Friday & Saturday June 17 & 18: Nantucket 

     We were up early, hoping to catch the tide for the cruise Eastward to Nantucket Island.  Block Island Sound, Vineyard Sound, and Nantucket Sound all have their very own ebb and flow.  When one is starting, another may be moving toward slack tide or turning the other way.  We had a small window of time to go with the flow, but we discovered the bridge had its own schedule.

     We had the anchor up before seven, intent to leave Lagoon Pond for the open ocean and Dan had to call several times on the radio before someone answered to let us know the bridge didn’t open until eight am.  We took a mooring nearby to wait it out.  He did a small wash down, I did some laundry.  Then we heard another boat request an opening in about forty minutes, at 8:15.  He promptly got a reply - yes, 8:15/8:20 the bridge would open for him.  Dan called back in - what about the 8:00 opening?  After several minutes, we got the reply that the bridge would open at 8:15/8:20.  The bridge tender informed us after we passed through that normal protocol is to give the bridge plenty of notice for a requested opening.  Now we know.

    We had a stiff breeze and a bit of a swell to plow through on our way to Nantucket.  It was fairly chilly despite the sunny weather and warm temperature on land.  We broke out the hot chocolate.  Despite our late start and the tide turning against us, we got to Nantucket a little after lunch time.  We had plenty of time to tour the large harbor and select an anchorage away from the ferry dock in a place where their wakes wouldn’t bother us.  As soon as we were settled we launched the dinghy and went to town.

Nantucket Harbor light.

     Nantucket is famous for its whaling history.  During its heyday, there were over 10,000 people living here making a fine living from harvesting whales and processing the highly prized oil of sperm whales.  The town is very old, with buildings shoulder to shoulder along the brick sidewalks.  The most historic section of town - now mostly shops and a few privately owned former sea captains’ houses complete with widows walks - has streets paved with old ballast stones.  This town has very strict rules for all its buildings too - only certain colors may be used, houses must be either cedar shingled or have clapboards, and they all must adhere to the specific traditional looks of the historic buildings.   Whaling died out when whales became scarcer, ships became too big to enter the harbor, and cheaper petroleum oil replaced the whale oil for fuel and lubricant.  Nantucket had to reinvent itself - relying on both its quaint beauty and its history of being the world’s center for whaling - to attract people to the island.  Artists came to paint, summer people came to escape the noise and heat of the big cities, the rich and famous came to buy beach front property.  Today the number one industry here is tourism.

See how the houses & shops are packed into a small area.

     We learned most of this on Saturday.  We took a tour in the morning with Gail’s Tours.  Probably the most impressive thing about Gail, a Nantucket “token local” was how she easily maneuvered her twelve passenger van through the busy, very narrow streets.  She provided running commentary about the history, the famous residents, and where the best restaurants were as she drove us around the island.  Nantucket has only one town, is about fourteen miles by three miles in area, and is shrinking, she informed us.  Under her guidance we saw the last of the working grist mills, the oldest house (circa late 1600s), the cranberry fields, and the twelve million dollar homes of the very, very rich.  The whole tour took almost two hours, and we got a good overview of the whole island.  

Oldest House.  (It's actually called that.)

Working grist mill.

Siasconset Lighthouse (They moved this a couple hundred feet back from the cliff about ten years ago.)

     Dan and I opted to pick lunch out of the deli department at the grocery store and sit on a bench overlooking the harbor (and people watching) to eat.  There is a steady stream of ferry service here from Rhode Island and Cape Cod and no shortage of tourists, though Gail had mentioned it was not very crowded yet.  We heard at least six different languages as people passed by.  I can’t imagine what it’s like in the height of the season.

Harbor view from the roof walk of the Museum.

    In the afternoon we toured the Whaling Museum.  Very well done displays on whaling, from tools to scrimshaw, with a special exhibit on the plight of the Nantucket whaler Essex, which recently was made famous recently by the movie Heart of the Sea.  (The author Nat Philbrick lives in Nantucket.) Part of the museum is in the old candle factory, where sperm oil was pressed into oil, with the waxy leftovers made into candles.   We watched a forty minute movie about the island and listened to a docent give us a mini lecture on a typical whaling voyage.  Very interesting museum, we both enjoyed it.  

Sperm whale skeleton and assorted whaling tools.

Oil press.  Sperm oil was placed in burlap bags and stacked under the square blocks, then pressed to filter it.

     Once done with that, we felt we’d seen enough.  We went back to the grocery store for some more fresh produce and returned to the boat for supper.  Tomorrow we hope to get close to the Cape Cod Canal for the final leg of our cruise back to Maine.  

Sunset over Nantucket Harbor