posted 10-12-2000 10:32 AM ET (US)            

http://www.fnmoc.navy.mil/PUBLIC/WAM/wam.html

Your taxpayer dollars fund the Navy Fleet
Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography
Center (FNMOC, or "Fleet Numerical") in
Monterey, CA. They run predictions of
swell heights world wide, and post the
results on the web. This data has taken
all the guesswork out of when to to diving
and when to go surfing.

posted 10-12-2000 11:13 AM ET (US)         

Keith you can always play safe or as safe as one can be by running out of Woods Hole to Martha's Vineyard then run along the eastern coast of the Vineyard you will go around Cape Poge, you then only have a short open water distance to Nantucket --- think maybe 15 miles or so and on a clear day can keep both in sight all the way --- there are some shoals and ledges in Muskeget Channel which is the area of open water but with a good chart and a course plotted before starting out should be a piece of cake even in a Montauk.

posted 07-23-2001 02:23 PM ET (US)            

Are there any public ramps in the area. I have heard a lot about fishing near Monomoy, and would like to try it out.

posted 07-25-2001 12:00 PM ET (US)         

Here's a helpful website for the Chatham area. It has a link to a webcam that looks out toward Lighthouse Beach.

http://www.outermostharbor.com

The weather link is good for up to date current weather in the area. The weather station is about a half mile up the beach from Outermost Harbor.

Paul

posted 07-29-2001 12:35 AM ET (US)            

Can I jut tell you how kool that link is. I am in Venezuela and I have the best memories from boating around Chatham. I have not been there in 12 years.

posted 08-04-2001 12:34 AM ET (US)            

Just remmember - only on light north wind days.

posted 02-11-2002 03:11 PM ET (US)         

It was the end of Memorial Day weekend, 1972, and the sky was clearing as a STRONG high pressure front was moving in. When I filled up the gas tanks, the fuel dock guy said we'd better get going if we're headed to the mainland, as there's gonna be a "blow" tonight. He said a couple of sailboats had headed out an hour before, and I later found out one of them didn't make it. We left Nantucket in calm waters, but with a freshening breeze, about 4pm, and clearing blue skies. This was before the days of having a radio and NOAA, satelitte photos, much less Loran. The little red Ritchie compass was it, and we were on our own, with one engine and 36 miles of open water ahead of us.

As we headed across, straight North, the wind and waves were building rapidly, right in our face, and the temperature was plummeting, from about 75 to 40. The 16' Whaler handled the waves amazingly well, keeping it's nose up and over each huge wave, with breaking white water on the top of each one.
I estimated waves at 10', but later heard on the radio they were running 13', and a lot of boats had gotten in trouble, including the 40' sail boat that had left Nantucket ahead of us, that went down. The other fellow with me had to stand in the bow, holding on to the bow rail to get the necessary weight up front, with the wives huddling behind the pilot seat for protection from the cold wind and freezing salt spray. Because of this, no one will ever convince me that one of these 16/17' boats should not have a bow rail. These things are life savers, and one of the features that made the early Whalers unique. Having his weight up front made all the difference in the world when the boat is lugging along.

In spite of the huge, breaking waves, the Whaler plodded along, wave by wave, mile by mile, land looming larger ahead every minute, but only visible as we came up on the top. It's strange, but after being out in conditions like this, you actually get the feel of the situation, and realize you will be all right, as long as the engine keeps running. Then, about halfway across, the engine dies. My passengers absolutely panicked as the boat turned sideways to the waves. I quickly switched tanks, prayed that it was only a fuel tank running dry, and the engine restarted on the other tank, allowing me to turn the boat back into the wind. These are times when you REALLY appreciate the great stability of the Whaler hull. The engine was getting a continual bath of salt water, but kept running. I had pulled the boat floor plug also, so the walls of spray could drain out. But the Whaler kept it's bow up surprisingly well, never getting a wave over the bow. We would look up at the next wave coming, see the top of it breaking, and wonder whether we'd get over it. Sure enough, we did, then surf down the back side of it and back up to the next breaking crest. The winds were blowing about 35mph, and the waves were short and steep, plus the Sound is quite shallow. Sometimes I thought I could actually see the bottom. Looking across the water, everything looked white, as the wind blew the tops off each wave crest.
Believe me, it was awful to be out in these conditions in a 16' boat.

Since we were heading to the source of the wind, I knew the seas would eventually get smaller, but not as fast as I expected. I knew we also didn't have enough gas to make it all the way into Hyannis. Fortunately, about 2 miles out, I found a guy in an OMC powered Lyman fishing, along the protected shore. The only boat out. We headed over to him, told him we had just come from Nantucket, and needed a few gallons of gas to make it in. His first comment was "You came from Nantucket, in this weather, in THAT?" All he could say was "those Whalers must be some boats". We crudely poured some gas from his 6 gallon tank into mine, spilling much of it, and made it the rest of the way in. We were cold, soaked, shivering and beat up pretty badly, the trip having taken four 1/2 hours, arriving just before dark. My hands ached from holding the wheel and the continuous throttle adjustments. I am absolutely convinced the Whaler saved our lives, and would not have made in any of the other outboard boats available at the time.
At the dock, we were a complete curiousity as word spread around that we had actually MADE IT from Nantucket in the Whaler in such terrible weather.

Until you go through an experience like this, you don't really know what it's like. But it's not fun, and even when I think about it today, I realize how lucky we were way back then. The early 1980's Whaler catalog used to say the following:
"Someday, either you are a member of your family may get caught out in weather where good seamanship alone will be insufficient, and your boat will be your only ally."

posted 02-21-2002 08:07 PM ET (US)         

But, no one should let a story like discourage you from heading to Nantucket. Today, there is no excuse for getting caught in weather like that, and those kind of conditions are easily avoided unless you're
really careless.

About 5 years ago, in my 18 Outrage, I made the run from Woods Hole, to Edgartown (on Vinyard) and then across the banks to Nantucket, in nice mid-May weather, and it only took about an hour each way from Edgartown. Once there, the docks were empty, but they were saying that everything changes on Memorial Day.