A new air-conditioned ferry terminal had opened since our last visit four years ago. The Nantucket is now being used on the shorter Woods Hole-Martha's Vineyard run.Īs the Eagle approached the dock at Steamboat Wharf, Nantucket looked unchanged, virtually the same as when we first visited in the middle 1960's. Then we were disappointed to find that we would not be traveling on the 1,000-passenger Nantucket (our longtime favorite), as noted on the schedule, but a new motor ship, the Eagle, capable of carrying 1,400 passengers. Though adult passenger fares have risen only 50 cents in the last four years - to $8.50 each way in summer - the tariff for motor vehicles had gone to $66.50 from $47.50 each way. While booking our station wagon for the ferry trip, I learned that, following the 1987 summer season, the Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority had stopped running ferries to the island from Woods Hole, Mass., and that all service now operates out of Hyannis, another half-hour's drive along Cape Cod for travelers coming from the south. The island, happily, remains a charming and mostly unspoiled vacation retreat, but changes are in the air.įrom the start, there were a few bad omens. Above all, I have been enchanted by Nantucket's constancy - the sense that time has stood still for more than a century on the ''Far Away Island'' (the English translation of the Indian name Nantucket), 30 miles out in the Atlantic.Īfter a four-year absence, I approached Nantucket late last summer with trepidation, apprehensive over reports that developers had been running amok in the moors and heathland and that Main Street, the cobblestoned heart of Nantucket Town, was not only choked with traffic but was also overrun with high-priced boutiques and upscale clothing stores. On and off for more than two decades, I have been vacationing on Nantucket, lured by its beaches, moorlands, magnificent mansions, cobblestone streets, history as a famed whaling port and insularity.
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