So much fun, we'll DO it again.

Another event which falls under the DO/AC umbrella is the annual Atlantic City air show.  This usually takes place in August but this year the organizers bumped it up to the last week in June, for reasons which escape me, and so I was around to see it.  It's just my luck that this year is also the one where our Congress has decided that sequestration is better than compromise and so the Navy Blue Angles and the other service demonstration squadrons such as the Air Force Thunderbirds were absent from this year's program.  The one semi-modern jet which did participate was a privately owner Soviet era MiG.  That said the organizers promised P-51 Mustangs, Supermarine Spitfires and a host of aerobatic planes.  Not wanting to buck the traffic in AC and suspecting that one could watch from the south end of Brigantine, we packed the station wagon full of beach chairs and visiting relatives and headed for the rock jetty at the south end of the island.

The view from the south end of Brigantine towards Atlantic City .  The intervening water between the two barrier islands is Absecon inlet.

We arrived early to get good spots on the jetty but there's always some interesting traffic in the inlet.  Here we see the stern trawler Michael Jr. heading out to sea.  The concrete uprights seen just in front of the seawall are the supports for what's left of the inlet section of the boardwall

Looking to the southwest we see the causeway bridge which connects Brigantine to the rest of the world.  The dredge has been moved closer to the bridge this summer to deal with the sand deposited by last year's hurricane.

Zooming in on the dredge.  Don't know if I'd want to engage in stand-up paddle boarding that close or not.

The Absecon lighthouse was once the tallest structure in AC!

It's show time.  I was hoping that the planes would do more flying over Brigantine (there was a restriction on kite flying from Brigantine to Longport that day) and they did so toward the end of the show, but mainly they performed over the casinos on the Atlantic City side. 

I quickly discovered the limtations of a hand held "point and shoot" digital camera--lots of pix with either vapour trails,

or empty sky!

Well, if you botch a shot of the planes there's always interesting boat traffic!

Things got a little better as I experimented with the camera.  I think this is a pair of T-6 Texans but I can't be certain.  There was a radio station broadcasting the show but we didn't think to pack the radio.

How'd you like to casually glance out your condo window while having breakfast coffee some morning and see a MiG fly by?!

Chopper 10 from the local tv affiliate had to nose in for a closer view.  They were relatively easy to photograph compared to the war birds.  The building is the Revel Casino

For God's sakes man, pull out!  The condo owners must have had a wonderful view.

There was a lull in the airplane action but the dredge supply ship Candace helped relieve the monotony.  The low, red roofed building behind Candace is the Coast Guard station on Clam Creek.  Clam Creek was at one time the home of the old Evening Star Yacht Club which hosted Moth Boat Fleet Nr 1.  The old ESYC building lives on as Kammerman's Marina.

I think Olivia is also a dredge support vessel.

By this time a chop, driven by the afternoon sea breeze, was building.

The local tow company was having a busy day.

As was the Geico Insurance Company's sponsored speed boat.

To me this fisherman is being a bit foolhardy.  Along with fishhooks and other misc. fishing gear plus rocks to potentially tangle with, an eight knot currant runs through this inlet ( I couldn't swim against it--I doubt if Michael Phelps could swim against it).  The bay behind the Brigantine bridge is called "Mankiller" Bay for a reason.

Meanwhile, the next flight of planes arrived and I managed to get this group of pix while they performed a series of loops.

Here perhaps is my best shot of the afternoon. This group did fly directly at us and if it had been a strafing run we would have all been dead meat in our beach chairs.  Nothing quite like a squadron of vintage war birds diving down on you at 400+ knots.  A good day out!  Maybe next year we'll wander over to AC to watch but it sure was relaxing to laze away the day on the rocks!