Nantucket anchoring

[jimmalkin]

I broke my rule about never going to Nantucket between Memorial Day and Labor Day last weekend. As mentioned in a prior thread, I anchor just to the East of First Point and duck in behind the beach to get out of the SW'erly. This avoids the mooring fees and keeps me away from the summer mob of fashionista boating types. (Sorry - editorial.)

At 1730 on Sunday, the harbor master appeared and told me I'd have to up anchor and move to the general anchorage as First Point is now a shellfish bed and although day anchoring is permitted, overnight anchoring is verbotten. He acknowledged that it wasn't posted or advised, but the "rule is the rule." He was quite pleasant and said I could wait till my crew came back from town. Now - here's the good part about Nantucket in the summer season.

My crew had taken the Nantucket Harbor launch into town and bought roundtrip tickets. I called them to rejoin me asap so we could move the boat - the young summer supervisor of the launch refused to take them back to the boat as "we don't go to First Point, it's too far." Despite the fact that they had been brought in on their launch! "It's not my problem that you have no way to get back to your boat..."

The crew had to run around to Nantucket Boat Basin where Christie - the assistant dock master was very helpful. After getting the same "not my problem" response from the Harbor launch, Christie got the Harbormaster to instruct the launch to return the crew to our boat.

We moved the boat to the eastern end of the general anchorage. Notes: very heavy weed on the bottom and the outgoing current against a stiff SW'erly makes setting even a Rocna an interesting exercise. Advice: Avoid Nantucket in the Silly Season.