the surface of the ice sheet was melting because it was so warm.  Warming up the poles fucks up the weather.  Which fucks up people's lives and bank accounts and stress levels.

When I finally get the chance to speak with an alien, or maybe even a human who knows how to do more than give a salute and a handshake and mumble a prerecorded line about restoring the shore, I foresee a conversation going like this . . .

J: You know, I love the beauty of this planet, but I just get so frustrated with all of the abuse and misconduct.  I could ask why a million times, but I already know the answer.

Alien: Yes it is quite a shame sometimes.

J: It's like how often are humans given the chance to do something better, and they don't?  They choose to do worse!  And they keep doing it.  And if I point that out, they say I'm the weird one.

Alien: Not always to do what is right, but to do what is familiar is the way most humans work.  If what is familiar is war, inequality, ozone holes, cancer inducing products, ignorance of global warming, then you will sound like the odd one if you challenge thier familiarity.

J: I need a new planet.  Or at least the same planet inhabited by those with a different mentality.

Alien: Do not despair.  Back during World War II, humans were close to destroying the planet.  We had to make a lot more visits and some interventions- that's why there were so many sightings in that time, Foo Fighters- not only was there the ecological destruction from the beginning of global warming, that was backseat to the outright slaughter of humans, and the humans acquisition of technology that was even more dangerous.  Since then there has been nuclear radiation and near precise mind control and influence through television and other large media outlets.

J: Like I said, I need a new planet, or at least the same one inhabited by those with a different mentality.

Alien: Fortunately, your planet is diverse.  In fact, Earth is one of the most diverse planets we know of in the universe.

J: Yes, it is a beautiful place.  That is what I love about it.  It just frustrates me, the way some people abuse it.

Alien: It frustrates us, as well.  There is no other group in the universe that we know of, whom if they discovered thier power plants and vehicles were warming the atmosphere and causing destructive weather, that they would not build different power plants and vehicles.  We have no way of making sense of that type of behavior.

J: Yes, I always know my feelings about the Stupid Storm and the droughts are valid.

Alien: Yes they are absolutely.  As an alien, other than monitoring and some minor experiments, unless the world is about to be totally destroyed, like in World War II, we are not allowed to intervene.  But you, while as a human, always have the power to change the world- to influence it, to influence others, to generate responses and shake the cobwebs off of people's familiarity.

The footprints are on the "dune".  The sea level is higher, and doesn't apper to be going down.

I tell you, I am not eager for the Stupid Storm Sandy Stupid Spring and Summer that is likely this year.  Even worse crowds from lack of access or a lack of crowds because half of the summer homes are not really functioning as homes.  Probably a lot of hyperactive, shallow breathing, uptight life guards and police ready to give a lecture about "saftey" and not about the cause of how things got to be so "unsafe" in the first place.  The stagnant Greenland high, the warming poles, the thousands of miles of east wind over the ocean.  The pumping of shit into the air.

And you know it's entirely your fault.  If you decide to keep bumbling along the same track, the familiar track, then nothing will change.  If you decide to change, no matter how miniscule or seemingly inconsequential that change appears, the world around you will change.  Is that true?  No, it's a lie-
but it's a useful way to change the state of what surrounds you.

Air Pollution

I overheard a conversation today that someone not far from here took their own life because of the nightmare that the storm had forced them into.  I sincerely hope they don't have to come back here and that they found what they were looking for with their choice to move on.  The planet can only sustain so much abuse.  Abused women can only take so much before they cry, snap, or even kill.  Mother Earth is no different.  What can I do?  Open your self to what's around you.  Feel the misery, the injustice.  Let it in.  Let it make you uncomfortable.  Walk along the road and smell the poison coming from the cars is a suggestion.  Drive up the Turnpike and smell the poison.  This isn't a joke- it's coming for you, sooner or later if it hasn't gotten to you already.  Getting closer to the truth may fuck you up, it may burst your bubble, and make you sick when you realize that you can't hide.  That's a good test.  If you aren't feeling the misery caused by air pollution, you aren't close enough to what surrounds you.

Air pollution in China over the winter.  Link

A lot more ocean than there used to be in this part of New Jersey

AIR POLLUTION > WARMING ATMOSPHERE > MOST WARMING AT THE POLES > SLOWER/STAGNANT WEATHER FEATURES > BLOCKING HIGH OVER ENTIRE NORTH ATLANTIC > UNUSUAL STORM AND TRACK INTO NEW JERSEY > THE CLIMATE OF THE SHORE HAS CHANGED

Just so you know China and New Jersey are like in the same house.  Not even the Great Wall can keep the effects of that misery away from you and I.  There is no getting away unless you can figure a way to live elsewhere in the stars.  The only true happiness comes from righting these wrongs, everything else is just silly and empty, it's that serious.  Unplug from the Matrix, get real.  Feel depressed, angry, hopeless- not all of the time, but enough so that you stay in check.  The dirty toxic environment we live in, worse in some parts than others, but wherever you go you can see it, smell, hear it, touch it, and taste it.  I've read a book about a future society where if you feel bad you take a pill- they don't actually fix the problems that cause the unhappiness- they just take a pill.  Artificial intelligence doing most of the thinking and all the Zoloft, booze, and underground drugs you could ever want . . .

The Shore in Limbo

I heard and felt the devil in the shrieking roar of the wind the night of the storm.  I felt the presence of evil and wickedness as I trudged in the dark through piles of stinging sand to watch the ocean meet the bay and fire rage in the sky.  And the evil is still around, I walk past it every day.  Entire tracts of homes missing, many others gutted, oh look they demolished that one, now just an empty lot, oh the bulldozed dunes are blowing away in the west wind, the ocean is still high, why is the beach still so small?  Things are still not correct.  The police are paranoid, the towns are paranoid, and if I let myself I could easily feel the headaches of all the homeowners who may have lost the shore or the businessess that lose from the lack of people and construction site beaches that don't want anyone on them.

The line of spooky oceanfront homes stretches for miles.  How many lots will be back to sand once the money gets worked out.

While it's winter and the shore is always quiet and forgotten about in the winter, the real measure of where things stand is when the days are longer and the sun is higher and brighter.  The measure of progress or the lack of it will be revealed as spring turns into summer.  What I want is things to go back to the way they were, because when you think back it was pretty good.  Of course the crowds are horrible at times and the waves usually suck and the fish always seem like they are out too far, but there were always those times, always a chance, where it was possible to score big.  Dozens and dozens of fish with no one or friends.  A-frame waves and a nice west wind, warm water, with only the souls you want with you.

Looks like some other planet, because it is.

A lonely small S swell wave breaking on a new outer bar.  Fortunately, January has been pretty calm and flat, a wierd thing to be glad for.

The mean sea level trend is +3.99mm/year which is equivalent to a change of 1.31ft in 100 years. NOAA

The rate of sea level rise at the Atlantic City station is about 1.31ft in 100 years.  Almost every barrier island in the world is shrinking, even the ones that aren't intensively developed.  With a higher water level, the storm surge has been higher from even minor to moderate storms.  It doesn't take as powerful a storm anymore to cover the beach and eat the dunes, and then keep the sand.  Last year I was in one of the hardest hit areas about to surf an average 3-5ft swell and the ocean was up to the dune fences for no reason.  Then you get the real storm, and the storm surge is off the charts, and it's able to do that much more damage because the water level is higher.  That's on top of how blocking high pressures make storms go where they aren't supposed to go.  The sea level rise, on this chart, really began to move upwards starting in the 1930s.

I always wonder how many more percentage points the ozone layer can deplete, two more percent, five more percent, ten percent, before the person who isn't into such things will go, "Oh shit! We better do something about that.  Right now!"

What Now?

Sometimes I like to think I am an alien from space and that I have been sent to Earth with a mission- save this planet.  People would say "Oh you're crazy".  And I say, well, sometimes I like to think big.  Other times I think I am a human and I am small and I really don't know that much other than how to ride waves and catch fish.  Then people would say "that's more realistic".  But I will say sometimes I just like to think small.  Either way, in my observation from this storm, I've noticed human beings put much effort into building and maintaining walls around themselves.  And when their house is knocked down, or flooded, or gutted and the walls get flimsy or fall down, the number one effort is getting those walls back up.  I have to put those walls up again, so that I don't feel vulnerable, and so that I am secure.

Secure from what?  Another storm?  The origin of low pressure systems is not in a home.  Storms happen outside the home, beyond the walls, they come from the atmosphere.  This is some weird shit, but a storm is the expression of the mood of the atmosphere at that given moment.  There's some heat over here, some colder air over there, and the storm will be here.  And people will put up the walls again.  "I don't want to see it.  I want to be safe in my home and I don't want to see what is going on out there."  And they will have success with that.  They go to the mall and school, and sit in the car and it works.  But it only works for so long.  Ignorance is not always bliss.  You may not know the storm that made the water climb up the first floor, but you still get the frustration and despair of having to rip apart your home, and you still have the months of metered worry and concern of getting those walls back.

 

 

So now what?

 

One thing I like to do with fishing is present information and let whoever I'm telling it to decide how they feel about it or what they want to do with it.  Once the information leaves my brain and mouth, it's yours in as much as what your response is and what you do with it.  Blow it off, want to know more, say ah and go do something else, those are your choices, not mine.  I am just as happy catching fish alone as I am with a friend.  But if that friend and I are on it, and wanting to get more fish and just go up in that zone, that is a great thing.  I presume Oct 29, 2012 changed many things here at the shore, like the stuff that goes on in the head and comes out of the mouth.  When things like this happen, it can be just another opporutinity to put the walls back up, or it can be a way to get an entirely new view of the weather.

 

Global temperature rose abruptly starting around 1920 through 1944.  The 1938 Hurricane devastated New England, during the warmest year on record to the time.  The 1944 Great Atlantic Hurricane caused damage in New Jersey just like you are seeing now, it was the worst New Jersey hurricane of the 20th century, in what was then the warmest year on record to the time.

It is possible to look for the holes in the information in this graph, and to find an infinite number of them.  If you go into something with the intention of becoming lost, you will find "your wish is my command".  I know that looking at a chart is not the same as experiencing the black sea and crossed up waves ahead of the 1938 Hurricane or the 2012 storm, it just isn't.  Bars and lines on a graph are not the same as finding an inlet where your house once stood.  Reading the words '1944 Great Atlantic Hurricane' is not really comparable to what you would get out of watching the Atlantic City boardwalk get destroyed by 'an enormous 30 foot greenish wave'.  And in looking at my documentation of the storm of 2012, it isn't the same as my experience of being there.  The trick, the magic, is finding the way that most closely represents, presents again, the experience, if that is the goal.

2013 will start low can climb high.  Maybe 2012 was the end of something after all, at least around here.  What is certain is that 2013 is the beginning of the after storm life.