The Endeavor is a friendship sloop that provides short cruises out of Nantucket Harbor, every few hours during summer days.
It's route is actually quite short and simple. The book compares it to a bus ride. The sloop sails out of Nantucket harbor, and makes a short trip out into the Sound. No more than two hours and your back on the dock.
Despite it's simplicity, Captain Jim Genthner makes the ride a special one. The boat he built himself is small but beautiful, you sit right on top of water, and will often get wet. Genthner just laughs when that happens in a infectious manner. If anybody wants to help with the sails their welcome to help out the first mate. Genthner will give short impromptu lectures on sailing or whaling, or Nantucket history while piloting the boat .
Thirty five years ago, my Aunt and Uncle took me for the first time to visit the Massachusetts island of Nantucket. It's a place with a special character. The island is a place without a stoplight or a McDonald's. Tourists often get around on scooters, bike or bus. The island is shaped like the slingshot curve of a skater about to make a jump. All roads spiral out from the main town and spiral out to the beach side villages of Madaket, Surfside, and Sconset. The main street in town is paved with cobblestones.
It was a simple place, but over the past quarter century has become exclusive. In the past couple of decades it has become a popular locale for the super-rich to own property. So that's what it had become by the time my brother and I visited it a few years ago. It is expensive to stay there or eat there. But on occasion, you feel like it is worth it for a cruise on the Endeavor is a revelatory experience.
The Endeavor's website-www.endeavorsailing.com/
On the Endeavor by Jim S. Bernhardt |
No comments:
Post a Comment