Trip to Martha's Vinyard, Nantucket.

In case anyone has need for reserving Edgartown moorings or slips (slips limited), here's the link:
http://www.edgartownharbor.com/

March 1st is opening day for taking reservations. If you're interested in a holiday weekend - call as early as possible. All moorings were reserved by 8:15 am for last year's July 4 weekend - we got in, like each of the 6 prior July 4th holidays.

This July, we're staying in Newport for Tall Ships, otherwise I wouldn't be increasing competition by sharing the link . . . :)
 
So what happens if boats show up without reservations and there are no spots available? Do they just raft up multiple boats on moorings or do they just say "good luck" and push people back out to the Ocean. Sorry for the naive question, it just seems that it can get difficult to plan everything out when the weather can completely screw it up and make you hole up for a day or two.
 
With Edgartown, you can always drop a hook in the outer harbor - fairly good holding ground, but subjected to wakes/wind from the northeast to northwest. The reservation system is important since the inner harbor is filled to max with moorings and Katama Bay is not an anchoring option anymore - since closing it off two seasons ago. The fecal bacteria count was pegged, causing the environmentalists to blame boaters, pressuring local Gov to close it off to anchoring boats.

In reality, many boaters end up changing their cruise plans, freeing up mooring availability. Last year, our June 27 to July 5 mooring reservation was made on March 1 - all moorings were taken in the first 15 minutes. During our cruise there, seas were high - 5-8 feet, which scared lots of boaters away. The HarborMaster assigned us mooring 68 - nearly a mile dinghy ride from town, but there were many freed up moorings much closer, taken by boaters coming in w/o reservations . . . really ticked us off.

Just go for it and don't worry too much - but still plan ahead with reservations.

Steve
 
Rommer,

MV and Nantucket have very few marina's. Harbor Masters are what you need to be looking for, I have many of them in my phone and can send them to you if you send me an e-mail.

To others consideirng coming from the Hudson River,

When it took my trip from MV to Burlington VT and back. I made the decision it was better for me to go fast first and then explore the Hudson River and Champlain canal. Considering, I was traveling in a 23' CC.

While I agree in principal with the comments about the trip being half the fun, in this case, You are better to get out to MV or Nantucket(ACK) first, especially if this is your first trip. It will allow maximum time to explore the area and then you can decide when to start the return trip and how long you want to devote to exploring on the return trip. Taking your time on the trip out might mean you get side tracked, run into bad weather and never get out to MV or ACK or have limited time there.

I would also point out that LI Sound can be explored much more easily from your home port. It can be done over a long weekend or multiple weekend trips. Western LI sound is less weather and tide dependent than the waters east of Block Island, Vineyard Sound and Nantucket Sound.

JMHO
 
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