Crossing in the Snow, March 13, 2018
The Chappy Ferry hasn't made very many trips during the snowstorm today, but Captain Bill Benns took advantage of the moderate tide and a wind backing around to the northwest (by which the town tends to shelter the harbor entrance) to take two cars across around three o'clock.
The process is rather more elaborate than during the summer. In this case, he spent about ten minutes shoveling and sanding the deck of the ON TIME II so the cars would have better traction driving on, while docking, and driving off.
This is a fan page for the ferry, so we feel there's no conflict of interest when we suggest that on days like this, the crossing is worth considerably more than the eight bucks round-trip.
#newengland #massachusetts #marthasvineyard #edgartown #edgartownharbor #chappaquiddick #ferry #chappyferry #chappaquiddickferry #resort #island
Dike Bridge Breach
Thanks to our friend Dana Gaines, we have video of something we've never seen before: an inlet cut through the approach to the Dike Bridge, which connects the main body of Chappaquiddick to East Beach in the distance. The storm surge, forcing its way into Poucha Pond (right), obviously decided there wasn't enough room beneath the bridge to move as freely as it wished, so it went around the western end, serrated its way through the stone and earthen roadway, and simply did away with it.
Dana can't say whether a person might be able to jump from the road to the bridge when low tide returns to its normal level. From this vantage point, the water coursing through the cut looks bright green and therefore deep. The ravine may be too deep at any tide for an SUV to ford. So it could be that the town will have to rebuild the approach after things settle down. This will be imperative, because people live at Cape Pogue, far off-camera left, and the Dike Bridge and road are their shortcut to the ferry and to town.
#Dikebridge #newengland #massachusetts #marthasvineyard #edgartown #edgartownharbor #chappaquiddick #ferry #chappyferry #chappaquiddickferry #resort #island #storm
Clearing the Ice
This ain't snow, folks. This is ferry maintenance manager Erik Gilley shoveling harbor ice to the side of Chappaquiddick Point as the storm began to pinwheel out to sea. This stuff was floating on the road most of the day. The work doesn't stop even if the ferry can't run.
#newengland #massachusetts #marthasvineyard #edgartown #edgartownharbor #chappaquiddick #ferry #chappyferry #chappaquiddickferry #resort #island #bombcyclone
Chappy Beach Club, under assault
Here's the first of two videos shot by ferry maintenance manager Erik Gilley, who looked after things on or near Chappy Point during the sleeting gale. In the middle of the afternoon, he drove to the Chappaquiddick Beach Club and shot this clip of an angry see busting onto what in summertime lies in repose as a bathing beach. You can see part of a pier flipping upward in the breaking waves, and in the foreground lies a ridge of spume, froth and ice driven ashore by the wintery seas.
#newengland #massachusetts #marthasvineyard #edgartown #edgartownharbor #chappaquiddick #ferry #chappyferry #chappaquiddickferry #resort #island #bombcyclone
Ferryhouse flooded
At about 12:15, half an hour before the moment of official high tide, ferry co-owner Peter Wells sent us this video of harbor water flooding the doorway of the Edgartown ferryhouse. He then pans briefly to show the rails of the ferry looming over the bulkhead of the town slip.
#newengland #massachusetts #marthasvineyard #edgartown #edgartownharbor #chappaquiddick #ferry #chappyferry #chappaquiddickferry #resort #island #cyclonebomb
Woods Hole Sundown
Twilight over Penzance Point, Woods Hole, this evening, April 13, 2017. Shot from the deck of the Steamship Authority ferry MARTHA'S VINEYARD.
Crossing During Gale, 3.14.17
Slip During the Gale, 3.14.17
Blizzard Landing, 2.9.17
Well, for Facebook-mystifying reasons, the text we wrote to accompany this post this morning did not appear. We'll try again:
Bill Brine shot this clip of the ON TIME III, under the command of Brad Fligor, approaching the Chappy slip around two o'clock yesterday. She steamed in straight and true, despite the fact that the gale was buffeting the harbor entrance at forty-five miles an hour, with gusts to sixty.
This is a fan page for the ferry, with no official relationship to it whatsoever. Accordingly, we feel we can objectively say that this demonstration of seamanship and faithfulness to the cause speaks well of the captains and deckhands of the ferry, and of the durability and maintenance of the two boats that serve it. (This boat is forty-two years old. The older ON TIME II is forty-eight.)
We'll put up a few grand day-after pictures, also shot by Bill, sometime this evening.
#newengland #massachusetts #marthasvineyard #edgartown #edgartownharbor #chappaquiddick #ferry #chappyferry #chappaquiddickferry #resort #island
Setting a Chute, 7.15.16
Sponsored by the Edgartown Yacht Club Racing, it's regatta weekend in Edgartown, a three-day series of races for sloops large and small, a good number of which come from other harbors. This is a Wianno Senior, which came from a club on the Cape – could be one of several; we're not sure which – and she's setting a spinnaker in order to help her sail out to the outer harbor race course just a bit faster in light air. Beautiful boats with a history deeply ingrained in the history of Cape Cod racing
Panorama of Harbor Entrance, 7.6.16
Sailing home after parading around the outer harbor, we panned from the Chappy shoreline over to the very nose of the boat, where the jib of sloop WINSOME stopped our camera sweep to the right. Happily, this put Edgartown Memorial Wharf and the ON TIME II dead ahead. We didn't notice it at the time, but evidently our passage displaced a duck; you can hear it scolding us under the slosh of the bow wave right at the end.
A Nest of Optis, 7.6.16
Nantucket Harbor isn't the only refuge with a rainbow fleet of sailboats. Here youngsters learning to sail and race try their hands at the Optimist Pram fleet belonging to the Edgartown Yacht Club. This video was shot from the sloop WINSOME just beyond the mouth of Edgartown Harbor on the morning of July 6, 2016.
#newengland #massachusetts #marthasvineyard #edgartown #edgartownharbor #chappaquiddick #ferry #chappyferry #chappaquiddickferry #resort #island
Two Ferries Crossing, 7.6.16
The ON TIME II (left) and III cross paths astern of the sloop WINSOME as she slaps and gurgles her way out of Edgartown Harbor on the beautiful, warm morning of July 6, 2016.
#newengland #massachusetts #marthasvineyard #edgartown #edgartownharbor #chappaquiddick #ferry #chappyferry #chappaquiddickferry #resort #island
Edgartown Harbor, July 4, 2016
A pan across the harbor entrance on the sublime afternoon of July 4, 2016.
#newengland #massachusetts #marthasvineyard #edgartown #edgartownharbor #chappaquiddick #ferry #chappyferry #chappaquiddickferry #resort #island
Picnic in Our Hands on the Third of July
A glittering trip across the harbor on the sublime summer morning of July 3, 2016.
We take a moment to express our deepest gratitude for the freedoms and opportunities we have here and elsewhere, and we remain ever mindful of the price paid by those who have helped to safeguard both, going back two hundred and forty years.
#newengland #massachusetts #marthasvineyard #edgartown #edgartownharbor #chappaquiddick #ferry #chappyferry #chappaquiddickferry #resort #island
