Image of the Week: Riding The Storm Out
 

This week's installment, courtesy of Tim Sharkey, direct from last Friday's Atlantic City Poker Run, http://speedonthewater.com/in-the-ne...storm-out.html.

Was in the 39OL "Bada-Bing".... that storm came in hard. Attached is a shot of Frisini running, storm before getting into the ocean, and that same storm hitting in AC.

Without undue embellishment, it was life-threatening weather for those of us that got caught at the second card stop by Waretown. The lightening was unbelievable; many people actually felt the closer strikes through their throttle levers. The paceboats did the right thing to get us underway at reduced speeds until we cleared the cell. After that, the weekend was a blast, except maybe the high-speed grounding on the way home... :rolleyes:

What ? Please explane.

I cut a corner on the way home and wound up on a soft sand bar with another boat. There was no damage; I pushed my boat off, and TowBoatUS got him free as the tide came up.

I was on the second boat (not mine) and it was a slow motion version for us. We saw Chuck, did the OH SH!T, killed the throttles, and coasted to a stop on our starboard chine. Everyone was fine, boat was fine, with the tide coming up and Tow Boat, we were back under way in an hour. This is a VERY common area for this on the south end of Long Beach Island as there is a poorly marked split in the channel. It is so common that SeaTow sits nearby on the weekends waiting to pull people off.

My wife had the quote of the weekend:
"Why are we stopping......and why are we on our side?.........Ohhhhhhh!

I have a few pics from the weekend, not as many as I would like due to multiple boat issues.

Dock Party!
Gary's Geico Cigarette looked awesome!
My friends Dave & Crazy Charlie with their new Statements!
When I had overheating issues, I ducked out of the stoms.
Speed Racer on the run.
Sunrise before the storms.

Hey!
Who's that guy in the grey shirt riding in a Cigarette?????:whistle:

Ah, the beauty of a bat boat—light enough to push off a sandbar. It even has big handles on each side.

The shallows of Barnegat Bay are unforgiving.

I think what I like most about this Image of the Week is the color of the water. It's ominous, and in that blue-gray water, from that high and distant angle, Dr. Gabe's cat looks like it's making a jailbreak.

Great article Matt.

Another perspective:

http://sharkeyimages.zenfolio.com/im...98992488-4.jpg

http://sharkeyimages.zenfolio.com/im...47264278-4.jpg

http://sharkeyimages.zenfolio.com/im...71604332-4.jpg

That IS freaky, had it happen to me years ago on a jetboat:poopoo:

It was a freaky day .. .

I did something similar heading to AC in a storm. Two friends said that's the channel (two different directions). Went straight and would up watching AC light up as we sat for 2 hours waiting for the tide as the 50 degree 40 mph wind pushed us harder into the sand. If I remember correctly this was just north of the Little Egg inlet. One day I hope to have a nice enough boat to do the AC run.

That was the same location!

I ran aground myself on the 2001 Poker Run. I was in my 22' Donzi Classic. You don't need anything special to do the run.... just a good personality, excellent sense of humor, and a strong liver!

3 STATEMENTS about to get hit with the Storm.

"DRIVE THROUGH IT !!! YOU CAN DO IT !!! "

:eekdrop:

http://sharkeyimages.zenfolio.com/im...59414110-4.jpg

Got any photos of the groundings?

Several years ago during a photo shoot for Powerboat magazine, I managed to find a sandbar in Sarasota Bay, a place I thought I knew well enough to avoid a mid-bay beaching. Not so much.

Of course, nothing made the late Tom Newby happier than when one of his buddies screwed up—merciless teasing over cocktails at the end of the day was the preferred sport for the Powerboat crew—so he made sure to call as much attention to my stupid mistake as he could by having the helicopter circle us until we managed to get the boat unstuck.

He was low enough so that I could see him laughing so hard I thought he might pee in his pants, which, of course, had me laughing so hard I thought I was going to pee in my pants.

Things got even funnier when John Tomlinson stripped down to his underwear and hopped in the water from another boat to help push the boat I'd been driving off the sandbar. That started Newby laughing even harder, but not so hard that he couldn't raise his camera for a few shots.

The best part? Looking into the channel and seeing Bob Teague sitting in a boat at idle, just shaking his head and grinning at the whole sorry mess.

Sometimes, the best memories and laughs on the water come from the not-so-perfect days.

If I could be in anything running through a nasty storm it would be a Statement! {no offense to the Cigarette/Apache crowd, you would be a very close 2nd!]

The day after the storm the lighting was perfect !

http://sharkeyimages.zenfolio.com/im...02620762-4.jpg