sports

outdoors with Lou Roclta

Don't Forget Campers' Contribution

HARRISBURG, PA: America is On The Road Again. Confidence in America's economic future, more spendable income for the American worker who feels more secure in his job. growing national pride, lower interest rates and lower gas prices have combined to get American vacationers moving. That's what we heard from the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association at an outdoor writers' meeting here, and from Chris Umble, who heads Pennsylvania's Bureau of Travel Development. There is a message in the two talks for our travel industry in Cape May County. THINGS LOOK good for 1986 and beyond. Camper and Rv sales, boat sales and hotel/motel inquiries are up. Reservations are ahead of last year. We should have a tremendous season in 1986. RVIA says 236 million vacations are planned by Americans in 1986, of which 85 percent will be by motor vehicles. Ten percent (28 million) vacations will be in RV's and campers. Camping interest is growing. Middle-aged Americans (ages 35 to 55) are being targeted by advertising to get them into outdoor recreation. It is working — as indicated by the 28 million trips planned for campers and RV's in 1986. CAMPING IS the sixth most popular recreational

activity for the U.S. traveller. There are now 7 million motor homes plus millions of campers on the road. An additional 12 million families plan to purchase a camper soon. There are 60 million camper families looking for vacation areas at present. RV rentals are up 250 to 300 percent for 1986 over 1985. KOA, with over 500 campgrounds in its national network, shows a 15 percent increase in reservations. Wheeler's Campground Reservation system is up 10 percent. Cape May County campgrounds should get a big share. America's way of travelling is changing. Cape May County, which lives on tourists, can live or die by recognizing the changes and making the adjustments in time to meet the new demands. CAMPING IS not a cheap vacation. It never was. Ask anyone who owns, insures, maintains, drives and uses an RV or a towing vehicle and camper. Add the cost of a campsite and it becomes apparent that this investment buys a lot of motel rooms or apartment rentals. The switch to camping came about because the camper replaced the apartment the family used to rent for the season. Camper families can have Mom and the kids in a campground for the week and Dad can come down for his vacation and for the

weekend, just as they used to do in apartments. There is security for the camping family. Camping is safe. Campers are insulated from street crime and harassment by loud music, all-night parties, and screaming sirens. By midnight things wind down. Peace and quiet are main reasons why people camp. ONCE INSIDE the campground, the camper knows intruders are screened out by security guards at the gate. Campground entertainment is family oriented. Family groups know where their kids are. People like to camp because it offers a change of lifestyle. We live today with tile baths, air conditioning, dress-up days and nights and access to a back yard pool. Vacations are supposed to change lifestyle. That's why camping has appeal. Campers leave the formal life ty going pastoral. That people camp should be recognized by the motel and apartment industries. Each camper sold means one less available family for the room rental business. WHILE 28 million RV and camper vacations are planned for 1986, there are still over 200 million other vacations planned. Cape May County can and should get its share. There is a big IF and that IF is in the talk by Chris Umble. Pennsylvania plans to up its tourist promotion budget to $6 million in 1987. Two surveys point up what is ahead. The first survey showed vacation destinations concern travellers. Three items they look for showed big in the survey. Two are price and quality. The third is that vacationers look for friendly people to host them ANOTHER SURVEY shows that the top areas of tourist interest are scenery, history and historic sites, outdoor sports such as fishing and hunting and Friendly People to do business with. Cape May County is blessed with history, outdoor sports recreation and scenery. We must maintain a Friendly profile. We must offer fair prices and quality. If we keep a Friendly profile. Cape May County should continue to do well. Why is all of this germain to an outdoor column? It means that motel and apartment owners, campground operators and real estate salesmen have to get interested in water quality, improved fishing opportunities, preservation of open space, boat ramps, public fishing piers, places for people to observe nature, bike paths, picnic areas and other outdoor family entertainment potential. OTHER TOURIST areas are doing it. As their facilities develop, so does the potential to get tourists away from us. Our related industries have done little to support a fishing pier at the drawbridge at Grassy Sound when the new roadway into North Wildwood is built. We see little organized tourist industry support in

the battle against the salt water fishing license or support for fishing reefs off the Cape May County coast. We see little industry protest when jetties and bridges are posted against fishing. There are bright spots. A couple of towns are contemplating marinas. A few have boat ramps. Other towns have done little to put ramps in. Efforts to put in ramps were fought, instead. THERE IS A set of statistics put there. They say that 66 percent of the people who vacation in Cape May County like fishing. Half show an interest in history. About 50 percent indicate an interest in bird watching. About 40 percent are interested in boats and boating. One third are interested in camping. Lose a large percentage of the fishermen or the boaters or the briders. and

^ Cape May C nnnK-^^^ ALMANAC JUNE

MOON PHASES/POSITIONS The Mnon'f effect on the Tide u (irolfil whrn rfotnl to Earth I in prrtitm und when in direct alignment with Sun A Earth I full A new moon phusesi On und ut>»ul these da let. low pressure systems and-'or strong winds (depending upon diree lion) may result in flooding and 'or extremely law tides Moon Itnin Nm» Moon 3 Kir»l quarter IS Pull Moon 21 l.aM Quarter 4/28 ApoRee • Pcrifff » TIDE TABLE Computed for Cope Mov Cily beaeh/ront. for other areas, see Correction Time* DATE HIGH LOW a.m. p.m. a.m. p.m 1 Sun 3:54— 4:33 10:01-10:41 2 Moo 4:51- 5 26 10:40-11 29 3 Tue 5:43- 6:13 11:31— 4 Wed 6 32- 6 S3 12:16-12:13 5 Thu 7:15- 7:33 1:01-12 56 6 Fri 7:54- 8:07 1 45- 1 36 7 Sat 8 33- 8 42 2:27- 2:17 8 Sun 9:12- 9:17 3:00- 2:55 9 Mon 9:52- 9:54 3:48- 3:33 10 TUe 10:32-10:32 4:24- 4 09 11 Wed 11:17-11:12 5:01- 4:44 12 Thu 12:02- 5:38- 5:25 13 Fri 12:01-12:50 6:18- 6:15 14 Sal 12:46- I 40 7:07- 7:21 15 Sun 1:30- 2 32 8:01- 8 33 16 Mon 2:35- 3 28 9 00- 9 38 17 Tue 3:40- 4:30 9:54-10 39 IB Wed 4 46- 5:28 10:48-11 36 19 Thu 5:52- 6:27 11:42— 20 Fn 6:51- 7:18 12:35-12 37 21 Sat 7:46- 8:10 1:32- 1:33 22 Sun 8.39- 9:01 2:28- 2 30 23 Mon 9:33- 9:52 3 22- 3:26 24 Tue 10 27-10:47 4:11— 4:19 25 Wed 11:24-11 40 5:01- 5:11 26 Thu -12:20 5:51- 6:07 27 Fri l2:35— 1:15 6:41— 7:06 28 Sat 1:27 - 2.06 7:33- 8:09 29 Sun 2:19- 2:58 8:27- 9:08 10 Mon 3:12- 3:50 9:19-10 06 —

CORRECTION TIMES Compute approximate times of hifth A low water for your area by adding or jubtraclinjr the following number of minutes for each tide phase in the Tide Table lOW IIICiH Great Egg Harbor Inlet Plus 12 plusio Ocean City 1 91h St Bridge) plus 35 plus 22 Corson inlet < bridge* i plus 21 plus 7 Sea Isle City i Ludlatn Thoro Bridge t plus 66 plus 43 Sea Isle Cily Beach minus 2 minus 21 Tow rise nd Inlet plus 21 plus 4 Seven Mile Beach plus 15 0 " Stone Harbor (Great Channel Bridge' I plus 43 plus 40 9 Hereford Inlet t Anglesea i plus 19 0 6 Wildwood Beach 6 Minus 2 minus 17 : 7 West Wildwood 6 i Grassy Channel bridge) 3 plus 46 plus 43 19 Cape May Harbor £ plus 1 minus 4 j Five Fathom Bank •3 plus II plus I t3 Cape May Point H plus 46 plus 34 » McCne Shoal K plus 28 plus 22 ; j- Delaware Bay Bay-shore Channel 30 (Bay-Canal Junctioni 26 plus 47 plus 36 19 Miami Beach II phis 75 plus 61 jj? Dennis Creek Entrance gg plus 114 plus 97 09 Brandywine Shoal Lighi plus 77 plus 52

Literary Leader Training TUCKAHOE - A basic leader training course for teachers and volunteers who plan to conduct Junior or Adult Great Books Reading and Discussion groups will be hosted by Upper Township Middle School in Tuckahoe 9 a . m . -3 p.m. Monday and Tuesday. June 23 and 24. The registrar for the course is John Phillips. Upper Township Middle School. For information, call 628-3106. The training course will be taught by a member of the staff of the Great Books Foundation, a Chicagobased nonprofit educational corporation. THE GREAT BOOKS Foundation gives the leader training course to prepare \eachers, librarians, and parent volunteers to conduct Junior Great Books reading and discussion groups for students in second through 12th grades. The course is also open to those who plan to lead Adult Great Books groups in their communities. For additional information about the training course, call the local registrar. For information about the Foundation and its program, call Deborah Mantia, Coordinator of Information Services, at (312) 332-5870 or 1-800-222-5870.

we might see vacancies in motels and campgrounds. We can ignore the need for boat ramps, piers to fish on, or places to watch birds. WE CAN SIT by while a salt water license is enacted. We can even be rude to our visitors. We can survive by doing these things or not doing them for a long time to come. The enemy is our competition. How good a job they do can hurt our economy in the long rim. If we fail in efforts at self improvement, we than become part of the enemy. FISHING REPORTS: Best bet for fishing continues to be bluefish on day and night trips. Wreck anglers are catching sea bass and tautog. Fluke fishing is heating up and weakfish action is in and out again with blues filling the gaps. Some drum are being caught. Here are some area pool winners: Art Strassler. a Ki'i-lb tautog on the Adventurer II at Wildwood Yacht Basin; Dave Warrington. of Philadelphia, a 1 4 1 4 - 1 b and Jeanette Higbee. of Wildwood Crest, a 12-lb., 6-oz. tog on the Royal Flush at Wildwood Crest; Ed Lapp, of Hatboro. Pa , an 8-lb. weakfish on the Happy Days at Cape May. At Grassy Sound, George Dunham at Dads Place reported good fluke and blue catches. John Burger of Newark, Del. had a 6-lb. 5-oz. blue at No. 8 buoy behind North Wildwood. SHARKS: Stan Davis and party of Springfield, Pa. caught makos on the Happy Days. Topper was a 248-lb. mako decked by Mike Johnson. Ed Reynolds of Philadelphia caught a 150-lb mako. Strathmere: At Larry's

Dock, Pete Thomas reports an upswing in fluke catches. Dick Horner of Strathmere weighed in a 6Mb fluke. WINNER: Anthony Lorenzo of Clifton Heights. Pa., won the weekly Miss Chris contest with a 13.99 weakfish. He won a Penn 710Z reel. RAYMOND OBST Obst Gets Commission T NORTH CAPE MAY - Raymond E. Obst. son of Robert C. and Jean R. Obst of 3848 Bayshore Rd, was commissioned a second lieutenant upon graduation from the U.S. Military Academy. West Point. N.Y., May 28 and awarded a degree in computer science. The lieutenant is scheduled to attend training in the Military Intelligence i Branch at Fort Huachuca. Ariz. He is 1982 graduate of Lower Cape May Regional High School Erma

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