Nantucket Braces For Rare September Nor'Easter

Nantucket is officially under a storm warning issued by the National Weather Service in Boston, as a long-duration nor'easter is in the forecast for the weekend.

The impacts of the storm system were already being felt on Wednesday and Thursday, as the Steamship Authority and Hy-Line Cruises cancelled numerous trips due to high winds.

The nor'easter is expected to bring gusty, damaging winds, big surf, coastal flooding, and a prolonged period of heavy rain from Friday through Sunday. Erosion will also be a big concern for the island.

Both Nantucket Harbormaster Sheila Lucey and the U.S. Coast Guard are urging mariners to stay off the water and "seek safe harbor."

Downed limbs and power outages are also a concern, but the local National Grid crews will be augmented by additional contract line workers and tree crews from the mainland, who are already on-island to respond to storm damage.

The Steamship Authority issued several advisories regarding its service on Friday, including the following:

• The scheduled trips of the M/V Iyanough fast ferry and M/V Eagle car ferry will not run on Friday.
• The M/V Woods Hole will run on a trip-by-trip basis.
• The M/V Monomoy will make one trip in the morning to bring fuel trucks to Nantucket, then will wait on the island to bring them back at approximately 1:30 p.m. No passengers or automobiles are allowed on those trips. The third trip of the M/V Monomoy will run if weather conditions allow.

Hy-Line Cruises advised that it too will be running on a trip-by-trip basis on Friday.

While many ferries were canceled on Thursday, including all of the island's fast ferry trips, two of the Steamship Authority's new freight boats - the M/V Aquinnah and the M/V Monomoy - were both in service carrying vehicles and passengers back and forth between Hyannis and Nantucket. The situation led to a massive line that wrapped around the terminal building on Steamboat Wharf on Thursday morning, and prompted calls to Nantucket Police to resolve disputes about people cutting in line:

Harbormaster Sheila Lucey said on Tuesday that the dinghy docks at the town pier are closed until further notice, and that she is “encouraging all mariners to stay off the water until the wind subsides.” The Children’s Beach boat ramp was closed at 5 p.m. on Wednesday.

Nantucket Harbor is now nearly empty as hundreds of boats have been hauled out over the past few days ahead of the storm.

“Gonna be a ride for sure,” WBZ meteorologist Eric Fisher told the Current about the storm’s impacts on Nantucket.

The situation has also thrown a wrench into the plans for the numerous weddings scheduled for this weekend on the island.