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Thursday, December 6, 2012

Ida Lewis

While I was lurking around the waterfront today I spotted the buoy tender, Ida Lewis steaming down the fairway on a slow bell. She eventually made her way to the east face of Straight Wharf where she tied up. I went down to inspect her and grab a few shots of her. She's a big ship with plenty of things happening on her deck. Looked like the Eel Point #2 was on deck along with several other buoys probably from Great Round Shoal Channel.

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I also witnessed this Cooper's Hawk swoop down and grab a Bonaparte's Gull out of the water in the Boat Basin.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Commercial scalloping Week Three

The commercial scallop season continues to grind along. The bad thing about this year is there is no eelgrass. So the seed scallops and the adults end up on our beaches every time it blows hard. My thinking is that until the eelgrass makes a return, no more seed scallops should be raised and put into the harbor. Here are a few pictures I took today of part of the fleet working this morning-


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Thursday, November 1, 2012

Commercial Scallop Season 2012

The Commercial Scallop season started today. It's not looking good. There isn't a lot of scallops around this year. Most of the traditional places in the harbor that always held scallops are bare. And the bottom is dead and muddy. Also, the scallops are small and slunky. I will add more pictures in the days to come.

 Billy and Jeff Sayle
Smitty and friend.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Remembering Chuck Stojak

We lost a good man. Chuck Stojak left this world early today. I knew Chuck a long long time. Ever since his days out at Madaket Marine. He worked out there for twenty one years as a mechanic. During the commercial scallop season Chuck would open scallops for his father and Cato. Chuck finally left the boatyard job and started scalloping on his own. He was one of the best scallopers I knew. During the commercial scallop season, I leave the dock between 5:30 and 6AM. I head out on a slow bell to the scallop grounds taking pictures along the way of the sunrise, etc. Every day like clockwork, I would meet Chuck in his boat up around First Point, Coatue. Chuck would always launch his boat at Children's Beach. He would catch up to me and fly by me at First Point full throttle in the dark. He had two speeds. Fast and fast. He was a hard worker. Never missed a day out there scalloping. If it were blowing 60mph, Chuck would be tucked up in Third Bend catching his limit of scallops. He beat most of us in every day with his limit. He was good. Chuck's favorite place to fish was always Third Bend. He would pull a limit out of there day after day after day. He would sometimes stray and go to one or two other spots in the harbor but most of the time you would see him and his old light blue boat up in Third Bend. He opened all his own scallops in his father's shanty. And when he was done opening all his scallops, he would help his father open his until they were all opened. When Chuck was not scalloping, he ran his own little boatyard business. He would always help out his fellow scallopers fix their outboard engines when they broke down. But his true passion was scalloping. He loved it. He was one of only a handful of high liners in the fleet. Scalloping won't be the same without Chuck. I'll miss seeing him and his old blue boat in Third Bend every day. I grabbed a few shots of Chuck over the years. Here are a few-
Chuck on the left waiting with the gang for the temp to reach 28 degrees so he could go scalloping.
Chuck (right) and his good friend, Mac, off Third Bend.
Chuck (left) and Mac rafted up having a gam in the thick fog one day out scalloping. Circa 2003.
Chuck (on right) and his longtime friend, Mac, waiting for the temp to go up at Petrel's Landing.

Chuck waiting for the temp to go up at Petrel's Landing.

Chuck scalloping at sunrise in Shimmo Bend.

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Yorktown


There was a big cruise ship laying along the east face of Straight Wharf today. Her name was Yorktown. I have never seen her here before. She is home ported in New York, New York.

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 The sport fishing boat, Endurance acting as a tug to swing the cruise ship's bow around.
 Using  a crane to hoist the gangplank back on the ship.










 I use a website called MarineTraffic.com to track ships going through the Sound in real time. Here I was tracking the Yorktown as she left Nantucket Harbor.