If you’re reading this you already have a brief respite from the TV’s wails of moms, dads, children drowning in more despondence they’ve ever known or will know.

It’s American families who are wailing over local “machine-gun” madness, and those of the Middle East and Ukraine who weep endlessly over madness writ large.

America, humankind, will we ever find what we all want, peace, love, unity? Must we always be in our own way?

Now let me take you to the whales.

The day looked promising at sunrise, Neptune Blvd. These ladies thought this to be a bit better than TV.

These past few days have seen large flotillas of boats off our Long Beach shore as if it were the invasion of Normandy. It’s striper madness.

It was an idyllic day; at times there was poetry on the ocean.

After biking to the westernmost of our beaches, New York Ave, I saw a young lady at the rail. She had just finished her boardwalk run. I said, “See any whales?” She said, “No, not yet.” I told her about my blog and gave her my card.

She said, “Your Lee? You wrote an essay about Scott Knobler? I’m Melinda, his fiancee and I’m so glad to meet you.” Melinda and I found it hilarious that, about a month ago, her Scott—in that same spot—asked me, “See any whales?”

Fishermen have been coming to offshore Long Beach from all of Long Island and beyond. Some on party boats like the Starstream from nearby Freeport or the Captree Pride from Captree Island—twenty-three miles east. That’s a lot of spent fuel for good day of fishing. But worth it, I’m sure.

Others use any method to make their catch. One man uses a drone to fly his bait far off shore; it drops the bait, then—”returns to sender.”

While scanning the sea I took a photo of a surf caster.

I told Tom I’d send him the shot; in return he helped me spot whales. He sent me this photo of Long Beach’s Pete Sengenberger whom you’ve met in my “Gift” essay. Pete caught this baby—fishing off his surfboard

Every year, Oct and Nov, is whale time. It’s the migration of whales from the North Atlantic to the Caribbean.

I haven’t been able—yet—to capture whales as close in as previous years. But I was able to capture these farther out.

Through a whale-sight tip from Alex and Gregg at Lazar’s Glizzy, I caught this action at Lincoln beach:

If this guy feels a hard pull, might be best to just let it go.

Later that day I went to my long-time, Massapequa dentist Sal Romeo and showed him my photos of the day. He showed me this photo he took from his boat off Long Beach last fall:

This is his video he took from his boat. Yes, that’s our Long Beach shore in the background:

These are the close in shots I took at Long Beach last fall:

And these from prior captures:

At the end of my day, back at Neptune Blvd, I met young Debbie who summed it all up, “We are so lucky to have this show right off our boardwalk.” Yes, lucky to have and enjoy, so much—in so many ways.

It’s still early, we have November to capture more for you.

For now, stay away from that TV—and just be by the sea.

Be well,

Leebythesea