Lately, maybe since Ryan's birthday, I've been in a "you're a loser" phase. You know that one, where you feel like a loser, can't get anything done, question all of your life's decisions, and start new projects and things hoping the old, and reality, just goes away. Maybe that's called just good old depression. I should know a thing or two about that.
So one of things that I have been avoiding is Jim's boat. Jim's beloved boat. You know Jim, from Brine Fly Innovations, inventer of the Pulse Disc. He passed in 2018 and in October 2020 I purchased it from his wife Laura. It has been two years and I'm almost done, but slow, in paying it off. In those two years I have had a lot of good times and some tough times with that boat. But, in my current in-my-own-head situation, of course I have handled it all wrong.
I've probably told my Jones Brother's story more than one time but shut up it's my blog. I'll try and keep it short. I bought my first 19'10 LT in 2011 from fellow Jersey Shore Trout Unlimited member Ton Dubai. He had the boat in his backyard covered in a serious of wood and tarps and hadn't been used in years. Well, I'd have to say I did that boat justice.
I loved that boat. I knew that boat. I felt safe and comfortable in that boat. Like a dumbass I sold that boat. But, Gateway Marine did ALL of my work on that boat. From removing the bottom baot to reparing the fiberglass and gelcoat. Over the years I added a new dual-axle Load Rite trailer
because I thought I would be guiding out in Montauk during the fall run. But like guiding up on the Upper Delaware being a fly fishing only charter Captain in the salt water is tough. Tough to truly, I mean truly, like at the end of the year audit, truly make money as a fly fishing guide. I found myself rich for a few weeks with thousands of cash money dollars in my pocket, but not in reality when Gateway sent me a bill for repairs, or winterization, or the $3,800 nut for the trailer. And with that my "business" scaled down and I moved into a more steady paycheck in nursing.
After graduating as a psychiatric nurse practitioner in 2019 and opening a private practice we were broke. The start up monies and the lack of income as we waited to be credentialed by the insurance companies let me with little choice. It was the fall, rent was due for the business, and the winterization, the proper winterization done by professionals, would be coming soon. So, in a flash it was sold. Too cheap, too impulsively fast, regrets all the time. BUT. To be fair. It was a older 19'10" and my friend Paul Eidman had just gone through the tank replacement journey and that calls when it calls, and I waited for my phone to ring for a few years. So maybe it was time.
After Jim's passing our buddy Mike, a fellow Jones Brother owner, let me know in the spring of 2020 that Jim's boat was up for sale. It was a fine boat, a 1996 Jones Brothers Cape Fisherman 19'10" Light Tackle Edition. This too had been purchsed through Dave Choinard from the old The Fly Hatch days when the shop was located on Broad Street in Red Bank, New Jersey. Besides Tom and Jim, I know Billy Hoblitzell and Paul Eidman purchased thier's around the same time, and Paul still runs his, but it has been refurbished.
And then in the fall Theresa and I went out to see Laura and catch up. It was a nice visit of course, and for the first time, I looked over and thought about Jim's boat. When I bought it up to Theresa she was, let's just say, she was supportive. She got it. I sold my boat. I loved Jim. And this is almost the same boat. It's a no brainer. So with Laura's approval and blessing I pulled the boat out of their driveway and bought it home to New Jersey.
As soon as I got her home I did what I do best best when it comes to boats. Cleaning. I leave the mechanical stuff to the professionals. From the jump I had a hard time trying to figure out all of the things that Jim had done to the boat. If you knew Jim, you know why I'd called him The Mad Professor. Below is the last picture of Jim with his boat. That's Mike Ferraro getting a lesson on all
of the switches and modifications that Jim had done. I'm not sure who Mike was on the phone with, but it was probably with Donny Jones or someone with an advanced degree in boating, or electronics, or physics. But by the fall I had been able to take her out on the Delaware for some
nice trips with Theresa and the girls. But it was time to work the kinks out and have a professional look at her. So, there was only one place for me to go, Gateway Marine. They surely would be able to "read" what was going on and tune her up and let me begin my journey. To my surprise the
survey didn't go well. You can read more HERE. Lets just say the boat was "A death by 1,000 cuts", which left me stumbling, but not down. I did my best to try and figure things out. It was time to take her on a maiden ocean voyage. But I really didn't know enough and didn't even have the knowledge, and the right parts, to take her out without doing some damage. The tower for the radar was missing the supports, and the advanced sonar system wound up getting all bent up. That was on me. For
first few tripes I spent most of my time holding onto the radar tower for dear life hoping it wouldn't get ripped off as it bouced back and forth. I still don't know what was going on below, but I no doubt damaged that. The 175 HPDI Yamaha did well at first but each time I launched I was nervous and
usually spent the first hour on the dock under the center console trying to figure out how to get her started. Is it the batteries? Not holding holding a charge? Do I have the wires crossed? WTF?
But we always made it out, and a few times limped back in after having a good day on the water. Most times it was Leif with me and every time we held out breath at the ramp. In December of 2020 Bunky joined me for the day. We had good fish. Had a good day until it was time to load her up
and head to my favorite car wash in Long Branch for a bath. While loading her up on the trailer my 1995 GMC Sierra 2500 jumped the chock and that was all she wrote. Truck done, although a year later I sold her for $1,000, and minimal damage to the trailer, and luckily, the boat didn't go sideways and sink. It was a bad day, a very bad day. But I continued on.
I replaced the GMC with the 2002 Silverado Diesel and was back at it in the fall of 2021. I was hyperfocused with the Delaware River in the spring of last year and it wasn't until the fall that I went back at it in the salt. It was a fall of mostly wade fishing the beaches and lots of work around the
house as I had a 65 foot man lift which allowed me to do some chimney repairs, painting, and tree work. That was a good thing, but now looking back I realized that from December 2020 and the mishap at the dock I was in avoidance mode. I had lost confidence in myself, and the boat. So on November 21st of last year I went for a solo run. The bays were on fire, or starting to light up, and I wanted in on the action. That day didn't end well either. You can read more HERE. Luckily, by the
grace of God, I limped in, loaded her up and called it a season, and not by choice. Below is what was going on with the engine. Paul Eidman said it was in a safety "limp mode". So as you know I have been obsessed with striped bass in the Delaware River. This spring was the pinnacle of that obsession as I was out in between work and life around the clock and around the calandar depending on what Mother Nature threw at me. Cold, rain, blow out conditions kept me watching and
wondering if I would get that one good fish I had only heard about through stories or seen on the internet. While most sucessful anglers, especially those using plugs and artificials, have their best succes from a boat, my preference has and will always be on foot. But it would have been interesting, and more productive, to fish it from a boat. By the end of the season I was blessed
Since I have had Jim's boat I have tried to do what I do best, cleaning a boat rather than fixing a boat. I wanted to get rid of the bottom paint so I watched some You Tube videos and spent hours
trying to get it off. Now, knowing Jim, he added some NASA rocket gel coating that prevents anything from permeating it. So that was a fail. Then I tried to remove the Brine Fly logo from the sides of the boat. They came off with a heat gun, easy peasy, but anytime, and probaqbly forever, the Brine Fly logo is visable when you look at it from several angles. Besides a power washing or some
soap and water my hands are tied. And even after that inital Gateway Marine mechanic survey, where they didn't want to touch it, it has been hard to figure out which way to proceed. In a perfect scenario she would take the ride back down to the Jones Brothers mother ship in Moorhead City,
North Carolina and get a complete overhaul. One day I feel that will happen. Theresa, my bestest enabler, thought that maybe saving up and buying a new boat, like so many of my friends and fellow guides do might be a better option. She always gets on me for buying second hand, broken down, and already-had-its-best-life stuff. Yes, she is correct, but not on this. But the tide is about to turn.
So with yesterday and several thing going on, and me not feeling all that on top of my game I needed a pick me up. Maybe I'll do something around the house. Weeds are like Jurassic Park, driveway sucks and walking on it at times is like walking on Lego's left on the floor, my wood stove still sits in the fireplace uninstalled with the cold and oil heating season approchaing, and my screen doors all have holes in them and its screen door season. Alright, let me bang out a screen door. So I had to disassemble, burn off the surrounding lead based paint, go to Home Depot- twice, and then begin as the sun rounds the corner of the house. So let's just say that wasn't a confidence builder and will most likely remain that way till spring. Oh, yeah, I have eight screen doors to do.
As I walked around my tobacco road yard, not pictured, I looked at Jim's boat. And you know what's funny, I still call it Jim's boat. Even though she's almost paid off, its still Jim's boat. Partially out of respect, but I also think some avoidance is going on. Am I scared of this boat? I so, so wish, that Jim was alive, so that he was alive first, but to guide me through all that is this boat.
So all I could do was what I do best, cleaning. I broke out the pressure washer and went to work. sadly, most of the conversation in my head was, "What a loser", by not maximizing the amazing opportinuty I have to have a Jones Brothers boat and to have one that belonged to someone I so admired. Yesterday was just a quick pressure washing, there will be more love coming soon.
Some big things are going to have to happen if I want to have her sea worthy by the fall run, most likely that November- December fishing. First, the radar has to go. Don't know how to use it, it gets in the way, and I don't like the way it looks. Problem is it's not, of course, a simple plug in and disconnect. It's wired and bolted and works off of this and then that.....you know what I mean.
After that comes off I have to figure what is going on under the center console. It's something I think only Jim knew what it all meant. There's diagrams, wires, switches, ect. You need a degree is several things to figure it all out. But it can and will be done. It is amazing I was ever able to
take this out the times that I did without knowing all the ins and outs. The trailer needs to be rewired, which I think is something I can handle although it might take me 30 hours. And lastly dropping it off at Mercer Marine to check the engine and find out why it limped home last November. It sounds like a daunting task but I have two months to get her ready. In writing this I have a renewed, well initial confidence that by then it will be paid off, running, and MY boat will make Jim and Laura proud.
Two years ago Jim's boat sat in their yard in Pennsylvania. It seemed only logically and right that I give it the life and taste of the salt that it deserved. I'll be better going forward and not waste the opportinuty I have been given to continue her life and the memories it has and will make. Now if I can just get that Brine Fly logo off. Love ya' Jim, any guidance from up above is much appreciated.