Onset, MA

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

041-44.100 N
070-39.000 W

Ahoy from the crew of the BlueJacket!

We decided to enjoy what was supposed to have been a nice stretch of weather by exploring a few areas that we haven't been to before or it's been a long time since we've been there. Well, the forecasts keep changing day to day, but the weather has been generally nice. For those of you who like hot and humid, we've got that. Regardless of what you like, I think that we'll all agree that it's a lot better than the cold and wet that we've been enduring.

After delaying our departure by a day due to forecasts of high winds and hail, we left on Sunday morning and had a nice motor-sail down the Sakonnet. We thought that we were headed to Westport, which about 6 miles to the east of the mouth of the Sakonnet, but along the way we decided to call the marina who owns all of the mooring balls (there's no anchoring there) and we found out that a flotilla of 23 boats was due to arrive and take up all of the moorings...On to plan B!

We decided to head to Fairhaven/New Bedford, which is about 20 miles E of the Sakonnet as we knew that we could anchor there and there were some restuarants that we had been advised to try. We had a wonderful sail there, with 15-20+ kts on the beam to down-wind. I exploring to find a better dingy dock, and found it and once again ran into groups of people practicing group rowing. We've seen this when we were there before, but have no idea what it's about.

Some fellow cruisers suggested that we try Margarets or Elizabeth's restaurant and boy, were they right! We went to Margarets and had what was probably one of our better restaurant meals this year and at an amazing price. We had a salad, 2 appetizers, 2 main dishes and desert for $56. Of course that didn't include wine, because it's BYOB and there's no corking fee! I can highly recommend Margarets and I can assure you that we'll be back.

Yesterday we headed to Onset, which is located just before the Cape Cod Canal. We've never been here before and we found a charming town with a great anchorage. After touring Onset by dinghy and wandering around the town by foot, I can easily say that Onset typifies the dream of the American summer vacation. There are miles of nice beaches filled with friendly families enjoying the sun. The town is full of the eateries, shops and bars that one would expect from a town full of summer vacation homes and beach front inns.

Today we're headed to Wellfleet, which is on Cape Cod bay about 2/3rds of the way up the cape. Hopefully we'll have some nice winds and we'll get in before a front comes through later today.

-- Geoff & Sue

For the cruiser:

The public dock in Fiarhaven is located to the N of the Union Dock and Union Street. If you look at a street map, you'll see Union Street running down to the docks. To get to Margarets, walk down Union St. to Main Street and make a right.

At Onset, you can anchor in 11-15' in dark mud between Wickets Island and Onset Island. The town docks are at the NW end of the harbor.

Log ID: 1349