Nantucket
21 August 2011 | Nantucket Island
Craig
Nantucket lies twenty eight Nm from The Vineyard and again we had favorable winds and a fun sail. Pulling into Nantucket Harbor you can feel the history. Nantucket was center stage in the whaling era. Mostly Quakers, their simple tastes, strong business sense and hard work ethic led to unparalleled success in whaling. Today we look at whaling as a disgusting practice, but in its time it was thought of as an honorable trade and in fact it lit the world, literally. My Aunt Pauline gave me a book for Christmas when I was a child that included stories of whaling. Somehow it captivated my imagination and I was really looking forward to visiting an honest to God whaling museum. Nantucket has such a museum. None of the others had an interest in it so I got to spend three hours bathing my childhood fantasies in whale oil.
Nantucket has a very boater friendly welcome center with a nice dingy dock and a huge anchorage. We anchored among a hundred or so other boats and enjoyed a great sunset and dinner aboard.