Aug 7-9, 2009 - Fairhaven and Onset, MA

We had an nice trip to Fairhaven, MA on Aug 7 from Newport, RI. Our new little backup gps functioned well with our Furuno chartplotter. We were traveling in Buzzard's Bay. I got a kick out of this because many years ago, when I was learning the navigational charting software, Nobeltec on our California boat, the tutorial examples involved plotting a course on Buzzard's Bay. To be there in real life was amazing. My tutorial did not include all of the lobster pots we had to dodge.

Coming into the bay, Fairhaven appeared to be a huge city with many commercial fishing boats. We learned that Fairhaven shares the bay with a much larger town, New Bedford, MA.

Our marina was home to many commercial fishing boats. We felt like Grand Fromage was now part of the fishing fleet. The biggest commercial fleet was across the bay in New Bedford.
We were in Fairhaven one night. On Aug 8, we traveled to Onset, MA. This picturesque town is located right before the Cape Cod Canal. The closer we got to Onset, the more the boat traffic picked up, from weekend runabouts to large commercial boats. The path through the markers leading into the harbor was filled with lobster pots.

Once tied up, we dropped our dingy, Brie, to do some sightseeing. The city provides a free dingy dock in town. Onset was celebrating Cape Verdean days with a festival in the park. From all of the hundreds, if not thousands of participants, this is a popular event. Click here to learn about the festival and the Cape Verdean heritage.

One of the many quaint buildings in Onset.
The village of Onset couldn't have been in a prettier setting.

After enjoying the world's best hamburger and walking around through the festival participants, we took a long dingy ride around the harbor.

Since I've frequently mentioned our great navigational challenge, the lobster pot, I thought you might like to meet one, up close and personal. The pot, or cage is lowered on a long rope to the bottom. Each lobster fishing company has a uniquely colored buoy to mark the location of the trap. This one you can see is red and white with a stick top. The ones with the stick top are extremely hard to spot out in the ocean, especially if there is chop. The buoy lays down in the chop and the dark tops are nearly invisible. We "like" the lobster pot buoys with wide tops that are big and brightly colored....orange, fuchsia, lime green are crowd pleasing colors. The hiss boo lobster pot buoys are either blue or black with little dark tops.The lobster fishers usually drop a string of pots, connected to a rope. If you see one lobster pot buoy, this is the sign to look for more.

To learn more about lobster fishing, click here.