2025 May: Big Bang event in Holmdel NJ

 16 May 2025

One of the reasons Clark was anxious to get home was to attend a special event at the "Robert Wilson Park" in Holmdel, New Jersey at Crawford Hill where Arno Penzias and Robert (Bob) Wilson discovered evidence of the Big Bang Theory. Details of their discovery are included in a newspaper report regarding the dedication of the park in April of last year.

Clark worked for both Arno and Bob during his time at Bell Laboratories. Arno has passed away, but Bob is still going strong. He was in attendance for today's event at the "Robert Wilson Park" on Holmdel Road in Holmdel, New Jersey.

I needed the car to do grocery shopping today, so I dropped him off at the park. While there, I wandered around and took some pictures including the horn that was used when the Big Bang Theory was corroborated when Penzias and Wilson discovered cosmic microwave background radiation in 1964. They were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978 for their discovery.

The park is located on property that was a part of the Crawford Hill Research facility belonging to Bell Laboratories. Clark worked in research at Bell Laboratories at the beginning of his telecommunications career and spent some portion of that time working at the Crawford Hill facility with fellow engineers. 

Crawford Hill Facility in Holmdel, NJ

I have been in and around this property myself a few times - attended holiday events, went with Clark to picnics on the hill, etc. I never attended one, but I understand from Clark that when this facility was in "full swing", the employees would warm themselves with alcohol and then go play volleyball on the hill around the Christmas season. Bell Labs would have "early closing" for the holiday and the boys would go play.

We did not go in the office building today but continued up the winding road to the picnic site. Clark volunteered to arrive at 10:00 for the 11:00 event to help set up. We arrived before anyone else, and I took a picture of Clark wearing his "Big Bang" t-shirt standing next to the famous horn. The shirt was a gift from long ago when he was still employed in Bell Labs Research. He only wears it when he meets with his cronies from Bell Labs like today!

Clark at Crawford Hill

Horn Antenna
National Historic Landmark

The Horn Antenna used when
the Big Bang Theory was corroborated.

Big Bang Discovery - 1964

I remember walking around up here when the buildings were still in use. It was sad to see the buildings showing their age and neglect over the years. 

"BLDG Q" 
Was this an outhouse in days of yore? 

Besides "the horn antenna", other structures remain on the 35-acre property. Clark told me there was another 7 meter offset cassegrain antenna up the road a bit hidden in the trees, so I strolled over to take a look. This antenna was used for radio astronomy, and Clark remembers a talk at Monmouth University by Bob Wilson discussing the construction of this antenna.

Is that an antenna I see up ahead? 

The road was blocked off to cars. I saw no "No Trespassing" signs so I continued in for a closer look.

7 Meter Antenna

As I stepped up to take a closer look of this antenna, I startled two animals - a deer ran one way while a beautiful, large red fox ran another. I have never seen a fox so large, but there was no mistaking the animal and that red coloring! No picture! They were both gone in a flash. 

I found the signage on the buildings to be interesting like the one below with two signs.

"Dangerous"
"Caution Hazardous Chemicals -
Authorized Personnel Only"

The tall pipe out front of this building is a shower to be used if someone is exposed to the chemicals in the building. 

Shower for Chemical Exposure / Burn Victim

The tower shown below was used in the past for communications experiments with a sister facility located in Murry Hill, New Jersey - another Bell Labs research facility located about 40 miles north of this Holmdel facility. It is quite overgrown now, but Clark said there used to be a clearing in the trees when it was in use. Clearly, none of these structures have been used in quite some time.

Pointed towards the Murray Hill facility
in northern NJ

Overgrown ladder up the tower

Other buildings on the property, like the one shown below, sat unlabeled and a mystery to me concerning their purpose once upon a time. 

The weather for today's event was uncertain, and in fact it did rain during part of the day. A tent was constructed for the picnic attendees. A presentation was to be held on site but was moved to the Bell Works building a short distance away and also in Holmdel. The Bell Works building used to be an  AT&T Bell Labs research and development facility when Clark and I worked there in the past.

Tent set up in preparation for today's picnic

The presentation portion of the event was supposed to occur at 2:00, but due to being relocated, it started much later than planned. Clark hitched a ride with a friend since I had our only car with me at the food store. Clark finally called me just after 5:00 to ask me to make the 30-minute drive to Holmdel to come get him. I was expecting him to be done around 4:00. 

I asked if I would have enjoyed the event, and he replied no. The talks were technical in nature, some hard to hear, and even he knew only a few of the attendees. 

The program ...

Project "Echo" Milestone

In addition to the horn antenna being used for Echo project, the Telstar project, and for the discovery of the cosmic background radiation as mentioned above, this prior work opened up the radio astronomy field, and it was used extensively for radio astronomy including use by researchers from Princeton. In addition, Clark's colleague Tony Rustako used this antenna for satellite propagation experiments at 12 and 14 GHz while Clark was in the Satellite Research Department. So, the antenna was well used over the years.  

Clark took a few pictures during the event at the picnic on "the hill" and later at Bell Works.

When the engineers have a picnic on "the hill", they actually put the horn into use. They aim the horn towards the picnic site and place a speaker in the horn to play sound out onto the grounds

as demonstrated in the video below.

Clark took some pictures inside the "cab" of the horn.

The speaker is placed at the rear opening of the horn and can be seen in the picture below inside the wooden frame.

Equipment inside the "cab" is used to aim the horn towards the picnic attendees.

Gears turn to position the horn in the desired direction

Clark's view from the horn

Any good event has a special cake. This one had two!

Then those interested in hearing the presentations moved to the Bell Works facility

IEEE NJ Coast Chair Filomena Citarella

Speakers Giovanni 3rd from left, Bob Wilson,
IEEE President Tom Coughlin

Colleague Giovanni Vanucci Speaking

Tom Coughlin Speaking

Nobel Laureate Robert Wilson Speaking

The Unveiling of the Milestone Plaque

Milestone Cake of the Horn Antenna

2025 May: Virginia to Home

 11 May 2025

Depart: Chincoteague, VA anchorage 6:50 

Arrive: Brigantine anchorage / Atlantic City, NJ 7:55

Distance: ~ 113 nm

Travel Time: 13 hours

Clark said we had 3 days on the ocean to make it from Norfolk, Virginia to home before bad weather moved in. He said we could expect 3 to  4 foot waves on the ocean. Today, I have almost never seen the ocean this calm. Clark sure knows how to pick days for ocean travel.

Today was the longest travel day in nautical miles and in hours traveled that we have ever managed. I think 100 nm was our prior record! We had 3 choices for stopping tonight. We could anchor near 1) Lewes, Delaware; 2) Cape May, New Jersey; or push all the way through to 3) Atlantic City, New Jersey. 

Spoiler alert! We went all the way!

We had almost no picture-taking opportunities today. Most of what we saw for so many hours was ocean water! We did notice the Roman number IX in the sky. 

At one point, we saw four large vessels up ahead at the entrance to the Delaware River. Three were at anchor and a fourth was on the move.

The most prevalent ocean "traffic" today was the balloons that passed by us. Mylar balloons never seem to deflate completely, and we see them all too often on the ocean.

Finally, we arrived at Atlantic City. 

Atlantic City, NJ coming up

Coming up on anchorage

Night view of Atlantic City from anchorage

Only other boat in anchorage
"Conchy Jac"
Never saw any people on boat

Full moon night

Dinner has been late every night. Today, I prepared food as we traveled so that within 30 minutes of the anchor being down, dinner was on the table. All the leftovers I had in the fridge had been consumed last night.

12 May 2025

Depart: Brigantine anchorage / Atlantic City, NJ 7:35

Arrive: Home dock, Rumson, NJ 6:55

Distance: ~ 88 nm

Travel Time: ~ 11.5 hours

We picked up anchor in the Brigantine anchorage just before 7:00. When we came in to the anchorage last night, it was near high tide. Staying close to the land, as Clark usually does when we comes in here, was not a viable option. He had to carefully use the chart to follow the water deep enough to get in to this somewhat tricky anchorage. This morning when we left, we had high water once more. 

As per usual, Clark worked the anchor while I had the helm. Other than holding our position while I waited for Clark to finish anchor duty and come to the helm, I stayed put. I could see on the chart where we needed to go, but I preferred Clark to negotiate the water. As he navigated out of the anchorage, I grabbed some pictures of the unusually high waters.

As we passed by Atlantic City, I captured some pictures of the tall buildings in the area.

I took several pictures of the Atlantic City lighthouse. It appeared dwarfed beside all the tall buildings. At one time it must have been the tallest structure around. 

Finally, a clear view of the lighthouse

A lot of people were on the jetty as we left the inlet.

As we traveled on the ocean past Brigantine, NJ, Clark spied a whale's "blow" up ahead. He slightly changed course to be sure not to hit the whale and grabbed the camera to try for a picture. I took the helm and wished him luck. I thought the chance of a picture was close to nil!

Spray in center of photo is whale blow

After that, we saw no more whales, but, unlike yesterday, we did see some boat traffic on the ocean today - commercial and pleasure craft.

Dredging operation

Further out in the ocean, some work boats could be seen.

Of course, we saw many more balloons float by. Shameful!

Being short on sleep and long on travel, Clark and I were both feeling drowsy after lunch. He let me take a power nap first, and then I took the helm while he dozed. While he was napping, we passed Asbury Park, New Jersey. 

Asbury Park Convention Center

After Clark came back to the helm, he pointed out other places along the shore including sites in Long Branch and Monmouth Beach, NJ. As we pass Monmouth Beach, we are very close to our home dock "as the bird flies"; however, there is no inlet here. We have to go all the way up and around Sandy Hook and back again. We still had several more hours of travel before we could dock the boat.

The next point of interest was, of course, New York City. We could see the city and the Verrazzano Bridge up ahead.

Finally, near 5:00 p.m., we rounded the tip of Sandy Hook, NJ where we could see some people enjoying the beach.

Then we saw the familiar Sandy Hook lighthouse

and munitions bunkers on Sandy Hook left over from WW II.

As we made our way towards the Highlands and the Shrewsbury River, which would carry us home, we were passed by Seastreak ferries carrying passengers back from a day of work in NYC. the one shown below passed very close to us, but its wake was light compared to the size of the vessel.

"Seastreak Highlands"

On the Shrewsbury River, we passed by the Twin Lights lighthouse which is now mostly hidden behind the growth of trees in the area.

Then, a landmark that has been here "forever" - Bahrs Restaurant.

We had two bridges to navigate on the Shrewsbury River. The original Highlands bridge was replaced years ago with a fixed bridge. Even very tall ships can now get through here.

Highlands Bridge

After that I took some pictures of Sandy Hook homes as we approached the Seabright bridge. It is very picturesque here. Unfortunately, this area is prone to flooding as the ocean and the river sometimes join together during storms over top of Seabright.

At the Seabright bridge we got a very unwelcome surprise. Clark knew that the bridge was scheduled to have a period where the bridge would not open for any reason. His information told him that date was in the past. When we arrived at the bridge to request an "on-demand" opening, the bridge tender told us "no way, no how - not until May 16th would the bridge open". 

So close but so far! One-half hour to go on our epic journey home and we can't get there from here! 

Clark asked the bridge tender for the vertical clearance on the bridge. The tender misunderstood Clark's request and proceeded to give him the dates of openings once more. Clark reiterated his request for clearance and finally got the answer of 14.5 feet of clearance with 3 more feet at the center. We need just over 17 feet. However, a barge was tied up under the bridge taking up a full half of the opening. That meant we could not go down the center. 

Clark told the bridge tender that we could fold down and try to fit under. S/he (we could not tell male or female from the voice) said, "I don't recommend it captain. We don't want any injuries or damages." However, Clark decided that we would make a go for it. If we could not get under the bridge, we would have to go some place to drop anchor and come back at another time when we had low tide. We were past low tide with the water rising. The longer we took to try this maneuver. The worse the situation became. 

We had the incoming tide pushing us into the bridge. If we got into trouble going bow in to the bridge, we would have trouble backing off. Clark's solution ... go through the bridge backwards (stern first)! That way if it looked like a collision was imminent, he could throw it in forward and make a getaway. 

As Clark lowered the antennas, I did the station keeping to hold our position. He took the helm, and I stood on a metal box (a big thank you to Cathy and Franklin who gave us this "life saver"), so I could scream if it looked like we would hit. 

When I climbed up on my box to sight the situation, I got a big surprise. Clark had forgotten to lower the mast. I quick told him his mistake and we switched places once more to rectify the situation. Once the mast was down, I climbed back on my box with my heart beating out of my chest. I grasped the pulley line used to lower / lift the mast in one hand and a metal stay line in the other. The last thing I wanted to do was fall off the box if we had a quick maneuver or a collision of some sort.

Ready to go backwards through the bridge
with me as lookout

The adrenaline was flowing as we backed towards the bridge. Several small boats ignored the slow speed no wake posting for the bridge and came flying out as we prepared to approach the bridge. I hoped they would stop coming and generating a wake before we got cued up to enter. A wake would make us rock and increase our chances of scraping the bottom of the bridge. 

To make things more interesting, as Clark backed into the bridge, he had me tell him if he was going to collide with the barge docked on one side and the bridge wall on the other as he could not see the edges.  So, watching the clearance and the edges, I guided him under the bridge. He must have nerves of steel to steer the boat backwards through a bridge when he can't clearly see the hazards! 

Well, we made it through and did not have to go look for an anchorage or try again another day / time. I told Clark that it looked like we had between 2 and 3 feet overhead as we went through the bridge, so we were in no danger of scraping the solar panels off the top of the boat. Thank goodness!

After exiting the bridge, Clark called the bridge tender to report that we made it through with room to spare. He said, "The clearance numbers on the bridge appear to be on the conservative side." S/he said, "Well done, Captain." I wondered what the tender thought as s/he watched us go through backwards. (Clark did that same maneuver here once before, so I knew what he intended. That time, we had our son Jeff standing in the stern with me watching to see if we would have trouble going under.)

 Whew! As I climbed down off my box, my legs were wobbly! What an adrenaline rush! Boating with Clark is quite an adventure! What is that saying - "Boating is hours of boredom followed by seconds of terror" (or something like that).

We still had a couple more challenges before we could tie our lines to our dock. First, we had to turn off the Shrewsbury River to travel through Pleasure Bay. At the turn off, the water becomes "skinny". After the red marker for the channel, we unexpectedly came to a floating barrel (an official guide to navigation) that said on it "SHALLOW". No indication of how to pass this barrel was given. It turned out that a red marker here instead of the barrel would have been much more informative. We got past that hurdle and continued on our way.

The main channel is marked clearly with red and green buoys. The side channel that leads eventually to our dock has poorly maintained day markers. Some were missing. Most were broken. The ones that stood in place gave no indication as to whether they were a red or a green, and here it makes a big difference. We had to guess based on prior knowledge of the waterway. (Usually these day markers are repaired / replaced by the 4th of July each year.)

One of the green markers was missing 3 sides of the green square. Clark said, "Is that a cross?"

Low water at the bridge helped us. Here we knew we would have difficulty with the depth as we entered our creek. As Clark drove the boat, I called out the depths. They dropped rapidly as I called  out "0.5, 0.3, 0.1 ..." I did not know that the depth finder could report -0.1 and -0.2! I had never seen that before. Usually after 0.1, it just goes blank! Fortunately, Clark knows that the bottom through here is "muck" -- made of dead leaves and such. Even though it showed no water, he pushed through. 

Looking behind us, I saw no clear evidence of shallow water. Usually I see a trail of black water behind the boat from stirred up muck as he enters our creek.

The start of our creek

Once the depth showed we had 0.2 feet of water, Clark was happy. He said we were past the bad section.  A short way down the creek, he decided that he should turn the boat around for docking early on to be sure he had the depth and width to make the about face. He then proceeded to back all the way down the creek to our dock while I put out fenders and lines!

We made it. Clark met his objective for the day - a shower in the house! Clearly, he was willing to tackle anything for a shower where he had as much water as he felt like using!

What a day! Hallelujah, we are home!