Will This Stop Mother Nature?

I was out at Sankaty late this afternoon and took a look over the bluff. I noticed a huge, long coir bag on the beach. It looked to be about 100' long and about 3 or 4 feet high. This is going to be an extreme hazard to navigation when the next storm takes it out to sea.

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Click here for George Riethof's pictures from Sankaty

Done! (But is it useable)?

Looks as though the new Children's Beach boat ramp is finally done. I am down there every day, sometimes twice daily talking to boaters. Everyone I have talked to says that the new boat ramp is simply not working. I was there a few days ago an hour after high tide and witnessed the launch of a 19' Mako boat. A 19' Mako draws less a foot of water. The owner of the boat backed the trailer down until the back tires of the truck were about an inch or two under water. Standard procedure for a successful launch. The boat could not be launched. He got back in the truck and backed down the ramp again. This time his rear truck brakes were half underwater. Still no go. It took three men to pull the Mako off the trailer. One on the dock pulling on a stern line, one on the dock pulling on a bow line and the third guy standing on the tongue of the trailer pushing the bow. Mechanics are going to be very busy this year replacing brakes. I am not going to risk destroying my truck brakes to launch my boat. I'll be using the ramps in Madaket.

Straight Wharf At Sunrise

The best time of the day to visit the waterfront is at sunrise. Nobody is around except me and one or two other waterfront prowlers. There are some great picture taking opportunities to be had at that time of the day. I was down at Straight Wharf this morning and noticed a few charter boats have been splashed.

Problems At The New Boat Ramp

Looks pretty grim. I was at the ramp yesterday an hour after high tide watching two locals having a VERY VERY VERY difficult time hauling a 20' Grady White boat. They were not able to get their trailer down the ramp far enough to get the rollers underwater.(See picture) The only way they were able to get the boat on the trailer was to have one person in the boat giving the outboard motor almost full throttle ahead while the other person struggled to crank the winch on the trailer. I am hearing more and more reports from people that the new ramp is not working out well. I'm afraid we will have to live with this.