Started the day down in Manasquan where roads leading to the beach were blocked off by the police. Athena brought rain, winds, and snow to 5 inches along parts of the Jersey Shore. The rain and snow just make a sad sight in the fronts of peoples homes just a little worse. It will be worse for those workers trying to pick it up and load it into the pay loader shovels or into garbage trucks. Hopefully most of the debris will be loaded by big machines.
I traveled down to the entrance to Bay Head where the National Guard manned roadblocks allowing only residents in. I headed into Point Pleasant Beach to see the boardwalk and hopefully the Manasquan Inlet. The town was open to traffic but not people were around. I made a few images but I found something on a door that made me pull around. It was a heartfelt note left from the grandparents to the grandchildren assuring them that someway, somehow the family home would be rebuilt. I can only picture how many years of good times that family has had in that home on the beach and boardwalk of Point Pleasant Beach. Before I crossed the tracks I found a bout that had come to rest at a light fixture near Spikes, a fish market and restaurant that I shot an assignment for their for The New York Times.
The town was open to traffic but not many people were around. I made a few images but I found something on a door that made me pull around. It was a heartfelt note left from the grandparents to the grandchildren assuring them that someway, somehow the family home would be rebuilt. I can only picture how many years of good times that family has had in that home on the beach and boardwalk of Point Pleasant Beach. Before I crossed the tracks I found a bout that had come to rest at a light fixture near Spikes, a fish market and restaurant that I shot an assignment for their for The New York Times.
My nest stop was up at the Atlantic Highlands Municipal Marina where I would meet my friend and fellow Orvis Endorsed Guide Joe Demalderis. Joe guides out of the marina there and trailers his boat in and out. Before Sandy his boat relocated to a- what would normally be a "safe" location at the marina. With a 12 foot surge nothing was safe. We found Joe's boat among a collection of boats that had been destroyed or damaged by Sandy. While we were there the salvage operation was in full swing with most of the work being done on the large sailboats that were leaning on their sides on one another. It's fair to say that no matter where your boat was you have some damage. I found a Jones Brothers 19'10 Cape Fisherman tucked in between two large boats and it sadly had been tossed around with some hard wear to show for it.
I came through Long Branch and found the removal of the boardwalk continuing with the crews approaching West End. Access to the beaches there to fish may be non-existent with the removal of the boards and steps going down to the beach.
As I drove north on Ocean Avenue I saw they were picking up the cones that blocked the Ave at Atlantic Avenue. I headed north and just took in everything I could. I was saddened, as I am by all of Sandy's wrath, but this was my first time there. Little Monmouth had become a transfer station as all of the peoples ruined property was taken off the streets and dropped before being hauled out of town. I stopped at Big Monmouth, or was left of it, and climbed up on the damaged stairs to see how the beach replenishment, 13 million dollars worth last winter, had held up. Well, for those of you who loved fishing over the rocks and that pocket, it'll will be here soon enough. I walked along the seawall and found a home whose front portico had collapsed during the storm.
My last stop was back at the Channel Club Towers where two boats that had been winterized and shrunk wrapped for the winter had come to rest on the lawn and entranceway of the building.
It's amazing on how much devastation there has been, but amazing how quick we have started to recover.
