Hurricane Hunter Sept 11

Okay, so I woke up Monday morning for the big surf, and guess what? It wasn’t big. In fact, it was not as big as it was on Sunday.
I walked out on the beach, and there were two guys out trying to surf but the wind was strong, and they were drifting down the beach at a good clip. I didn’t see them catch any decent waves, but I did take one picture of one of them paddling out. I decided that if I wanted to catch some of the remaining swells of Florence, I better move up the east coast without delay. I checked out the map, and decided to drive up to Ocean City, Maryland.

I packed, left my motel room, then stopped by the pier to see if anyone was surfing there. There were no surfers, but I did snap a picture of a fisherman with the typical gear on his way to the pier to catch some of them ‘Blues’ that have been running. (fishing talk).


On the drive to Maryland, I took a picture of a strange military aircraft that flies like a plane, but can rotate the engines and propellers so that it can also hover. Can anyone name that plane? I can’t.

When I crossed the ‘brunnel’ at the Chesapeake Bay, I took pictures this time for the anonymous person that requested it.

(By the way, you can click on any of the pictures to see them bigger.) The wind was blowing so hard when I was out in the middle of the Chesapeake, I had to slow down to 60 mph for fear of my surfboard snapping the bungees.
The bay was all whitecaps, this time.






It was a 6 hour drive to Ocean City, and when I got there the seas were so rough that the only rideable waves were the ones I saw in the channel when I crossed over the bridge connecting the mainland to the seaside city.
There was a local surf shop called Malibu’s on the boardwalk, and the owner told me he was going to try and surf early in the morning if the wind switched from onshore (from the ocean) to offshore (from the beach).
When I talked to him, the wind was blowing about 30 mph, and the tourists walking along the boardwalk were having difficulty going into the wind. The owner told me the only people who were surfing were some kids that were going to be driven about 2 miles upwind. The plan was them to drift back to the shop while they surfed. There were some kite boarders out, though.


The boardwalk is quite interesting; another seaside subculture. There were plenty of people walking up and down it despite the wind, and there is an amusement park at the beginning of it. Later, I had to drive several miles to find a wifi location, and I have never seen so many hotels and motels in one place.
I stole the following history off of a website:
It all started when, according to legend, Isaac Coffin built in 1869 the first beach-front cottage to receive paying guests. People came by stage coach and ferry. They came to fish off the shore, to enjoy the natural beauty of the Atlantic Ocean pounding against the long strip of sandy beach, to collect seashells, or just to sit back and watch the rolling surf.

So anyway, I’ll check it out early in the morning to see if the wind has calmed down.