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Stranded on Nantucket - The Final Day

© Fred Durand

During the night, hurricane Irene continued on its predicted northeast track, away from the island. By morning the strong sustained wind had died down, although intermittent gusts were still noticeable. A moving shape caught my eye and glancing up I noticed a small plane heading west toward Hyannis. The significance wasn't immediately processed, but then it surfaced, the airport's open! And maybe the ferries have started running again.

A quick call to the Steamship Authority relayed the news. The ferries were indeed running, the first one had left at 6:30 a.m. and if we had been down at the terminal, we could have been on it. Not a chance. Then the bad news. Our reservations were no longer valid, we were now on "standby". We were instructed to be at the ferry terminal 45 minutes before the next sailing at 9:45 a.m. That gave us about 20 minutes to pack and drive down. We didn't really want to leave that early anyway.

Checking the ferry schedule, the 12:00 noon sailing looked like a possibility. The Steamship Authority's terminal is a relatively new structure, built in 1994 in keeping with traditional Nantucket architecture and of course, gray. The interior features pleasant surroundings with wooden benches to accommodate waiting passengers. To pass the time, black and white photographs of vintage ferry boats are displayed on the walls. I'd even settle for one of those today. Inside was standing room only, their faces told the story. This was the "standby" crowd, scores of people whose reservations were for yesterday. It wasn't the people that were the problem, it was their vehicles.

Following a 15 minute wait in line, I was informed we were number 27 on the standby list. How many standby vehicles would get on the noon ferry? Maybe 7 or 8. Just for fun the ticket agent interjected that all the people who were here at 6:30 a.m. drove right on the ferry. Thanks for the news, I wondered if he'd accept a bribe.

The 12:00 noon ferry sounded 3 blasts from it's familiar horn and slowly pulled away from the dock. We had already reached our car, still in the parking lot. Be back no later than 2:30 p.m. were the instructions. Was this high tech or what? Couldn't they just call my pager when they had an opening? We had about 2 ½ hours to kill, then return to the terminal and repeat the process. Had lunch then drove to Surfside Beach. It was still windy and the ocean choppy, but nothing like yesterday. It was cold, also, only about 55 degrees, we all wore sweatshirts and coats.