Tracker

An interesting old wooden boat came into the harbor late this afternoon. Her name is Tracker and she's from Vineyard Haven-





The beautiful fall weather is still with us. Here's a couple of shots I took one early morning this week down at Brant Point-



The Miss China and the Shearwater resting on their moorings-



Straight Wharf in the setting sun-

Fall Has Finally Arrived

After an endless Summer, Fall has finally arrived. The Waterfront is typically very quiet this time of the year bit if you poke around a little, you will find something going on.

The Nordic Tug, Tootsie coming into the Boat Basin-


An almost empty Boat Basin-




Working in the rigging of a sailboat-


The ever present dock dog. Does anyone know his name? He's usually riding in a golf cart on the docks with his owner-



The Miss China sitting level now-


A bay scallop boat in the Boat Basin ready for another year-

10/12/2002

I have never seen a fall season as nice as the one we are experiencing now. Every day is warm and sunny. Feels like mid-July rather than mid-October.

These guys came over from the Cape last weekend and fished for stripers off of Quidnet and Sankaty. I'm thinking their boat is a Bruno and Stillman type boat. It was a little rough but the boat was taking the slop handed out to her quite well.



A big tug and barge came here early this week and tied up to Steamboat Wharf. For two days they were bringing the old standby generators from Bunker Road on trailers to the barge and lifting them with a crane onto the barge-


This big steel western-rigged sea scalloper was seen at the Town Pier recently. Her name is Foremost. Notice the captain's cutting house with the two chutes-

Old Waterfront/Old Boats

Nothing much happening around the waterfront lately so I thought I'd go through some of my old photo books and share some pictures I took almost 30 years ago.

I took these pictures back in April of 1978. All I had back then was black and white film! The boat was named "Amerilda" and it was when she beached in front of the old Shipyard. Is that Mike Todds old barge in the pictures? Mike's barge broke free during a big storm and ended up on the beach at Second Point where it stayed for a few years.



Here's another black and white photo from 1978. It's the old wooden dragger, Ruth Francis that Bill Blount owned before the Ruthie B. Sorry for the out of focus. Hopefully you'll "get the picture."


This is the big steel eastern rigged sea scalloper, Zebu tied up at Straight Wharf. Her sister, the Zibet has retired and is in the process of being cut up for scrap in Fairhaven.


Here's the scalloper, Sankaty which was owned by a Nantucket company named DEECO. They also owned the eastern rigged, Nobadeer.


The big old scalloper, Blue Sea tied up at the old Steamboat Wharf. February, 1978-


This is the wooden eastern rigged scalloper, Ellen Marie tied to the east face of Straight Wharf-


And finally, this is a shot of the old Steamboat Wharf with several old fishing boats tied up to it. Notice the Ruthie B there as well-


Hope you enjoyed the blast from the past.

Opening Day Of Family Scallop Season

Today was the first day of Family Scallop Season. It was warm and sunny, almost 70 degrees! I went to Monomoy and took a few pictures of the event. Everyone was all smiles as they were getting their limit of scallops in record time.

Please participate in the poll to the left. Thanks.




Some people were scalloping in T- shirts and shorts-


Jo Perkins was there enjoying the day, having fun and loading up on scallops-



Geoff was diving a little further out and said the scallops were thick there. He got what is in the yellow bag in a few min!


This guy was having no problem getting his limit-


These folks were loading up as well-

Miss China

There is a new addition to the liveaboard fleet here in the harbor. Captain Blair Perkins towed the wooden boat, Miss China, over from Hyannis last night with his boat, the Shearwater. I believe the Miss China is around 75-80 feet in length. Here's a couple of pictures of Miss China I grabbed today-



I spotted this rig tied up at the Boat Basin yesterday. She is propelled by a small electric motor. She must do all of 1 or 2 knots wide open-


I hardly ever see a bird around the waterfront known as a Kingfisher. I might be lucky enough to spot one or two a year. Today I saw one out at Hither Crick. They are very skittish thus difficult to photograph. The only way I was able to get this shot was to set my camera on full zoom as the bird was perched far away on a catboat mast-


Click Here for information on the Kingfisher

Mega Yacht Intuition II/26' Fortier

The mega yacht, Intuition 2 arrived here late yesterday afternoon and tied up at the east face of Commercial Wharf. The Intuition II is a 1974 195 ft 59m Amels. She is the former Dutch pilot ship Spica converted in 1999. I believe her sister ship is Elanymor. I was able to go see her yesterday. She's quite an impressive ship-


If you are a fan of Fortier Boats, there was a nice old 26' from Falmouth tied up at Old South Wharf over the weekend. I can only imagine how many bass she has caught so far in her career!



Click here for more info on the Fortier 26

(OT) New Beige/Fairhaven Trip (OT)

Took a trip down to New Bedford this weekend to check out the Working
Waterfront Festival.
Click Here
Had a great time and saw a lot of interesting
things while I was there.
I was granted access to the Fairhaven Shipyard by a nice old man that
worked there. Here are some shots I took.
There were 8 or 9 big Western Rigged trawlers hauled out and on the
hard in the yard. Here's what they look like out of the water. In this
picture, I had my brother, Richard stand next to the hull to give you
an idea just how big these boats are-

There's about 14-16 feet of boat below the waterline!

Here are a few more hauled out in the yard-


Here
are three big sea scallopers owned by the same company. Two western
rigged and one eastern rigged (in the middle) tied up at the shipyard-
Here's
a shot of a brand new western rigged the Fairhaven Shipyard just
finished building. It took them a year to complete. Her name is
Elizabeth. Her engine and listers are installed. The only thing left to
be done is for her to be rigged. Check out her bow thruster. I believe
she's the only fishing boat in New Bedford to have one-
Here's
a look at her prop. Notice it's enclosed in a Kort Nozzle. This is to
prevent the net or anything else from fouling the wheel. Those are sacrificial zincs bolted to the rudder and kort nozzle.-


While
I was at the Working Waterfront Festival in New Beige, I grabbed a
video clip of a contestant in the sea scallop shucking contest


I was able to attend a presentation by Johnathan Hillstrand and Phil
Harris, both captains of the Alaskan crabbers, Time Bandit and Cornelia Marie
from the television series, Deadliest Catch. Here's a short clip I took
from their interview-