Thursday, May 15, 2008

Martha's Vineyard to Nantucket



Maryanne Fishing, First Views of Nantucket, and Not all Nantucket Residents are rich.

[Maryanne]Despite spending 3 days in Martha's Vineyard, we only got to explore the island for one day - the other days were spent riding out some pretty rough weather, rowing to shore was not an attractive prospect. We did some maintenance on the boat, housework, read and just relaxed.

Kyle decided a bath was in order and despite the LOW sea temperature, and my calls of concern, he jumped in. He came out pretty quickly, but smells much better!

Eventually (Wednesday) the weather and wind was such that we could set off for Nantucket. We sailed for about 8 hours, and we had quite a range of sails and wind, we are both feeling so comfortable with the boat, reefing, changing sails etc was fun. For much of the journey we were sailing along at 8 knots just over 9 mph (very fast for our boat!). On other parts of the journey we were pottering along at about 2 knots. We were in no rush and enjoyed the ride.

I tried fishing again - several different lures, and still no luck. Luckily we have plenty of food aboard, if we were relying on my fishing talent we would be VERY HUNGRY. I suspect we will need to have a CPR team on hand if I ever do catch a fish. With my line out we passed a boat with 3 other fisherman, and I can't believe it, but as I passed they each pulled up a fish on their lines... That was just cruel! All I managed to catch the whole day was some seaweed.

Although still cold, it was very sunny, so we really enjoyed the scenery as we sailed along. There were plenty of trawlers in the area too (I know the fish are out here!). We also saw plenty of ferries again - I think on the Boston to Nantucket run.

So by early afternoon we arrived in Nantucket, my first visit ever. We passed another ferry leaving as we arrived at - as we entered the harbor we were amazed at the mass of mooring balls. It seems the public anchorage has been taken over here as in other places with the industry of making money. Very few boats were attached to these moorings (less than 1% occupied) - and we ended up over a mile away from the dinghy dock, which we have yet to row/sail to. The dinghy dock is hidden away, and hard to find, but apparently they have showers - and boy I really need a very long hot shower. We were quite disappointed to be so far away from the dock, and many of the obvious nearer landing sites are clearly private property - so Kyle will be getting a work out. We did however anchor off a beautiful nature reserve, and although miles from town, we plan to take the 5 minute trip to these beautiful remote beaches for a walk and explore while we are here in Nantucket. We spent the afternoon reading up on Nantucket in our boating and other guide books, and Thursday is expected to be a calm sunny day - perfect for exploring (and not too cold either).

3 comments:

Law Offices of James F. Aspell. P.C. said...

I am thinking of cruising to nantucket later this summer. Did you find the dinghy dock? Where is it in relation to the fuel dock. Thanks.

Jim

SV-Footprint said...

Hi Jim


We did find the Dinghy Dock.. It is not associated with the Fuel docks at all..

Below is the coordinates and a link to a google map - the dinghy dock is to the south side of the dock just south of Commercial Street/Swains Wharf Road. This is the town dock, and there is a harbor master, trash cans, and showers available (although when we went it was too early in the season and the showers were closed)

+41° 16' 53.64", -70° 5' 40.38" (41.281568, -70.094549)

Map

Just zoom out to see the details - it is a bit of a walk into town - but beats paying for dockage in one of the fancy marinas.

If you go to the whale museum, leave yourself plenty of time (we turned up at 3pm - way too late to explore leisurely)

Helen J Gauperaa said...

Hi Maryanne and Kyle,
I'm enjoying your blog and have yet to come to an entry where Maryanne catches any fish (I'm sure that will happen, and I am reading 2008 entries in 2019!). If it's any consolation, my dad is a decent fisherman (as a Fisher!) but the biggest catch he made when visiting us in Norway last year was a little island! As long as you're not starving and having fun...
It's lovely to read your posts, and see what's happened since life with LITS (ugh!)
H x