Cruising into Adventure: Discover Nantucket

So many of Nantucket’s eateries offer lobster rolls during the summer season, cruisers can spend a week trying them all. jovannig/adobe.stock

Few harbors showcase as salty a New England scene as Nantucket’s does during the annual Race Week festivities. This year’s celebration is scheduled to take place August 14-18, with regattas, events and parties for sailors of all ages. Powerboaters get a free show, with colorful sails and some seriously competitive skippers filling the water views.

On shore, Nantucket is a favorite destination all summer long too. The local culture and tourism department has maps for self-guided walking tours, birding enthusiasts, and pocket parks where cruisers can get off the boat to enjoy a snack or read for a bit. During the summer months, there are two guided walking tours daily, each of them with about 60 minutes’ worth of island and whaling history included.

Straight Wharf is a great place for a stroll through the shops, with the Nantucket Peddler offering island-themed T-shirts, sweatshirts, sweatpants and jackets for wearing the whole rest of the year. Straight Wharf Restaurant has dinner seating as well as spots in the bar, where the finger foods include house-spiced olives and smoked bluefish pate.

Another memorable stop is the Egan Maritime Shipwreck & Lifesaving Museum, which is expected to have two new exhibits this summer. The Monaghan Gallery will showcase the US Coast Guard and its Nantucket missions of rescue, environmental protection and maritime law enforcement, while the recently renovated boathouse will host the exhibit Risk, Rescue & Recognition: Nantucket’s Heroes of the Sea. During July and August, this museum also offers outdoor activities for the whole family.

For boaters who prefer to visit Nantucket in the autumn months, after all the summer tourists are gone, September and October offer an unusual sight: the flooding of the Milestone Cranberry Bog for harvesting. This is the largest bog in North America, and it turns red during this time of year. On Columbus Day, there’s an Annual Cranberry Festival.

Boat Basin

Renovated cottages at the Nantucket Boat Basin reopened in April, giving visiting boaters a place to kick back and relax on land if they need time ashore. The marina has high-season rates from June 20 through September 8, with boats smaller than 60 feet paying as much as $11.50 per foot and yachts larger than 125 feet paying up to $16.50 per foot. Services include bicycle rentals, help with taxis, restaurant reservations and daysail bookings. Check-in is at 1 p.m., and the Boat Basin monitors VHF channels 9 and 11. The fuel dock sells gas and diesel, and has pump-out services. Pump-out can also be done slipside during certain hours.

Whaling Museum

This popular attraction is less than a half-mile walk from the Nantucket Boat Basin. Four centuries of history are documented in the museum’s nine galleries, which contain more than a thousand works of art and artifacts. Cranberry pickers is one notable recent acquisition by Eastman Johnson, the primary artist of national importance associated with Nantucket in the late 19th century. Kids activities include a historic properties scavenger hunt, along with activity books about locally inspired topics such as scrimshaw and whale ships. The museum shop sells apparel, house and home items, and art objects including Nantucket lightship baskets. 

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