The Long Island Blog

I love the Great South Bay. Not only is it a source of fun and fish (Bay Scallops, Dogfish), but if you hang out here on a regular basis you can observe some pretty interesting natural phenomena too.

A while back I posted about temperature inversions and sun pillars, and this morning I saw a naturally occurring low pass filter on the water’s surface.

Most folks wouldn’t have noticed, or cared even if they did notice, but as an engineer I find things like this fascinating. So what is a low pass filter and what’s it doing on the bay?

Okay, it’s simple. Think about when you talk to someone through a door. Their voice sounds muffled because the door blocks the high notes (high frequency sounds) and only lets the low notes (low frequency sounds) through. Because the door only passes low frequency sounds it’s acting as a low pass filter.

In music low pass filters are used to reduce hiss in recordings. In your car the shock/spring assembly at each wheel act as low pass filters to smooth out all the small bumps in the roadway.

Back to the bay… The wind had blown a lot of slush into a small cove near the Long Island Maritime Museum. In the pictures below you’ll notice that the slush is wavy, but has no ripples on its surface.

The slush, being thicker than water, can’t move as fast as water does. It’ll let long, slow waves pass through it, but doesn’t move fast enough for small, closely spaced waves. So instead of rippling like the water’s surface the slush gently undulates as waves pass through it. In effect, the slush is a low pass filter preventing high frequency waves from reaching the shore.

Only ripple free waves reach shoreline.

Ripples are gone as soon as they hit the slush. 3 to 4 smooth waves are clearly visible toward the center right. (Click for large.)

Ripple free wave crashing on shore. (click for large.)

And there you have it. What a beautiful winter scene looks like through the eyes of an engineer. Oh, and Happy Valentine’s Day.

Every year on the Friday before Halloween the Long Island Maritime Museum burns a boat. The boats are unrestorable, have no historical significance, and they are huge.

This year’s boat was a 60ish foot party boat that had partially burned earlier in the season. Repairs proved too expensive, so the owner stripped out engines and other valuable equipment, and donated the hull for this year’s Halloween boat burning.

Unfortunately I couldn’t attend the burning itself, but I do have before and after pictures to share. If anyone has pictures of the fire itself, contact me and I’ll add them here.

You’ll note in the following pictures that the superstructure is gone. That’s the part that burned when a fire broke out on board earlier this year.

I got up early on the first day of fall to see what the dawn of a new season looks like. It was quite beautiful…

A lone gull at the end of the pier (click pic for full size)

Hmmm. Could this be the same guy from last year’s fall sunrise?

I saw a hummingbird in the garden on Friday and then again on Saturday. Luckily, I had the camera handy and snapped a few pictures before it flew away.

From what I’ve read this is either a juvenile male or female ruby throated hummingbird. Ruby throated hummingbirds are the only kind we see here on Long Island, and at this time of year they are migrating south to Mexico.

Incredibly, to reach their final destination they fly right over the Gulf of Mexico, a trip that takes 18 to 20 hours of non-stop flight. By mid-September (now) there will be very few of these guys left on Long Island, so I must have seen one of the last to leave.

I shot these pictures in a panic (Quick, get the camera!) and was shooting through a window, hence the lack of clarity. Maybe, when it opens again next summer, I’ll visit the Baiting Hollow Hummingbird Sanctuary and take some better pictures.

Sea scallops are versatile, easy to prepare, and always in season.

I’ve added a new page to my website that demystifies this favorite Long Island seafood with everything you need to know about buying, preparing, and cooking them. There’s video too!

Image below: The only way to get sea scallops with the roe is to buy them live and shuck them yourself.

Learn more about Sea Scallops.

I love a good storm, so as soon as the beaches were open I drove down to Robert Moses State Park to see what the surf was doing and if there was any damage to the beach.

I wanted to climb the Fire Island Lighthouse for a bird’s eye view, but unfortunately that part of the beach was still closed. I ended up at field 2.

It was apparent that the surf came all the way up to the dunes. I am not familiar with this part of the beach so I couldn’t really tell how much sand was lost.

Here are some pictures.

Battle on the Bay is one of several events that take place on the Great South Bay each summer. I went yesterday for the speed trials, today the actual races will take place.

Boats are lunched from the pier with a crane.

Precarious, but it works

This is a jet engine powered boat. It sounded like the Bat Mobile as it screamed past at who knows how fast. I spoke to driver for a while and he told me they were running 3700 horsepower today, but the boat can run up to 6000 horsepower with the bigger engines. It has been clocked at speeds as high as 213 mph.

The Miss Geico racing team runs the world’s fastest offshore catamaran

There are plenty of food vendors at events like this, but I opted for a crab cake sandwich at Nancy’s Crab Shack right next door. Nancy’s has good food and I just feel more comfortable eating food from a known establishment rather than a truck.

Great food in a very casual setting. And yes, there really is a Nancy

The snappers are running and some people will do anything to catch them…

Jake and Kevin of East Islip carry their fishing gear to the dock with a neat  little bike rack that they built themselves. Their custom rack carries 4 poles and a couple of tackle boxes. Good job guys!

Snapper fishing is fun, easy, and the fish taste great. Right now they’re still a little on the small side, but they will be growing by the day.

Snappers are a fish that anyone can catch—even 4 year olds—and are a great way to introduce your kids to fishing. All you need is a pole and some bait.

If you want to try your hand at snapper fishing see my complete guide to snapper fishing on Long Island. Everything you need to know is there including a video that shows you how to catch, clean, and cook them.

Good luck!

Last weekend Long Island Traditions held their annual Boating with the Baymen tour and I was lucky enough to have remembered to buy tickets. (I kicked myself plenty for missing it last year.)

The 3 hour tour (I know what you’re thinking, and we did not get stranded) took place on the Lauren Kristy, a stylized paddle boat that I’m sure many of you have seen cruising the Great South Bay, and gave us an inside look at the lives of the baymen and others who make their living on or near the bay.

This event, one of several held throughout the year, is part of Long Island Traditions’ efforts to preserve maritime and farming culture on Long Island.

Continue reading Boating with the Baymen.

Sunshine has been scarce lately and today is not looking very good at all, so I’m glad I took a few minutes yesterday to snap some pictures down by the water.

It was a beautiful day with a brisk wind forming large swells and whitecaps on the Great South Bay. The wind and the waves must have kept most boaters home because the bay was deserted.

Other than the wind it was a perfect day with blue skies and big white clouds.

Sayville Dock

A lone fisherman tries his luck

Rays of sunlight beam from behind a cloud

Strange clouds race past the trees in my yard. (Looks much better in BW than color)