This post is dedicated to our time in Nantucket, nicknamed the Grey Lady because the island is often wreathed in fog. The almost universal building code might contribute as well since the homes and buildings are largely of a weathered gray. I guess if a building is truly old enough, it might be exempt from this code, but any new construction seems bound by it.
And this reflects a homogeneity of Nantucket that is not altogether satisfying. In this regard, it is quite different from Provincetown. Nantucket is full of good-looking, fit affluent people who almost look as if they could be from the same family. They dress very stylishly and seem quite manicured. Because of Nantucket’s great cost, it must select out those who care about costs. I looked at the real estate section in the local paper, charmingly referred to as the “Inky Mirror” as a local shorthand for Inquirer and Mirror. My conclusion was that it you did not have at least two million dollars to throw away on a house that would rarely be visited, then you are in the wrong place. I know many are rented and likely cover their carrying costs, but it is a very short season, a little over two months, so you better charge sky high rents to handle the other 10 months and all the things that go wrong during winter on an island 30 miles offshore.
In our previous trip to the island, we learned that summer visitors started a second yacht club because the original one would not accept any new members. The second club charged an exorbitant initiation fee, several hundred thousand, as well as monthly dues in the tens of thousands. That club is only open in July and August. So that is more throw away money, I suppose.
Yet, we stayed a week. You might fairly ask why. The answer is simple – it is a truly beautiful place that reflects its remote seaward location. I remembered it had a big commodious, but very secure, harbor and so I proposed that we spend a week there, going nowhere really, just relaxing and enjoying and perhaps avoiding some of the high costs. In this, we succeeded in all respects except for the two days when the wind blew from the northeast.
The day after we arrived with Raul and Valerie, Jae was not feeling very well, so I stayed with her, while they launched off on an ambitious bike ride. We provisioned and did other mundane stuff not worth recounting here.
The next day, the four of us set off in the dinghy to explore the northeastern part of the harbor. It is part of what makes Nantucket special because so close to all the hustle and bustle is a wild preserve where you can walk along the beach and hardly see another person. In the distance are some magnificent homes, but they don’t really alter the impression. We landed the dinghy on one of these remote spots and wandered around for a little while. Not too long, though, because we discovered it is a natural and thriving habitat for black and green biting flies. Those flies are a part of nature that I have trouble appreciating. I am sure they play a role in the ecosystem, but I am not enough of a tree hugger to be grateful for it, whatever it might be.
From fly haven, we returned to town and caught a free shuttle to Cisco Brewers, which we had been told is one of the “must-do” things on Nantucket. That was certainly true. It is a brewery, winery and distillery in one place where different restaurants set up food booths on different days. And of course, you can buy T-shirts, etc. We drank the beer, frozen sangria and enjoyed the food. We were told the single malt was fantastic and award winning, but a pour is $50.00 and a bottle is $350.00. I took a pass. Unfortunately, we could not stay for the music because Raul and Valerie had a flight home later that day and Jae was still not feeling too well.
That night, after they had left for the airport, Jae and I saw a production called Sea Wife at the Blue Heron Theatre in town. It was very good and told a story about a young New Bedford man whose father was lost on a whaling ship. He went to sea as well, not with great enthusiasm, met a girl in port, married, took her out on a boat one evening when they were mugged by pirates. She drowned, while he survived with a bad limp and of course was haunted by her for the remainder of his life.
A band called The Lobbyists wrote and performed the play. They are very talented and play almost interchangeably a variety of instruments, including guitar, cello, percussion, banjo, mandolin. They make clever use of the set and few props, making themselves into props such as sharks and a whale, and the main character actually shifts from one performer to another after the pirate scene. I would highly recommend it to anyone going to Nantucket. I believe it might be performed in other locations as well.
The next day marked the beginning of some very unpleasant weather. A northeaster set in and the wind blew from the northeast, which is not very well protected in the harbor. The boat felt like it was sailing, bouncing all over the place and making plenty of noise as it smacked the water. We concentrated on trying to solve our water pressure problem and our laundry.
The weather did not improve the next day, but we went ashore with our bikes and rode to Madaket. During the ride, I began to worry about the mooring. I remembered that as we left the boat, I noticed that one of the mooring pennants (the lines from the mooring to our boat) was fast against our anchor. And I noticed that pennant had no chafe protection. While on the ride to Madaket, I started thinking about the possibility of the anchor chafing that line. Normally, this is never a concern because most mooring pennants are much longer and I lead them farther back on the boat to other cleats. But these pennants were short and I was forced to use the anchor cleat. The other pennant did have chafe protection and one is enough, but I worried during the whole trip to Madaket, imagining the boat becoming free and caroming off other boats as it was blown through the harbor until eventually it would find shallow water and become stuck. I imagined fruitless efforts to capture it before more damage could be done. My lawyer’s mind then considered all the follow-on issues.
Back in Nantucket, we rode the launch out to Sirius and there she rode on the water, just where we had left here. I did notice a little bit of chafe on the one pennant, but the moorings guy assured me that it would not chafe at all. He came out to look at it in his little boat and was wonderfully skilled at holding his boat right at our bow. We agreed to put a safety (or backup) line off the mooring, just in case, and he threaded the line I handed him through a bar tight loop. I don’t know how he threaded it in 25+kts of wind, but he did.
That night, we slept poorly. The boat was rocking and rolling all over the place. Jae moved to the main salon to sleep, thinking it would quieter and perhaps less rolly. I don’t think there was much difference.
The weather finally relented Tuesday night. On Wednesday, we secured repair services from Lewis Marine to inspect our water system. Two young guys came aboard, very excited to help us out. They were very polite and wanted so much to help. We had a history with Lewis. Five years ago, there was one guy, Tim Lewis, running the business. We had a problem then with a generator and I called him on a Sunday. He was working on a nearby boat and came over minutes later – how often does that happen? He worked on it for a while and then announced he had to leave for a root canal! He not only diagnosed and fixed the problem, but he gave us a copy of a technical paper on air that is entrained in diesel fuel, which ultimately was causing our problem. So we had high hopes for these two young guys and when they kept talking to Tim on the phone, it seemed like the future was bright. And indeed it was. They replaced the valves to the water tanks, which leaked different amounts of air, depending on their respective positions. This meant the pump could sometimes build pressure and other times it could not. Along the way, we discussed dentistry with Tim again and he told use about the latest dental work he is having done and its cost, which seemed quite high. I guess everyone pays high Nantucket prices.
Jae and I left them to finish the job and rode our bikes to Sconset at the other end of the island. By now, the weather had improved and we had a nice ride. We saw houses at the Sconset beach that we would rent if we ever came by land. It is a quaint little village with almost no commercial activity and the houses remind me of going to the beach when I was a kid. The flowers there, and everywhere on the island, are spectacular and robust. It makes for a really lovely scene.
Early the next morning, we slipped our mooring and made way for Westport, MA. We left the Grey Lady with mixed feelings. I am sure we will return.