Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Accursed, from the Watt's notebook.

"Well the wind is blowin' harder now; fifty knots or there abouts. There's whitecaps on the ocean, and I'm watchin' for water spouts. It's time to close the shutters. It's time to go inside."  -J. Buffet, Trying To Reason With Hurricane Season.
         Complete lawlessness; 48th Street Break, 9/30/2016.

















   Last post was in July. Here we are in September. The rain continues. Hurricane Season has decided to go into full operational mode. Like truly bad timing to try to bang out a sesh. We had Cat 3 Matthew coming up from the deep Caribbean pulling down an ornery Nor'east antagonistic squall. Very incensed woman, that Atlantic.
But the Target has gone through post stone reformation. This was the weekend I was coming. No turning back the plane. The Crew is as the Crew does. An accursed band as of late. Doesn't matter. Surf check until the last minute. Coastal flooding be damned. We maintained our collision course with the OC. It's what we do.
No quarter left to give.





   Our descent  touched down at a twisted and very turbulent 47th street break that turned us away and dropped us into the back lot of Buxy's Salty Dog Saloon. The calm of a local dive. A chance to catch up again. Old friends that fall back into the same comfortable familiar line... grabbed us some much needed brews to drown the memory of another lost surf session. We had done the "Dog" some years ago. Only time we had or have ever found Old Bay Wings we didn't like...a wet rub version. Not eager to repeat the experience we avoided the Old Bay's (much to my Chicago Girl's chagrin) and went after the medium Buffalo Wings. More like a medium Buffalo BBQ style. Added to that a 1/2 pound of shrimp and the Chicken Chesapeake Wrap. Wings, like most places they boast about 'em. Their "yard bird specialty."They should consult the Crew before making such claims. Hot. Meaty. But, tasted little better than average. Short of drying 'em out, it's hard to f#%k up shrimp. The Wrap...not bad. We'd recommend. Beer was nice. Good selection. Cold. Refreshing. As it should be. Service was attentive. Atmosphere relaxing. Well appointed. Plenty of TV's. Sure this place is rockin' on Sundays. Music was lacking, however. Sound way down. Maybe, due to our early beach departure, they were still in sports update mode. Hard to say. Weather like this makes almost any dive a welcome stop. Regardless, we take no prisoners; make no concessions. We rate accordingly.
   A final note. What was most tense, disturbing, and unspoken about this session, is there is no certainty as to the next. Change is in the atmosphere. We have a wedding coming up. A preoccupation to any near future Crew activities. But we will meet again. Change is the only constant. And this particular one will make us stronger. The future looks bright. We stick. More waves. More brews. Good food. And always more destination dives that need to be judged and rated. Our journey is never over. It is a work in progress. Ever developing. Advancing. Ongoing.
'Til we meet again.
THE RATINGS - 
Medium Buffalo Wings: C+
Steamed Shrimp: B-
Chicken Chesapeake Wrap: B
Beer: B+
Atmosphere: B-
Overall Score = 2.80