We anchored our 36 foot sloop at Tarpaulin Cove Sunday May 28 as we have been doing for 20 years and something very odd happened. We rowed the dory to shore and went on a long walk up to the lighthouse to enjoy the view from the heights, at which point we spotted a motor launch towing our dory out to some far flung mooring in Vineyard Sound. Someone was stealing our dory! The dory thief continued to motor around and we flagged him down. He annouced himself as the Harbormaster, and he proclaimed that because he didn't see us near our dory, he assumed we were trespassing, and towed our dory out to get our attention. He then proceeded to retrieve it. We thought we were the victims of a random act of malicious intent which would cost us a 25 minute hypothermic swim out to the sloop, the water temp being about 55 degrees. The Hadley's Harbormaster then complained about how we weren't carrying lifejackets aboard the dory and asked to see documentation. We told him to call the Coast Guard if he had issues with our seamanship. An hour later, as we were cruising back to home port (Woods Hole) we were boarded by the Coast Guard for a safety check which we passed with flying colours. I think the harbormaster that day behaved in an erratic, harmful way. He ignored a basic respect for property and extrapolated his authority to become harrassment. I wonder how many people fell pray to his unorthodox ways?
Jean
Jean