Blue Fish? Blue Waves...

Kendall - going for the big blues!
Another fun day at Great Point - all worn out!

A view of our picturesque ride along the beach...

Another “early” morning and we’re out the door by 9:00(-: Today our destination was Great Point. It must be known that our time on Nantucket isn’t complete until we make our annual trip out to Great Point, a beautiful arc of sand extending out to the northeast tip of Nantucket. It is a 5 mile trip, each way, in the sand, and requires 4 wheel drive and tires lowered to about 12 psi (i.e. almost flat). If you try it any other way, you WILL get stuck. And kid you not, we have seen a car being washed away in the surf as high tide decided to eat it for dinner.

The morning goes something like this:

-Wake up and eat a quick breakfast (this takes about an hour for our group)
-While 8 people are trying to eat breakfast all in one kitchen, 3 of them are also trying to make sandwiches for 8 people, while also trying to figure out precise sandwich orders for 8 people.
-While ½ are trying to clean up the tornado of a mess just made in the kitchen, the other ½ are putting on suits and liberally applying sunscreen.
-Dad goes out to the garage and grabs all the fishing poles and tackle and places them in the front rod-rack on the jeep (VERY high clearance required for this setup on the roads and trees branches are injured during the trip)(oh, and we did once break a pole on a rather large, more stubborn branch)
-Everyone else is on a free-for all grabbing any and all other beach-related paraphernalia that can be found within the perimeter of the house: 16 towels (communication takes too much time so we all grab a few), 8 bottles of sunscreen (every level of protection), sweatshirts (for the chilly ride home at the end of the day), beach chairs(carefully bungeed behind the rod-rack), sand toys, 1-2 books each (never to be read), sunglasses, flip-flops, bucket (for the many bluefish we are sure to catch – but haven’t brought one home in ??? years), drinks, Cape Cod chips (the more bags the better), cookies and grapes (warm, melted and squished by 2:00 but who cares), kadema paddles, umbrella, beach tent, and 3 boogies boards.
-We hop in the loaded down cars and… someone forgot something… just a sec…
-Take two: We hop in the loaded down cars, fill up tanks with the most expensive gas in America, and drive out to Wauwinet and the Nantucket Conservation Foundation booth to purchase our yearly “oversand vehicle permit”, which are slowly but surely replacing the paint job on the fender of our jeep and Escape.
-All of us jump out of our respective doors like an Indy 500 team, grab a rock, and use it to deflate the nearest tire, while one hangs back to check the pressure as we go.
-We hop back in (or “on” as is the case with the jeep for the kids) and begin our beautiful drive out through the thick Nantucket sand to the lighthouse and the point. Paradise.

Now, Ian claims we have not caught a bluefish off the shore since he’s been in the picture, and we’ve been together for 15 years. I find that hard to be true, but unfortunately he might be right. Regardless, each year we think we’re going to bring one home (it was much more common 16 years ago, I think Ian jinxed us!) and our optimism keeps us casting. My dad is the hardiest fisherman and walks miles of shoreline following the diving birds. I usually just sit on my beach towel or swim with the girls until the birds start diving in front of me, or someone else gets one on… then I’m there! I spent at least an hour today and the birds were diving like crazy. People were catching blues on either side of us but we still came up empty. Kendall was even casting for them… again, what a sight. This little 6 year old girl with a pole 3 times her height, casting it out about 75 yards all on her own. And this is a spinning reel!

We had a great time playing in the surf, watching seals swim by, and as always, enjoyed each others company. And we might not have had bluefish for dinner, but we did enjoy delicious seafood at the Lobster Trap that evening, followed by ice-cream at the Juice Guys. Sweet, sweet summer!!