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.

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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.
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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-

Early Morning Down On The Point

I try to get down to Brant Point every morning of the year. It's the first place I go to when I start my daily waterfront tour. I arrived there this morning just as the deck of clouds was clearing away revealing a nice sunny day.

R/V Gloria Michelle

A research vessel came into the harbor late today and tied up to the east face of Straight Wharf. Her name is Gloria Michelle. NOAA owns her.

Here she is rounding Brant Point-


Not sure what the green apparatus is on her port side-


A closer look. Notice the crew filleting flounder-


The bow of Gloria Michelle-


The Marine Department has recently added a new boat to it's fleet. She's an inflatable from Provincetown and she looks to be an old Coast Guard boat-



This old wooden trawler-type boat caught my eye today. She's moored on the G row out in the mooring field. Her name is Final Frontier and she's from Annapolis. Is that a fake stack? I'm thinking it is-

Testing out a new feature

Trying out a new video feature. Let me know in the comments section how it is working.

Quiet & Still Waterfront

It was glassy calm and quiet around the waterfront early this morning. I grabbed a few shots.

Looking out over the mooring field from the docks-



Toscana's new barge and tug, "Bucky" unloading aggregate at the Steamship dock-



The end of Old North Wharf is always an interesting place to visit in the early morning especially at low tide. There is always good bird watching there if you are into that kind of thing.

A pair of Cormorants drying their wings along with a small gull I cannot identify. Can anyone assist?


And a Great Egret fishing for it's breakfast in the shallows-


Looking over towards Easy Street-


The exposed rocks at low tide at Old North Wharf-



And finally, two cats enjoying the early morning sunshine at George Andrew's scallop shanty-


Postscript:
I learned of a bit of sad news this afternoon. Gus was put to sleep this week. Gus was a fixture around the waterfront for almost 16 years. He went scalloping with his owner, Douglas "Smitty" Smith. Gus was a good dog. He will be missed around the docks and waterfront.

Quiet Waterfront

It is VERY quiet around the waterfront now. Much quieter than last year at this time. The Boat Basin is almost empty as well as the mooring field. I'm thinking that people are finally starting to realize that it's just too expensive to come here anymore. I hate to think what next season will look like. If establishments don't start lowering their prices, people are not going to come here in the future.

In any event, there is still a little activity around the docks. I witnessed a beautiful old boat motor into the harbor last week. Her name is Coastal Queen. Captain Tobey Leske e-mailed me with a bit of info on the old girl. She was built in 1928 and operated as an "Oyster Catcher" on the Chesapeake. Basically a buy-boat for the Skipjacks that dredged for oysters. Converted to a yacht in 1959. Thanks for the info, Tobey.

Here is a series of shots I took of the Coastal Queen. Notice her plumb bow in the first picture-





You can click on any picture to enlarge for a better look.

The conch guys are back up-and-running again after taking the month of August off. Here is Matt Herr and his mate, Joe Dooley loading pots onto Matt's boat, the Jean Marie at Children's Beach-


Here is Steve Walker and mate sailing in the main channel. Is that an Ottison boat? Sure looks like one to me-


And finally, Here is the 26' General Marine, Robin B coming back into the harbor with Scott Bowman at the helm-

Last Weekend Of Summer

The weather was spectacular out on the water or around the waterfront this last weekend of Summer.

Here are a few scenes-

Captain Jay Starr and his son scup fishing from the charter boat, Starrfish-


AGM Marine's barge and crane repairing pilings at the end of the Town Pier-


A few dogs seen around the docks-