Wooden Boat Festival ~2014~

Saturday was the wooden boat festival in Toms River and as in the past the dive team was requested to come and set up our display and our touch tank. This is always a good time, we get to talk and show hundreds of kids and their parents just what is out there under the water.

   The day starts out at 0530 in the morning!  We have to do a dive to get the things we have in the touch tank. Sometimes we catch the tide and have an easy time getting everything, but this time it was low tide brown water and the tide still running out with a three to four knot current running. With OJ, big Joe, Ali and I in the water and Sue on the beach getting water and taking the specimens and keeping the ones that were the right size. We need to get fifty gallons of water to take with us so we can change the water a few times a throughout the day.

  Then we have to get back to the building clean up and load the dive truck with all the stuff we’ll need.  Like tables, chairs all the displays and the water and the specimens. Then get to Toms River Huddy Park and get all set up all by 0900.

  We almost made it! We got the tents up and the touch tank filled and most of the displays set up, but people started coming in before 0900 and it didn’t stop all day. We never got a break. There were people at the displays or the touch tank all day!

   The festival was supposed to be over at 5:00 P.M. but we still had people at the touch tank at 5:30. We have never turned kids away so we stayed until the last ones said thank you and walked away. It was a fast break down and load out! We did stop for coffee on the way home and that coffee never tasted so good!

   It is hard work and a long day, but it’s something we love to do!

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Wooden Boat Festival ~2012~

Each year we are proud to be a part of the Wooden Boat Festival sponsored by the Toms River Seaport Society and Maritime Museum. The day includes a collection of wooden boats moored along the canal, vendors selling nautical goods, pirates and of course the

Pt Pleasant Dive Team touch tank and display.

The Dive Teams day starts at 5:30 am as we don our scuba equipment to collect our specimens for the touch tank. It takes about an hour to collect the proper specimens and enough water to keep our touch tank and our specimens healthy throughout the long day ahead.

Our displays at the festival included photos of various marine life found off the Jersey coast, a multimedia display showing artifact recovery, marine life and Dive Team drills, our brand new shell display case created by our fantastic Sue Lewicki, and of course “Dry Suit Guy” – a fully suited representation of what equipment we wear during our dives.

Of course the highlight of our display was our Touch Tank. Kids and adults alike had a great time learning about the marine life of New Jersey from members of our Dive Team. Our Touch tank included specimens such as the Sea Star (or Starfish as most would call them), Spider Crabs, Snails, Hermit Crabs, Star Coral and the Red Bearded Sponge. There were many smiles and a few shrieks as the Sea Stars would start walking along a childs hand!

12 hours after starting our day we are finally on our way back to the RR Bridge to release our marine specimens. As we know from the past, you never know when a call will come in and it did on the way home. No rest for the weary.

In the end...it makes a for a long day, both for the Sea Stars and the Dive Team.

But we love every minute of it! We look forward to seeing our friends again at the Wooden Boat Festival in 2013.

Wooden Boat Show ~2011~

On Saturday, July 16, 2011, we once again participated in the Wooden Boat Festival at Huddy Park, Toms River. This event features dozens of antique, classic, and restored wooden boats on display, many open for visitors to board. You just had to watch out for the pirates that eternally seem to be running amok, but at least there was an ice cream festival down the street at the same time.

The event organizers were kind enough to spot our exhibit near one of the festival entrances, so we had a steady stream of visitors all day. The first gentleman we talked to, before we were even set-up, was actually a fall victim with a badly dislocated finger. We can't go ANYWHERE without a first aid call!

Joe had never worked one of these all-day events, but he's a quick study and jumped right in after Sue in manning the touch tank. This is still our biggest hit, both for children ("Animals!") and their parents ("Those live around here?"). We also took turns at our artifact table and with SCUBA man. How many photo ops can one dry suit take? We may never know...

The long day was also made fun by a troup of pirates-for-hire wandering, carousing, and generally riling things up. They were responsible for a couple of shootouts, a sword duel, and random cannon fire. One random passerby, who just really wanted to get some funnel cake, got stuck in the middle of their mayhem and was tossed over a bridge into the creek below. That's pirates for you.

By the end of the day, we'd once again met a lot of pleasant people happy to learn a little bit more about the natural Jersey Shore. We returned our specimens to Gull Island where they'd come from. Good luck to them all trying to explain their out-of-water experience to everyone back home!