Getting Ready

Things are finally starting to get busy around the waterfront. Two mooring companies are putting moorings in the water. The crew above was working off of Francis Street Beach today setting gear. It's very difficult to load the moorings which are stored on shore into boats without the use of the children's Beach boat ramp which is not completed yet. You have to go to Grey Lady Marine and use their facility for the time being.

Speaking of the new boat ramp, your guess is as good as mine as to when it will ever be done. I was told by a marine official that the new ramp would be ready by this Sunday, April 15th. I'm not sure they will meet that deadline. I'm thinking it will be ready to use my early May. Three quarters of the concrete slabs have been laid in place and a small part of the finger piers are built. Here's a picture of the construction I took yesterday-


There was a little buoy tender working off Brant Point late this afternoon. She was replacing buoys 11 and 13 when I grabbed her picture-
Click on the picture below.

Nantucket Waterfront News

M/V Iyanough Problems?

The very first day the SSA's M/V, Iyanough arrived here, I noticed large areas on her hull and superstructure that looks to be dimpled. I'm not sure if dimpled is the proper word or not. I took the picture below this afternoon. I circled the dimpled areas in red-
Click on any picture to enlarge.


Here's a closer shot-


I'm not a shipbuilder and I have never aspired to be one but something doesn't look right. I have never seen a ship dimpled like the Iyanough. Is this common practice in today's shipbuilding? I'm surprised they let her out of the yard looking like this. Is there anyone here that is familiar with shipbuilding that could provide some insight on this? If so, please leave a comment in the comment section. Thanks.

I added a new feature on the left. Click on the picture for a weather radar of the east coast.

Stranger In The Boat Basin

Click on any picture to enlarge.

This past Sunday morning, there was a strange boat in the Boat Basin pictured above. She was a police/fire boat from Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard. Not sure why she was here. She left at some point during the afternoon. Here's another shot of her-

Does anyone know why she was here?

I was out at Sankaty last week and saw the little black survey boat which has been tied up at the end of the Town Pier for the last several days. She was working about 1/4 mile offshore. The apparatus on her bow was lowered into the water. I'm thinking this has something to do with the 'Sconset Beach Bluff Project. Here's a picture of the boat working off Sankaty-


And here's a shot I grabbed a few days ago of the new SSA fast ferry "I Won't Go"(her new nickname) as she was headed outbound down the main channel-


Click on the picture below. It's a collection of a few of the blog pictures. Eventually I will work on removing the duplicates.

Nantucket Waterfront News

Ida Lewis

On the way in from scalloping today I spotted the Coast Guard buoy tender, Ida Lewis working out in the sound. I went out and got a closer look. The crew had just hauled the "NB" buoy out of the water and were working on it on the deck. The "NB" buoy is the first buoy you come to as you enter the main channel. It is sometimes referred to as the fairway buoy. Here's a close up shot of the buoys on deck. Notice how large they are when they are out of the water.

And here's a shot of the Ida Lewis stern-


Click here for info on buoy tenders

FINALLY!!!

Click on any picture to enlarge.

They are finally starting to build the concrete portion of the Children's Beach boat ramp. I was down there at the site today and saw the above two sections have been laid in place. I think they are making the sections off-Island and bringing them over by trailer truck on the freight boats. Here is another view of the project-

Shouldn't be long now when they wrap up this project that seemed to take forever.

I investigated that little black boat today that has been in here at the end of the Town Pier on and off. She looks to be a research vessel. Her name is Wolf River. No documentation numbers were visible on her hull and I could not see where she was homeported. Are research vessels exempt from documentation? Here are a couple of pictures of her. Notice in the second picture, the strange apparatus on her bow. I'm thinking it could be a sonar unit which can be lowered into the water?



I spied another research boat tied up on Straight Wharf recently. Her name is Carol Leigh. I believe she's a 25' Parker. Not sure what she is researching either. Here's her picture-


The western rigged scalloper, Miss Maria was at the Town Pier today also. When I was there checking out the Wolf River, her catch was being offloaded and sold to a local fish market. I heard the price paid to the fishermen for sea scallops is $6 per pound now. That is down from a high of $9 earlier this year.
Here's a shot of the Miss Maria-


Only one bay scalloper ventured out in Town today. And one went out in Madaket. The strong wind today kept most of the guys on shore. I know of two people who got their 5 bushel limit of scallops one day this week. Tomorrow is the last day of the commercial bay scallop season.

Warmer weather is right around the corner. The charter boat slips along Straight Wharf will soon be filled-

Nice Morning Out On The Water

Click on any picture to enlarge.

It was a beautiful morning out on the waterfront today. I was a little late getting out to the scallop grounds and caught only part of the sunrise. Most of Nantucket is still asleep and never gets to see scenes like these.


The sun was at the perfect height as it reflected off the church steeple making it appear to be on fire.


There are still scallops to be had out there. And there is a respectable amount of seed scallops for next season. Here's a shot of a few adult scallops I dredged up in one of my secret spots. Not bad for this late in the season.


There was a good sized flock of Brant following me around all morning, feeding on the eel grass I dredged up.


Friday is the last day of the commercial scallop season. I will go once more before it's over.

As I was heading in, this scalloper was heading in as well.


Her name is Casa Blanca. She's a regular visitor here. Don't let the net reels in her stern fool you. She's not a dragger. She is currently sea scalloping. The red, western rigged scalloper, Sheriff, arrived early this morning and tied up at the end of the Town Pier. There is another small boat at the end of the Town Pier. She came in yesterday. She looks to be a pilot boat but I'm not sure. I'll investigate tomorrow.

Low Tide!!

If you were anywhere near the waterfront today you noticed the extreme low tide. I have not seen it that low for several years. Here are a few pictures I took this morning-

This was taken from Brant Point looking west along Hulbert Ave. Notice all the exposed eel grass. Next is a shot of the south end of the Horseshed taken from Brant Point. There was a huge area exposed. It's hard to tell from the picture because I was so far away. When I was there I noticed several sea gulls feasting on seed scallops. They would pluck the scallops from the eel grass and fly over to Easton Street and Hulbert Ave where they would drop them to break them open.

Easy Street Basin was dry almost up to the old Skipper Restaurant-

And the area between the Town Pier and the Shipyard was exposed as well-


Two fishing boats came in here as of late this afternoon. A red western rigged dragger and the western rigged dragger, Triunfo-


Three guys and one girl went out bay scalloping today. Only one went out in Madaket. The three who ventured out today fished the south part of the harbor, mostly down harbor seeing that the wind was strong out of the south southwest all day. Not sure how they did for limits. I'll ask them tomorrow.

Looks like they are finally getting ready to pour the concrete for the Children's Beach boat ramp project. I was down at the site late yesterday afternoon having a look. Gravel has been laid down and leveled off forming the base of the ramp. Here are a couple of pictures-




Click on the picture below. A collection of a few of the blog pictures are available there. More pictures will be added in the future.

Nantucket Waterfront News

Nobska Whistle

A few months ago, the old steamer, Nobska's whistle was salvaged and installed on the SSA ferry, Eagle. It can be heard all around the Island several times a day. For those of you that read this blog from afar and don't have the pleasure of hearing the whistle, I went down to the dock today as the Eagle was pulling out of her slip and grabbed the above video. You can hear the Nobska's whistle as she departs.

Work on the White Elephant dock project is going along nicely. The steel sheathing has been installed and the wood walkway has been completed. Here's a shot of the project thus far-


The new Children's Beach boat ramp project seems to have slowed down. It looks as though they are getting ready to build the concrete forms. I saw a truck with wood forms was delivered down at the site two weeks ago but it was never unloaded. An outfit called Shorey will be doing the concrete work. At this rate I'm not sure when the new boat ramp will be completed. Perhaps they are waiting for just the right temperature to pour the concrete.

Work over at the GLYC is progressing. Foundations for new buildings were poured and they are doing some more trenching as well. Sayle's Seafood is still open throughout all the construction.

Three guys went bay scalloping today and one in Madaket. They are averaging around three bushels per day. I hope to get out at some point before the season officially ends on the 31st of March. I am receiving reports from several scallopers that there is a huge amount of seed out there. I will report on that when I see it for myself.

Click on the picture below. A collection of a few of the blog pictures are available there. More pictures will be added in the future.

Nantucket Waterfront News

Spring Thaw

The frigid and windy weather finally broke today. The temp made it all the way up into the high forties. About twenty degrees warmer than last week. The two people pictured above went for a little boat ride in their scallop boat. There were some pretty big ice floes stuck in the Horseshed during low tide this morning. The Horseshed is an area of the harbor located directly opposite Brant Point. The depth of water in the Horseshed can range anywhere between 0 and 2 feet at low tide. I'm hoping the ice floes resting on the bottom there today didn't do too much damage to the seed scallops. Here's a picture of the ice floes in the Horseshed-


A regular reader of the blog asked me in the comments section if I had any pictures of the three sinking boats that are in the mooring field. I went out today and grabbed a shot of them. Here's a boat that is in the worse danger of sinking if it isn't attended to very soon-


And this sailboat is about to sink as well-

She had a much more prominent list before the ice formed around her. Now the ice is keeping her up.

It's hard to tell from this photo and the angle of the photo but this little sailboat has quite a bit of water weighting her bow down-


Hopefully the owners of these boats will be contacted so they will be able to take action so their boats will not sink. Most of the time, the owners of boats left out in the mooring field are long gone and never heard from again.

Click on the picture below. A collection of a few of the blog pictures are available there. More pictures will be added in the future.

Nantucket Waterfront News

Today's High & Low Temps
High 46.8
Low 23.2

'Nother Cold Day At The Waterfront

It was another very cold day around the waterfront today. I was down at Brant Point Lighthouse early this morning and took the above video clip of a dragger coming in. Notice she is covered in ice.
Here's a closer look at her-

I've seen her here before. She is usually tied up at the End of the Town Pier.

There were several sea ducks milling around Brant Point Light when I was there this morning. Here is a shot of a pair of male Eider Ducks-


And here is a picture of a freight boat navigating down the icy main channel-


Click on the picture below. A collection of a few of the blog pictures are available there. More pictures will be added in the future.

Nantucket Waterfront News

Today's High & Low Temps.
High 27.1
Low 8.6

Windy And Cold Waterfront

The weather around here has been very cold and windy lately. Very rare for early March. Nighttime temperatures have been in the single numbers and low teens and daytime temperatures have struggled to make it into the teens and twenties. The cold has not seemed to bother the waterfront birds as seen in the above photo. They always seem pretty comfortable no matter what the weather is like.

The harbor has begun to freeze over as well as the sound. It is a slushy ice mainly forming on the south side of the harbor and off of Cliffside and Jetties Beaches. Here's a shot of the Monomoy area taken late this afternoon-

While I was looking around there I spotted three boats out in the mooring field in danger of sinking. One was a cabin cruiser listing heavily on her starboard side and the other two were small sailboats laden with ice and about to go down.

Here are two boats that were riding well on their moorings on the rough harbor-



I went and had a look at the Children's Beach boat ramp project today. It looks like they have slowed down a bit from last time I checked it out. I don't know what they are doing now but it looks like some kind of a form they are building for the concrete slabs. Here's a shot of the project I took this afternoon-


Nobody has been out bay scalloping since this past Monday. Tomorrow doesn't look good either. Another three weeks and the season will be over. It went by fast this year. I hope to go out again sometime as soon as the weather breaks and the incessant wind lays down.

The Ruthie B. has been gone for almost two weeks now. I think she's over in New Beige either getting some work done on her or her captain is looking for a crew.

I was very surprised to see the Hy-Line come over this afternoon in all this wind. The Grey Lady is having her annual maintenance done so they are using the original Grey Lady renamed Lady Martha. She's much smaller than The Grey Lady. I can just imagine the ride the passengers had on that little boat this afternoon crossing the sound when it was blowing 40 mph. I hope they had seat belts.

Today's High & Low Temps
High 33.3 (unconfirmed)
Low 15.8