Ocean Helps Beachgoers Beat the Heat

By DONALD WITTKOWSKI The pathway to the 66th Street beach in Sea Isle City was so blisteringly hot on the bottom of bare feet that it was like walking on the sands of the Sahara Desert. By Monday afternoon, the air temperature had risen to a scorching 96 degrees and the stifling humidity levels made it seem like the 100s. But ocean water temperatures in the 70s provided some much-needed relief from the oppressive three-day heat wave for Sea Isle beachgoers like Joe Jones, his daughter, Kim, her husband, Erick Hnosko and their daughter, Maddie. “Stay in the water,” Jones, a resident of Clarksboro, N.J., explained of how he was beating the heat. “There is a nice sea breeze.” Jones and the rest of his family are vacationing in Sea Isle for a week. They considered themselves incredibly lucky to be spending their vacation at the shore at a time when the heat wave is baking the rest of New Jersey. Water temperatures in the 70s draw beachgoers to the surf. Erick Hnosko, who lives in Woolwich, N.J., noted that even at the shore there are noticeable differences between the temperatures up on the breezeless beach and those in the comfortable surf. “It’s oppressive up there,” he exclaimed while casting a look toward the beach. His daughter, Maddie, smiled when she emerged soaking wet from a dip. “It’s beautiful,” Maddie said of the ocean, raising her arms in triumph. “If you go out there deeper, it even gets cold.” Another beachgoer, Laura Aquilante, and her 6-month-old daughter, Annabella, were part of a group of eight adults and four babies seeking shelter from the blazing sun under a large cabana. “We have little babies, so if you’re not in the water we want to be under the shade with them. Also, we have senior citizens with us, so the shade is important to them, too,” said Aquilante, a vacationer from Franconia, Pa. Baby Annabella splashes around in a kiddie pool, drawing smiles from her father, Chris Aquilante, his sister, Lisa Chapman, and his wife, Laura. Aquilante noted that the beach sand was so hot that it was “melting flip-flops to your feet.” Her baby, Annabella, though, was enjoying a refreshing splash in a kiddie pool that Aquilante and her husband, Chris, had brought along for the vacation. Actually, there were two kiddie pools under their cabana to keep all of the babies nice and cool. For those who weren’t taking a dip Monday afternoon – either in the ocean or in a kiddie pool – they looked for other ways to cool down in Sea Isle. Sisters Carly and Brittany Lare, vacationers from Limerick Township, Pa., said they planned to hit the beach later in the afternoon, but first wanted some ice cream. Carly got a brownie cookie dough ice cream and Brittany had a raspberry sorbet. “This definitely helps to cool off,” Carly said. Both of them frantically licked at their ice cream and sorbet – not because they were so hungry, but because the sizzling sun began melting their treats only seconds after they bought them. Meanwhile, now three days old, the heat wave is expected to last until Thursday, with temperatures in the 90s and the humidity levels pushing the “real feel” index past 100 degrees on some days. Sisters Brittany and Carly Lare devour their ice cream and sorbet before the treats are melted by the blazing sun.