July 4th

July 4th. Happy Birthday America. We woke to a grey day with the constant threat of rain. The wind is blowing pretty good and the forecast is now calling for 15 to 20 tonight with gusts of 30 possible.

The fireworks displays in most of the neighboring communities were canceled because of the high winds. The winds were between 10 and 15 in our area so our show went on as scheduled. It was a spectacular display as usual and 10 minutes after it was over it started to rain. The crappy forecast kept a lot of the pleasure boats home but there were still over a thousand boats present. Shortly after the show ended most of the boats headed for home and we turned in for the night content to sleep through the stormy night.

The next morning Nick & Edie on Cirrus headed home while we opted to wait for the tide to come in after lunch so we could get out of the Toms River. The settings on our Max Prop still are not right so we were not able to motor anywhere near cruising speed so we motor sailed south into steady 20 knot southerlies at about 4 knots.

We’re not under any real schedule pressure so we decided to spend the night at Berkley Island which was on our way home. The night in Berkley was beautiful as usual and was over quickly.

Friday morning we crabbed for a while before getting underway around 1000 hours. The winds were from the west at 5 to 12 knots and made for a very pleasant sail. So pleasant in fact that once we arrived at the mouth of the Forked River we turned around and headed back north. We ended up putting 25 miles on the boat running back and forth from Berkley to Forked River. It was a very special day as Veranda was fast as hell with her clean bottom in the variable winds.

I’ve been waiting to go to a party that we’ve been invited too and Saturday nights finally here. The party was “off the hook” as the expression goes. Combine a huge ocean front home with outstanding decks, wonderful hosts, catered food, endless liquor and a kickass 8 piece band and what do you expect.

The band, Shorty Long and the Jersey Horns were set up on the lower deck. They had a stage that was probably 10 by 30 in front of a dance floor that easily held a hundred people which were surrounded by tables and chairs, so what I’m getting at is the deck is huge. Oh yeah and there’s a large wet bar off to the side. They were serving food on the second deck which looks down on the larger lower “dancing” deck. It was an incredible night. The band was so good that dozens of neighbors brought lawn chairs and sat out near the dunes to enjoy the show.

After the band knocked off at 2200 hours (local noise ordinance) Ashlee, Christy and I went up to the rooftop observation/ sun deck. You are literally on top of the highest building in sight except for the casinos of Atlantic City which you can plainly see more than 15 miles away. Laying back and star watching was awesome. We left for home as the band cleaned up just before the homes impressive stereo system was brought into play for round two of the evening. I have to say though that this was the first party that I was ever at that the police were there before we even got there. Lol. What a good time.