Nice Morning Out On The Water

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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

Barge Dogs

The tug, Charleston, arrived at the Steamship Authority docks early Wednesday morning with barge loaded with sand. I spotted two dogs sitting on top of the pile of sand as seen in the above photo. They had their own mini playground on the barge. No need for the owner of the dogs to let them ashore to run around. Here's a closer shot of the dogs-

Never a dull moment down at the waterfront.


So the consensus of the readers of the blog is that all but two of you like the new template. I'm still tinkering with the fonts and colors and eventually I want to create my own template with a picture I took of the waterfront. Look for that in the future. Thank you for your comments in the comment section.

Seven or eight guys went out scalloping today. They have been enjoying fine and calm weather the past three days in a row. Very rare to have three calm days in a row for this time of the year. I know of one guy getting 4 bushels today. Not bad for March 1.

All three projects around the waterfront were in full swing today. AGM Marine has left the south slip of the Steamship Authority and moved their operation to the White Elephant where they are rebuilding the docks there. Robert B Our and company was hard at work at the new Children's Beach boat ramp. And Lawrence Lynch was busy at their job site in front Sayle's Seafood.

Looks like the weather will take a turn for the worse tomorrow.

Charging Out To The Scallop Grounds

8 guys and one girl went out scalloping today. 7 in Town and 2 in Madaket. I know of one guy getting his 5 bushel limit today. The rest got anywhere between 2 and 4 bushels each. Not bad for a lean year at the end of February. Above is a picture of a scalloper charging out to the grounds this morning. The fishermen I chatted with today reported to me that there is a lot of seed showing up. Commercial bay scalloping ends March 31.

If you want to see part of Brant Point Coast Guard's rescue vessel fleet up close, take a stroll down Commercial Wharf. About half way down you will come upon two small rescue boats. Here's pictures of them-



The tug, Thuban, was at the fuel dock in the Boat Basin with a barge of fuel this morning.

AGM Marine has left the job at the White Elephant and have moved over to the Steamship Authority dock. They are working on the south slip there. I think they are revising the slip to accommodate the new fast ferry which is due to arrive here soon.

Work on the new boat ramp at Children's Beach is moving right along. The concrete slabs have not been made yet.

Work over at the Great Harbor Yacht Club has slowed way down. Looks like someone is making forms there for a foundation. Lawrence Lynch has not been there working for a long time.

There is always plenty of bird life to see around the waterfront. Today I spotted this Common Goldeneye off the east face of Straight Wharf-

And while I was out in Madaket, I spotted this Great Blue Heron at the edge of the marsh waiting to catch a meal-


Today's High & Low Temps.
High 39.2
Low 23.2

Consensus

I'm trying out a new template for the blog. What is the consensus? Do you prefer this new one or the old one? Please vote in the comments section of the blog.

Headin' Back Out

All the sea scallopers that came in yesterday headed right back out late this afternoon as soon as the wind laid down. Above is the Vila Nova do Corvo about to round Brant Point Lighthouse on her way out. And here is a shot of her steaming down the main channel-

And finally as she was passing the green light at the end of the east jetty-


I got a chance to talk with the captain of the sea scalloper, Beachcomber before they left this afternoon-


He told me that they were heading down to the vicinity of south channel to fish tonite. The south channel is about a six hour steam south east from here. He said there are plenty of scallops down there but they are on the small side. On March 15th a closed area off New Jersey called the Elephant Trunk is scheduled to open. The captain said he's going to leave the area he's been working lately and head down there. When a closed area is opened up, several boats fish it and do really well. This always drives the price paid to the fisherman way down.

I have noticed more and more Old Squaws (ducks) in and around the Boat Basin the past few weeks. Today I counted 7. I have never seen these ducks so close to land before. There were also the usual Eider Ducks, Mergansers, Black Ducks, Buffleheads and Loons to be seen in the Basin as well.

Today's High & Low Temps.
High 36.7 (unconfirmed)
Low 16.9

Finally Some Boats!

A few boats came in last night and this morning to finally break a long streak where there has been none here for a long time. The usual suspects, all three Vila Nova do Corvos and the little western rigged, Madi J. were here. But there was one boat I have never seen here before. Her name is Beachcomber-

At first I thought she was a Coast Guard boat with her orange markings. As I got a closer look, I found out she is a sea scalloper. Her home port is Key West, Florida! I wonder if she was originally a shrimp boat.

It was good to see these boats back here. It was getting rather quiet down around the docks lately although the Vila Nova do Corvo and the Rainmaker were in here for a brief stay this past Tuesday.

Here's a picture of the western rigged dragger, Rainmaker that blog reader, Barb shot this past Tuesday morning. Thanks for the great picture, Barb! Notice that her wheelhouse is encased in ice with the exception of the radar antenna-


Work on the new Children's Beach boat ramp is going along nicely. I was down at the site on Wednesday and noticed they were building the base and the sides of the new ramp. Next step should be the pouring of the concrete slabs. Here's a picture of the work thus far-

I'm thinking that the rate they are going on this project that they will have no problem meeting their deadline.

If you haven't been down around Grey Lady Marine lately, save yourself a trip. It is a mess. I compare it to a war zone. Work has almost come to a complete stop. Not sure what the hold up is.

Today's High & Low Temps.
High 36.7
Low 29.7

Nice Day To be On The Water

I took the above clip this morning from my scallop boat. It was a nice day to be out on the water. Warm and glassy calm. And there was a lot of scallops to be had.

Here's a shot of Brant Point Lighthouse in the early morning-


And here is a view of Town from the harbor-


This is the guy from the above video clip. Notice the gull on his bow waiting for fish and crabs that were caught in the dredges to be thrown to him-


This is the gull who rode along on my boat all morning. He was well fed-


Any pictures posted on this blog can be enlarged by clicking on them.

10 of us were out there today scalloping. I was able to get 4 bushels. Not bad for the end of February. I know a few guys got their full 5 bushel limit a few times this week. I noticed a fair amount of seed scallops out there today. The price paid to the fishermen is still holding at $17 per pound.