All Nantucket Beaches closed.
South Beach MVY closed
Nauset Beach Orleans closed to swimming.

August 21, 2009, 7:45 pm - The 8pm advisory from the National Hurricane Center shows Hurricane Bill a few hundred miles SW of Bermuda with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph. Bill is moving NNW at 20 mph and is forecast to be a few hundred miles off the coast of Cape Cod after midnight on Sunday morning. Large waves from Bill will begin hitting Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and nantucket beaches on Saturday morning and will grow throughout the day. The largest waves are expected to hit around 6am Sunday.

In an official statement on the storm Governor Deval Patrick had this to say about the Cape and Islands: On the Cape and islands boaters should expect high and treacherous seas, up to 25 foot seas southeast of Nantucket, 15-20 foot seas south of Martha’s Vineyard and Block Island, and 10-15 foot seas along outer cape. Pleasure boaters should avoid the area around the outer Cape and the islands this weekend, and closely monitor the latest weather forecast, as well as US Coast Guard warnings and directives. Many boaters have had their crafts removed from the water as others are safely securing their boats in marinas, and that is why boaters should not stay on their boats to ride out the storm. Swimmers should stay out of the water throughout this weekend; there will be life-threatening rip currents along the entire coast. It may be tempting to some to experience the high seas, but the water and waves will be unsafe even for strong swimmers. All beaches on Nantucket will be closed from noon today until Monday at 9 AM. South Beach in Edgartown on the Vineyard will be closed as well during the same hours. Those traveling on or off the island this weekend should just check the availability of ferry service before you set out so you don’t end up at the ferry without a plan. Here's the full statement from Governor Patrick.

The Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce reports that because of the threat of rip currents from Hurricane Bill, Orleans will be closing Nauset Beach to swimming Saturday morning. The parking lot will remain open and will be charging for parking. All Over Sand vehicles will be required to be off the beach by 6 pm on Saturday evening. Normal operations should resume sometime Monday after an inspection by our Park Department for safe sand travel and swimming.

It is expected that National Seashore and other town beaches will limit access to the beaches and waves if dangerous conditions are present.

Note from Editor - On Saturday Nantucket Sound beaches will be windy with a strong breeze from the South but otherwise should see little effect from Hurricane Bill. On Saturday Cape Cod Bay beaches should see few effects as well. On Sunday the wind shifts and will blow hard from the north. Cape Cod bay beaches on Sunday could see very choppy water.

July 2, 2009 - On Wednesday afternoon at 5:00 pm a strong thunderstorm passed over Little Pleasant Bay in Orleans. 41 year old shell fisherman Chris West, a resident of Eastham, died after being struck by lightning. He had been clamming with an aluminum skiff near Sipson Island. His friend and fellow clammer John Jonason was 1000 feet away when it happened. Jonasan said that he and West were both keeping low, lying down in their boats. Then West stood up. That's when the lightning struck. West was killed instantly. Here's the full story from the Boston Herald

June 27, 2009 - Boston.com has a great story on the damage to Outer Cape beaches from the storm that hit earlier this week. The story has excellent photos, both from the sea and air, of the 2007 break in Chatham's North Beach and the camp houses that were destroyed there. The fine story is by Peter Schworm. The superb photos are from Vincent DeWitt and Bill Greene.

On a personal, far less tragic note, my dinghy (plastic Water-Tender 9.4) was lost off my mooring in Little Pleasant Bay and probably ended up on a beach in Chatham.