Welcome to that time of year that has long been characterized as the dog days of summer.

After being dogged so much by late spring rains and cold, we’re all basking in the improved weather and arrival of the season’s best waterfront activities including Nantucket Race Week and Opera House Cup in early August.

Throughout this issue, we showcase and celebrate the beauty that’s so prevalent on Nantucket at this time of year, whether it’s faces of seasonal visitors, those who live here, beautiful handcrafted boats or our breathtaking natural landscapes.

Outdoors is certainly where it’s at on Nantucket in the summer. For the many fans of golf, we give you a look at the private spaces of two small-sized but professional level courses on Nantucket estates. If you’re an avid sailor, you’ll appreciate our showcase of Cape Cod boat companies Pease Boat Works and Marine Railway and Howard Boats, both where craftsmen are creating beautiful, one-of-a-kind seagoing vessels that are sure to be heirlooms.

Of course, the beauty of Nantucket’s natural landscape has long been precious to most of us who love the island. Peter Brace, the author of numerous articles and books on exploring the natural world of Nantucket, gives us an overview of increasing local offerings in ecotourism. Beautiful Nantucket landscape portraits by Daniel Sutherland underscore the report.

We’re sure that the thousands of descendants of the first English settlers on Nantucket have enjoyed many of the above since they arrived on Nantucket 350 years ago. This year, the Macy Clan in particular returned home for a huge family reunion and a rededication of the Founders Cemetery at Maxcy’s Pond, where many of those early settlers are buried. Writer Sharon Lorenzo and photographer Terry Pommett tell us about their gathering.

Nature is also front and center in our two dining features for this issue. Down at Great Harbor Yacht Club, opened officially this summer after seven years in development, the beauty of Nantucket’s inner harbor is on display. Over at the new Dune restaurant on Broad Street, owner Michael Getter has recreated a pleasing eco-friendly environment.

None of this beauty ends with the passing of Labor Day. Here at N Magazine we’ll pause until November to enjoy the beauty of fall on Nantucket. This issue will be redistributed in mid-September, just in time to remind readers again of the fantastic Nantucket Restaurant Week, which we started four years ago. With the help of Nantucket Island Chamber of Commerce and many other island groups, the event has grown stronger each year and this year added a spring session. Join us on Sunday, September 27 at Great Harbor Yacht Club for our kick-off Gala to provide several scholarships to graduates of Nantucket High School Culinary Arts Program. Meanwhile, to see this fall’s exciting lineup from Monday, September 28 through Sunday, October 4 visit www.nantucketrestaurantweek.com.

Bon appetit! We’ll see you during Restaurant Week and in November for Nantucket’s glorious holiday period.

William Ferrall
Editor-in-Chief

Cosmic Award
By Homa Nasab

Nantucket’s Maria Mitchell Association has scored a bright and rising star among the nation’s educational institutions. Founded more than a century ago, the association celebrates the scientific and personal legacy of Nantucket born Maria Mitchell, America’s premier female astronomer, scientist and 19th-century educator.

In June, the organization received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, an award of $10,000 for the group to enhance its educational and mentoring programs. The highly prestigious prize was presented to only 21 other institutions, with Maria Mitchell being honored especially for its astronomy internship program. Founded by Dorrit Hoffleit in 1957 to be an integral part of the group’s scientific educational efforts, the program mentors “students in demographic groups that are underrepresented” in these fields. Since 1991, the island’s major scientific organization has also served as a permanent training site in astronomy for the National Science Foundation’s Research Experience for Undergraduates.

REU has been led for the past dozen years by MMA director of astronomy, Dr. Vladimir Strelnitski. In keeping with Mitchell’s legacy, Strelnitski works closely with a select group of mixed gender but female-dominated undergraduate scientists to conduct individual and team projects. The program also gives students an early start to develop their communication and teaching skills, experiences that they might otherwise acquire during much later periods in their careers.

Maria Mitchell’s objectives and track record have put it at the forefront of Nantucket’s cultural, scientific and heritage-related institutions. In addition to preserving its founder’s heritage, the association provides “exploration, education and enjoyment of Nantucket’s land, waters and skies beyond.” It uses the Island as an exceptional natural laboratory in which to study science and the environment, and maintains research and or representative collections of Nantucket’s biodiversity.

Under the leadership of Executive Director Janet Schulte and Strelnitski, this seemingly quaint island organization has claimed its lasting place not only on the national but the cosmic stage. For more information, visit www.mmo.org.

A Taste of Nantucket
By Homa Nasab

Renaissance man Don DeMarco is celebrating the 30th anniversary of his namesake Nantucket restaurant, DeMarco. In 1979, after an adventurous two-year period of recreating a mid 19th-century townhouse at 9 India Street, DeMarco opened the doors of his Northern Italian eatery with help from his brothers.

This son of Italian immigrants brings the same level of aesthetic sensibility to his mouth-watering recipes as he does to his delightfully atmospheric restaurant, which DeMarco devotes to accentuating high standards of Northern Italian cuisine in a charming and casual manner.

DeMarco also happens to be one of the most colorful gourmands that Nantucket has seen. A cultivated sensualist, he paints, writes poetry and composes music. Several years ago he penned a musical that was performed on Nantucket and in New York City, his family’s off-island home. An engaging conversationalist, DeMarco comfortably discusses topics ranging from Tuscan cultural traditions to contemporary American politics. He has counted among his friends or has played host at the restaurant to local and national politicians including Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and Senator Edward Kennedy and such luminaries as Pierre Salinger and Bianca Jagger.

In anticipation of starting his fourth decade on Nantucket, last year DeMarco published his philosophical musings on a variety of topics from comfort food to Herodotus’ theory of change. Nantucket Taste Memories, The DeMarco Restaurant Cookbook is more than a cookbook. In the words of renowned historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, the book is “much more than a collection of recipes. It is also a thought-provoking commentary on American culture, food and wine.”

As with any loyal patron, Goodwin affectionately continues, “DeMarco has created a place where friends and families return over and over, not simply for the excellent food and wine, but for the warm atmosphere that encourages people to feel free to open up to one another.”

In this age of fast food and cyber networking, little else compensates for a roundtable communal meal, which “is a building block of culture,” DeMarco asserts. Dinning is “a time for relaxing, for sharing the events of the day, for talking over problems.”

DeMarco’s main partners are Therese, his naturally graceful and distinctly intelligent wife who until recently was a longtime publishing executive, and Little Donald, their one-and-a-half year old son, who typically greets visitors with big blue eyes, Romanesque curly blond hair and a welcoming smile. One can easily imagine him stepping into dad’s shoes in the future. For more on DeMarco and the restaurant, call 508-228-1836 or see www.demarcorestaurant.com.

Written Well
By William Ferrall

Two of Nantucket’s leading women of letters continued their prolific ways this summer with new novels.

“Summer House”, the 19th book from Nancy Thayer, tells the story of three generations of women in a wealthy family with Nantucket at its center. “It’s a big, fortunate family,” said Thayer, “with stuff about being the perfect wife or daughter, about being good or bad.” So far, reviewers are focused on the good. New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin wrote that Summer House is a “well-wrought, appealing book… packed with literally down-to-earth charm…”

Known widely for her series of four similarly themed books starting in 2003 with “The Hot Flash Club”, Thayer especially appreciates the positive reviews for this book. “In many ways, this is my most personal,” she said.

In fact, Thayer has written about the intimacy of family life since her first book “Stepping” in 1980. Her writings continually show her concern with intergenerational relationships between women, a theme she highlights on her Website www.nancythayer.com with photos of her mother’s 90th birthday this year and the recent release of the first novel by her daughter Samantha Wilde, a look at the foibles of young motherhood, “The Little Mommy Stayed Home.”

Husband Charlie Walters, Samantha’s step-father and owner of Nantucket’s former Musicall record store, recently expanded the family’s literary ouevre by completing a travelogue about the old coast-to-coast driving road Route 20. Thayer noted that in coming weeks her book tour takes her down virtual roads through an Internet “blog tour,” reflecting her increasing practice of communicating with fans over the Internet.

Fellow Nantucket author Elin Hilderbrand could soon be following both Thayer’s virtual and actual book tours. Hilderbrand’s tenth novel “The Castaways” arrived in early June.

Following the sales and booklist success of last year’s “A Summer Affair”, Hilderbrand’s newest book was nearing top ten best seller lists by late July.

As best-selling authors of so-called “chick lit” and living close by, Hilderbrand and Thayer are well acquainted with each other. In fact, Hilderbrand supplied one of the blurbs for Thayer’s book cover, and the two “get together occasionally,” said Thayer “We share a lot of the same readers,” noted Thayer, “and we’re both writing about Nantucket, family and friendships.”

Shake A Leg
By William Ferrall

This has been a banner year for helping disabled children and adults learn to sail at Shake-A-Leg, a national leader in therapeutic sailing programs. Last fall, the group acquired the 12-metre Easterner, a classic yacht known for its history of competition in the famed America’s Cup race. Donated by Arthur Schlossman of Rhode Island, where the group keeps its headquarters at the sailing capitol of Newport, the boat has been outfitted with new steering and trim features to allow sailors of varying abilities to join able-bodied crewmembers in training and racing programs.

Shake-A-Leg CEO Paul Callahan, himself a member of the 2000 U.S. Paralympic Team and a frequent Nantucket visitor, called the donation a “breakthrough of monstrous proportions” for sailors like him.

Formed in 1982 as part of Newport’s Adaptive Sailing program, the group plans to bring Easterner to Nantucket during Nantucket RaceWeek.

Nantucket Community Sailing, sponsor and beneficiary of Nantucket Race Week and the legendary Opera House Cup Regatta for all wooden-hull boats, conducts a similar program for youth during the summer with Access Sport America.

This year’s Race Week runs from Saturday, August 15 through Sunday, August, 16, with the Opera House Cup kicking off at noon on the final day. For more on Shake-A-Leg and Easterner, visit www.shakealeg.org. For this year’s lineup of events and programs during Nantucket Race Week, visit www.nantucketraceweek.org or call 508-228-6600.

Kitchen Scholars
By William Ferrall

Two Nantucket High School students will be off to pursue their culinary studies come fall with help from the Nantucket Culinary Arts Foundation.

Brittany Watson and Carl Johnsen were awarded scholarships of $2,500 to her and $500 to him at the end of this past school year. The two had been first place finishers last fall during the first Nantucket Junior Chef Competition, the closing event of Nantucket Restaurant Week. Proceeds from the annual Kickoff Gala for Restaurant Week are used to fund the Culinary Arts Foundation scholarships.

Now in its fourth year, Nantucket Restaurant Week expanded this year to include a weeklong spring session. This year’s fall week launches with the Kickoff Gala at Great Harbor Yacht Club on Sunday, September 27. This year’s Junior Chef Competition is Sunday, October 4 at Cisco Brewery.

Jenny Johnson, Boston television personality and executive producer-host of TV Diner on NECN, plans to emcee this year’s Junior Chef. Junior Chef pairs Nantucket High School students in the Culinary Arts Program, which has won numerous awards in national competitions, with working chefs from Nantucket’s many fine restaurants. For the spring session Restaurant Week, more than two dozen Nantucket restaurants participated, with a similar number expected to join in this fall. For tickets to the Kick-off Gala and to the Junior Chef Competition, call 508-228-1700 or see www.nantucketrestaurantweek.com.

Written By Chip A. Green
Photography by Nathan Coe

What, you might ask, is the most exclusive golf club on Nantucket? The answer is a club that is so exclusive few have ever heard of it and even fewer will ever get the chance to play on it. Whispering Pines Golf Club is the name of the course on Washing Pond Road, on the grounds of the home of Gene and Jane Goodwillie.

The course started out as an idea from famed designer Reese Jones, who designed Nantucket Golf Club. Jones, a good friend of Gene Goodwillie, suggested while he was on the island building the Nantucket Golf Club course that he build a course on their eight-acre property. With nine remote tees and a seven thousand square foot green, the Goodwillie’s have created a fully sanctioned 27-hole, par three golf course with holes ranging from 43 to 113 yards.

Although the club was designed as a casual feature of their home, it has expanded to include 175 members who pay dues and have the privilege of an annual club dinner and putting contest. According to Jane Goodwillie, “While we’re all out here to have fun, there are those who take it quite seriously.” Members include four golf pros. One member said that the club is so exclusive that even some of its members don’t know where it is.

Another of golf’s hidden gems on Nantucket is called The Ocean Course at Sun Up. Situated atop Sankaty Bluff, this spectacular home golf course provides hours of pleasure to its owners when they hit the links and offers one of the most breathtaking views on the island.

Referred to as “target golf,” the facility is a par-three course with eight tees and two greens. The holes range from 20 to 56 yards. To make the game more challenging, circles are placed on the greens and scores are calculated based on where shots land in relation to the targets.

Photography by Matt Albani

Fashion photographer Matt Albiani has already made a name for himself and his work on the pages of such iconic style magazines as Elle and Interview and with advertising images for leading fashion companies J. Crew, Victoria’s Secret, Lily Pulitzer and Ralph Lauren.

This summer, the Winchester, Massachusetts, native and former summer lifeguard created a stir and is showing up all over the Internet and printed pages with his first book “Life Guard on Duty.” In more than 100 large-format images, Albiani pays tribute to the boys of summer who work to keep all of us safe on ocean beaches.

In color and sometimes black and white, Albiani and graphic designer Sam Shahid have captured both the brilliance and the dreamy quality of summer days and setting suns at the shore, including in images of Nantucket and its lifeguards. Lifeguards pictured include Nantucket guards Kevin Harrington, Peter Smith, Doug Armstrong and Erik Brierly.

Written By Matt Stern
Photography by Terry Pommett

Wooden boats are generally known as a labor of love, sometimes with an emphasis on the labor. Few man made objects show more elegance and grace than a finely crafted wooden boat, and devotees of classic boats would have it no other way.

For those who want the lines of a classic boat without the effort associated with wood, alternatives exist.

Two prominent boat yards on Cape Cod have provided Nantucketers with some of the finest limited production boats available that satisfy the needs of both the purest and the practical boat owner.

Howard Boats, located in Barnstable on the Cape, has crafted classic sailboats since 1938 and produced some of the more popular boats seen on Nantucket. Howard’s Barnstable Cat Boat shares similar lines to the fabled Beetle Cat,but it’s made in fiberglass to provide maximum pleasure with easier care and maintenance. Through movement of the centerboard trunk to the aft of the boat, weather helm is improved, making the Barnstable easier to sail in higher winds.

Howard also adds a lacquer finish to the fiberglass to make it almost indistinguishable from a varnished wooden boat. A wooden mast and boom give it a timeless feel. According to Peter Eastman, owner of Howard Boats, “We produce small boats with yacht-like finishes that are more than just sailboats; they become heirlooms.” Perhaps the most famous boat produced by Howard is the Indian, designed by John Alden in 1921. It can be recognized instantly by its Indian head on the mainsail.

For those who prefer handmade wooden boats, Pease Boat Works and Marine Railway of Chatham focuses on the traditional skills of wooden boat building and restoration. With their spectacularly varnished hulls and glistening brightwork, Pease boats turn people’s heads when they sail by.

One of Pease’s current customers is Nantucket resident Alfie Sanford, who commissioned Pease to build a 40-foot yawl that’s essentially a large version of an Alerion, the boat once built in Nantucket by his family’s Sanford Boat Works.

Owning an old wooden boat is not always for the faint of heart, as they typically need some form of hull refinishing every few years. But like a Stradivarius, owners of wooden boats will say there is nothing like the feel of wood when sailing their instrument, and nothing is more beautiful to watch. With the advent of wood composite construction, new wooden boats like the Starry Night being built for Sanford boasts of the durability of fiberglass with the benefits of traditional wood construction, according to Brad Pease, co-owner of Pease Boat Works.

Whether your tastes lead you to small classics made of fiberglass or larger handcrafted wooden boats, there is no better way to enjoy Nantucket Harbor than under sail in boats that hearken back to simpler times.

Written By Sharon Lorenzo
Photography by Terry Pommett

The island’s founding families mark 350 years since their ancestors arrived on Nantucket. After seven years of discussion, negotiation and compromise, the Town of Nantucket agreed two years ago to clear a wide access path to the ancient burial ground where approximately 238 of the island’s earliest settlers of European descent were laid to rest.

This promontory overlooking Maxcy’s Pond was the location of the island’s earliest church, which was moved and reconstructed as the vestry of the Congregational Church on Centre Street. Seismic radiography will be used in the near future to locate the exact perimeter of this building so that today’s island visitors and descendants can sense first-hand the spiritual center of those first settlers on Nantucket who braved an Atlantic crossing, cold winters and accommodations to the Wampanoags.

A stone tablet erected in 1881 on the site honors the ten men who formed part of the group of the early proprietors. Local historian Dr. Frances Karttunen noted that Maxcy’s Pond was probably an alternate spelling for Macy’s Pond, a fitting tribute to a dynasty represented today in our retail business economy with Macy’s stores. She further observed that the wives of these men were also sturdy souls, who gave birth and raised 80 children, some of whom were eventually laid to rest in this sacred spot. Karttunen and many other Nantucketers hope that eventually a second stone will be dedicated in this spot to the women and children of those worthy sires.

This summer’s celebration and rededication of the site marked the semi-septicentennial, or 350th anniversary, of the founding of what was the island’s original Sherburne settlement in 1659. Reverend Edward B. Anderson blessed the location during a short service accompanied by 17th century music played on a viola da gamba by Mollie Glazer, director of Nantucket School of Music. A walking tour of the area, now cleared for fishing by the Nantucket Anglers Club, was attended by many family members of the Macy clan, who had gathered for a weekend to honor their forefather Thomas Macy. Since Nantucket Historical Association is charged as the intellectual custodian of this historic site, Mark Avery as the NHA’s Manager of Historic Properties chose the 1841 John Greenleaf Whittier poem “The Exiles” to capture the essence of the celebration:

God bless the sea-beat island and grant
forevermore, that charity and freedom dwell
as now upon her shore.

Macy descendants Miles Carlisle and Rachel Freeman, who still occupy their family’s early homes on Main Street, joined the ceremony of rededication. Carlisle inherited and today graciously guards the remaining artifacts of the whaling legacy of his forefather Henry Coffin, who was the son of wealthy whale-oil merchant Zenas Coffin and who built the brick house on Main Street in 1834.

Carlisle is a distant cousin of Freeman who today resides nearby on Main Street with her husband and children, in the home built in 1838 by Joseph Starbuck for his son Matthew. The aforementioned Henry Coffin had married Levi Starbuck’s daughter Eliza Starbuck in 1833, thus connecting the two families.

Freeman inherited her home from her great grandmother Pauline Mackay Johnson, who lived in the house until her death in 1958. Freeman said she feels it would be fitting to mark the founders burial place with a memorial to the wives of the first proprietors since many of the homes have passed to the women in the family who, like her, have preserved them. Carlisle noted that it was customary in the 19th century for family businesses to be passed to the sons and the real estate to the daughters. In fact, Eliza Coffin was the sole owner of Carlisle’s property at the time of her death in 1935.

The secrets and remnants of old Sherburne live on today in the hearts and minds of many Nantucket residents who are descendants of the original settlers. The original Sherburne settlement was relocated to the current town center in about 1717 as repetitive storms silted in the opening of Capaum Pond and made navigation from this smaller, quiet harbor too difficult.

Nantucket historian Clay Lancaster and  others have located numerous dwellings that were disassembled and rebuilt from their original sites. One of those belonged to the Charles Kilvert family on Main Street. Lancaster located the exact former perimeter of the Main Street house on the hillside overlooking Capaum Pond. Lily Kilvert, Charles’ daughter, recalled that when they would have a plumbing repair at their Main Street house they often found seaweed and Quaker toys behind wooden siding in the front parlor.

Historians disagree whether Nantucket’s native Indian sachems such as Nickanoose or Wanackmamack fully understood they were giving away permanent title when their Nantucket lands were conveyed to the English newcomers in the 17th century.Whatever the case, the Indians and early settlers on Nantucket learned from each other while exchanging goods and services for the mutual benefit of all, creating a truly multicultural community. This cooperative symbiosis was rare in America’s history when foreign cultures integrated into the New World. Perhaps that sense of a shared legacy and love for the uniqueness of the Nantucket experience united islanders then and now in a devotion to the preservation of community and heritage on this faraway island.

Written By Peter Brace
Photography by Daniel Sutherland

Chase your golf ball into the rough after a particularly ugly slice, stop along an island bike path for a breather or shut off your boat engine, and you’ll see, hear and smell the natural environment of Nantucket.

You might even notice other people out there tromping through the island wilderness or paddling silently into tidal ponds and creeks where powerboats and sails can’t navigate.

When you unplug, stop, listen and open your eyes, you experience the ecological magic of Nantucket that a large percentage of island visitors and even year-rounders and long-time natives often miss.

Despite its size, the island contains an astoundingly diverse collection of terrain and plant and animal species—many are officially rare and endangered—for such a small atoll off the coast of Massachusetts. And that diversity encourages Nantucket’s burgeoning ecotourism.

“There’s the geologic structure of the island in the north part with the glacial moraine, with kettle hole ponds, the hidden forests, the bogs, the swamps,” said Allen Reinhard, Middle Moors Manager for Nantucket Conservation Foundation. “And on the south side you have the glacial outwash with the great salt ponds, beaches and the sandplain grasslands.

Though rarely promoted as an ecotourism destination in travel guides and advertising materials, that designation for Nantucket is almost a given, whatever the season.

With about 50% of the island preserved as open space, including wildlife refuges and sanctuaries owned by local groups and the Trustees of Reservations and the Massachusetts Audubon Society, amateur and professional naturalists will find a lively mix of rare coastal plain habitats to satisfy fans of seals, whales, winter gulls, bogs, salt marshes, rare grasses and much more.

“I think it is a fantastic eco-tourism destination,” said Dr. Sarah Oktay, director of the UMass Boston Nantucket Field Station off Polpis Road. “It’s just such a small island and very accessible with all the bike paths. It is only fifty square miles, and it’s hard to get lost. There’s all kinds of habitats, and there’s a lot of variety in the flora and fauna.”

Year-round sanctuary

Great egrets, American oystercatchers, common terns, curlews, willets, whimbrels and ruddy turnstones are all shore birds on display up in Coskata Pond, a tidal pond at the northeast head of the harbor among salt marsh cord grass and mudflats. The shoreline is accessible on foot from the north end of Wauwinet Road or by kayak from Polpis Harbor.

Running along much of Nantucket’s and nearby Tuckernuck’s south shores are 620 acres of sandplain grasslands, the last such coastal upland habitat remaining in the world and home to rare plants such as sandplain blue-eyed grass, bushy rockrose, New England blazing star, yarrow and trailing arbutus, the Northern harrier and short-eared owl. These sandplain grasslands form a subtle yet magnificent habitat. Free from the heavy light pollution of the mainland, Nantucket is an ideal location for viewing the Perseoid meteor shower emanating from the constellation Perseus in the second week of August. One can watch them from a backyard lawn, from out in the moors or at the beach. For a better look, Maria Mitchell Association maintains a telescope for such astronomical light shows and galactic observation.

In late August through early October, millions and millions of lemon-size clear jellyfish called “Leidy’s comb jelly” swarm in the waters around Nantucket. Nearly invisible during the day, these non-stinging jellyfish, classified as plankton, are visible at night, glowing blueish-green when agitated in the water. Locally, this natural marine phenomenon is known as the phosphorescence.

Tens of thousands of long-tailed ducks spend their winter days diving for clams southeast of Nantucket, but when they fly back to Nantucket Sound to spend the night in massive flotillas of birds, they pass over Smith’s Point low enough to be easily heard and also seen without binoculars.

Muskeget Island west of Tuckernuck Island is one of only a handful of breeding spots for gray seals in New England, and more than 2,000 gray seals congregate around Nantucket in late January into February to give birth to their pups. These seals linger in the area’s waters well into the spring and can be seen along our shores, on the jetties and on Great Point.

Those natural wonders and sights are out there to be discovered and reveled in on their own, equally as fascinating as what you see along the way.

“All the conservation groups have done a remarkable job of preserving what open space there is relative to the number of tourists that come here,” said Captain Blair Perkins of Shearwater Excursions, which offers whale and seal watching cruises. “There is certainly enough territory to cover both on the water and on shore,” said Perkins.

Out on walkabout

Strike out into the moors, bogs,meadows, beaches and coastal plains by shanks mare because it is the only way you’re really going to see the terra firma of this island. Viewing it over handlebars works too, but the slower you go, the more you’ll see.

Running out of new places to explore on Nantucket is nearly impossible, even if you live here. The outdoor life is never boring for Perkins, Middle Moors Ranger Reinhard and Coatue Wildlife Refuge Property Superintendent Steve Nicolle of the Trustees of Reservations, who oversees Great Point Lighthouse. They rarely see the same things twice when they’re out covering familiar ground, including the mix of people who are out on a walkabout.

“It really depends on the weather, but I notice loads of people out there,” said Reinhard. “There’s a group early in the morning of dog walkers and bikers, and others late in the afternoon. During the middle of the day, there doesn’t tend to be a lot of people, but if it’s an overcast day, regular walkers like to go out and explore certain areas like Altar Rock,Windswept Cranberry Bog or the Milestone bogs.”

If hearing that these stewards and guides of conservation land are never exasperated by workplace boredom isn’t enough titillation for your Lewis and Clark fantasies, learn about Nicolle’s 2007 numbers for the Trustees’ natural history tours to the remote areas of Great Point beyond Wauwinet. “We have a van and we take nine people max, per trip, two trips daily,” said Nicolle, adding that they go out seven days a week during the summer and early fall. “Last year, we also did around eleven hundred people. Last year we started our fishing tour. It’s a marine environment tour educating people about seals and fish.”

Water of life

Fiddler crabs burrow deep into the muddy, honeycomb-like base of the salt marshes in Nantucket’s saltwater creeks, tidal ponds and harbors. Ribbed mussels attached to the stalks of cord grass that poke coarse green blades above the surface. Baitfish such as Atlantic silversides, dodging striped bass, swim over horseshoe crabs gliding along in the shallows, past the necks of soft-shell clams reaching up into the water for oxygen and food amidst jabbing beaks of great blue herons on their skinny legs, spearing a scaly dinner.

Get into a kayak and paddle into The Creeks, Folger’s Marsh, or Medouie Creek at high tide or out into Polpis Harbor. In Coskata Pond or around Hither Creek in Madaket drift in over the nearly submerged grass and put your fingers down onto the mud and grab hold. There you’re feeling it—what makes these waters live and breath. Open your eyes, tune in your ears and inhale the briny, pungent earthy odor of salt marsh life. Do it at dusk and another world otherwise missed may come alive for you.

Litte of this is obvious when charging along in a motorboat, but when aimed in the right direction, those engines can carry you out 15 to 20 miles east of the island to see finback, humpback and minke whales, sunfish, dolphins, sea turtles, and sea birds such as sooty shearwaters, greater shearwaters, jaegers and Wilson’s storm petrels.

“We have a year-round abundance of fauna to look at,” said Perkins. “We’ve got the gray seals out at Muskeget Island, which are year-round, so not only can I show visitors a great number of seals up close, but in the winter they can see them pupping. Also in the winter, you’ve got the numerous flights of sea ducks. They’re all up in the Arctic breeding right now, but in the winter Nantucket is just a haven for sea birds.” All of these wondrous ecosystems, their beasties and their plants, are here on Nantucket and in our waters.What are you waiting for?

Peter B. Brace is the environmental writer for the Nantucket Independent and the author of “Walking Nantucket: A Walker’s Guide to Exploring Nantucket on Foot.”

Into The Wild

Several non-profit organizations oversee the vast majority of Nantucket’s natural lands. They, along with a growing number of private guides, are leading residents and tourists alike into Nantucket’s most breathtaking sea-and landscapes.

Maria Mitchell Association conducts seasonal classes, nature hikes and birding and marine ecology walks for all ages. Their wonderful facilities, with its main campus on Milk Street, include a natural history museum, astronomical observatories and a small aquarium. Visit their Website at www.mmo.org or call 508-228-9198.

Nantucket Conservation Foundation conducts FIELD (Find, Investigate, Explore, Learn, Discover) days for children through August. The Nantucket Field Station serves as a living, waterfront laboratory on Polpis Harbor underthe stewardship of NCF. Mornings for Members walks are held all around the island, led by Middle Moors Manager Alan Reinhard. See www.nantucket conservation.org or call 508-228-2884.

Nantucket Land Council has created a brochure-guided tour of Nantucket’s historic downtown trees. Included are locations, illustrations, histories and biological information. The group also guides tours of local plant life and holds water and soil quality workshops. Check local visitor brochure racks for the tree tour, see www.nantucketlandcouncil.org or call 508-228-2818.

The Linda Loring Nature Foundation in the Eel Point area of Nantucket oversees vast conservation lands and leads natural walks and birding tours with resident naturalist Vern Laux. Call 508-325-0873 or see www.llnf.org.

Trustees of the Reservations manages and leads tour groups to the spectacular Coskata-Coatue Wildlife Area and Great Point Lighthouse, accessible only by permit in four-wheel drive vehicles. Call 508-228-5646 or see www.thetrustees.org.

Strong Wings Adventure School provides day camps, hikes and kayaking and bicycle tours for youth. Visit www.strongwings. org or call 508-228-1769.

Shearwater Excursions, with its veteran Captain Blair Perkins at the helm, leads seasonal whale watching and year-round bird and seal watching tours in Nantucket’s nearby waters. Sailings last from one-hour harbor cruises to six hours for whale watching. Call 508-228- 7037 or see www.explorenantucket.com.

For more local ecotourism experiences with non-profit and commercial guides, visit Nantucket Visitor Services & Information Bureau at 25 Federal Street, 508-228-0925 or stop by Nantucket Island Chamber of Commerce at Zero Main Street, 508-228-1700, or see www.nantucketchamber.org.

Written By William Ferrall
Photography by Laurie Richards

Great Harbor Yacht Club has arrived under full sail. After seven years of satisfying state and local regulations and sometime contentious negotiations with its neighbors, this new attractive club on Nantucket’s inner harbor officially opened its doors in July.

In its first few weeks, the club has already hosted community and private events and welcomed dozens of members and their guests to its handsome and comfortable dining rooms and lounging decks.

Few locations on Nantucket offer such magnificent views of watercraft at their harbor moorings, the island’s bucolic estuaries known as The Creeks and distant harbor shorelines.

Sailing facilities, a health club and outdoor recreation areas have accommodated early members for almost a year. But this summer’s opening of Great Harbor’s main clubhouse, with its meeting and entertainment areas, a library and cozy dens, completes the compound.

Modeled after the old Nantucket Steamship building, the 25,000–sq.ft. clubhouse was designed by respected architectural firm Hart Howerton of New York and San Francisco, in collaboration with Lyman Perry Architects of Princeton, New Jersey, and Nantucket.

Boston interior design firm Gauthier-Stacy outfitted the comfortably lux interiors, which have a look and feel suggesting Old World and early 20th-century American origins. Lighting fixtures, hardware and trim elements are either antique or of period designs, set against hardwood paneling, rich woodwork and antique chestnut plank flooring.

Overstuffed sofas and chairs ease visitors into carpeted alcoves and sitting rooms. Antique ship models and nautical gear decorate a cozy model room, library, restaurants and public hallways. Exterior porches and decks invite guests and diners outside to look over expansive lawns and the harbor beyond.

The facility’s centerpiece restaurants and lounge areas fill both an upstairs loft and nicely appointed, family-oriented downstairs space with an open kitchen. The upstairs loft room seats diners in more formal arrangements at tables or on upholstered benches, with a traditional mahogany bar nearby for mingling while standing or sitting. Both spaces offer easy access to outdoor dining or relaxing spaces.

At the opposite end of the building, a high-ceiling, post-and-beam club function room shows massive wooden timbers acquired in Amish country and installed by craftsmen from that region. Dramatic wrought iron chandeliers bathe the room in soft light.

GHYC’s new executive chef Tom Berry is shaping the club’s cuisine. He previously worked as the right-hand man to celebrity chef Ming Tsai at Blue Ginger inWellesley, Massachusetts, and later worked as executive chef at both Bambara and Temple Bar in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He also lead the kitchen at Nantucket’s Straight Wharf one summer. Berry designed GHYC’s menus to underscore the simplicity and style of island living with dishes such as pan seared Atlantic halibut, braised Kurobata pork cheek and specialty hors d’oeuvres and drinks.

Summer 2009 marks the final phase of the Club’s development with the completion of the Clubhouse and the construction of its 36-slip dock and pier project. Entry into the club as a member has been reported at a pricey $350,000, with only a few club memberships still available.

Norwood Davis GHYC’s first and current Commodore, called the clubhouse “the cornerstone of our community, a place where we can… celebrate the Nantucket lifestyle.” If you can afford it, you’ll have the enjoyment of the first yacht club to be built on Nantucket in over 100 years and a splendid one at that.

Written By Jeannette Garneau and Evan Williams
Photography by Terry Pommett

The ocean, beaches, dunes and sand. These are the natural elements evoked by the cool and modern interior of Michael Getter’s new Dune restaurant, which made its debut this year on Broad Street on Nantucket.

Of course, it’s no mistake that those are leading attractions for Nantucket visitors, and the reason that so many keep coming back and some decide to make the island their home. Getter counts himself among the latter. He began his restaurant career at 21 Federal on Nantucket and eventually moved over to American Seasons. Dune is his latest venture after stints in innkeeping, real estate and as a private chef.

“The location is great, and I really thought that the building had great bones,” averred Getter about why he decided to start a new restaurant here and now. “I thought of the color palate and décor concept before I thought of the name.”

Making the visual concept materialize fell to interior designer Anne Becker, who oversaw an extensive redo of the restaurant interior, home to Cioppinos until last year. Becker and Getter opened up site lines on the main floor by removing a wall around the fireplace, which was then washed with white paint. Walls were covered to the ceiling in grasscloth. Modernist chandeliers and wall scones suggest the shapes of driftwood, shells and other sea creatures. Tables and chairs are natural wood colors. The main bar is topped with an exotic, variegated quartzite surface in the colors of sand and earth.

The overall mood is sophisticated casual: airy, light and soothing on the eyes.We found it refreshingly simple and elegant, with the menu eliciting similar feelings.

Like the restaurant’s interior, Getter strives for a healthy, eco-friendly balance in the menu, which he describes as “Contemporary America cuisine in an eco-modern, casual atmosphere.” Using ingredients found nearby when possible, Dune’s menu offers plenty of straightforward preparations of seafood, poultry, beef and pork.

Pork selections include a classic, simply prepared Berkshire chop and crispy cheek on a bed of creamy marscapone grits, which many diners are raving about. A sirloin is Painted Hills Natural Beef, which touts its products as raised humanely without antibiotics. Here the steak takes center stage on the plate with crispy fingerling potatoes, blue cheese and baby greens—a basic, unfussy combination. Nantucket fluke, striped bass and halibut get similar respect with accompaniments of salads, corn, fingerlings or gazpacho.

A ratatouille and saffron aioli complement a roasted chicken breast. The wine program is designed for similar easy selection divided by types of wine rather than specific varietals. Getter believes that’s a better presentation and allows customers to order their wines according to their preference: light and crisp or rich and warm.

Recent guests on the night pictured here included local tradesmen and women who worked with Becker and Getter in outfitting the eatery. The dinner served as a thank you for their help and as their introduction to the restaurant.With plans to stay open year-round, Getter hopes Dune will be thought of by customers as a regular dinning destination rather than just a special occasion place.

By Orla Murphy-LaScola

As an avid supporter of handmade, wellfarmed, small production wine, I would find it very difficult to meet one of those wines and not have something nice to say about it. For example, even a wine that is overpoweringly “barnyardy” has a perfect mate in food. Then same goes for a particularly ammonia-scented Sauvignon Blanc.

This affection for small production wines leaves me with quite the dilemma: If I had to make a short list of favorite wines, what wines would make the cut? Which five wines would I take with me to a deserted island to keep me hydrated and happy while I wait for more bottles—I mean, a rescue team— to arrive?

Obviously, my knee-jerk reaction to hearing that I’d be stuck on a deserted island with only five bottles of wine is to insist that each bottle is a Nebuchadnezzar. The largest allowed format bottle for French burgundy and champagne, a Nebuchadnezzar is the equivalent of 20 bottles of wine. Yet, this would be a very shallow, greedy thing for me to say. It would also limit my choices to only two, albeit wonderful wine regions. And since I’m a lover of wine from all around the world, even those I have not been fortunate or wealthy enough to try, I can imagine what they taste like, so those cannot be ruled out either.

And so my dilemma continues. Does the list have to be only wines that I personally know to be great, or can the list include wines that are reported to be among the best? Oh, the questions that keep me up at night! After much deliberation and hair pulling, I have decided to include wines on the list that I have not yet had the pleasure of tasting.

First up: the 1985 Bollinger Vieilles Vignes Françaises. Personally, when it comes to champagne, I can either take it or leave it. Between you and me, it happens to make me a mean drunk. Either way, a top wine list must begin with great champagne. Produced from Pinot Noir grapes sourced from the Clos Chaudes Terres and the Clos St-Jaques Vineyards, the 1985 vintage also includes grapes from the Croix Rouge vineyard. Because the vines in the Clos Chaudes Terres and the Clos St-Jaques vineyards have never been grafted onto American rootstock, they survived the Phylloxera infestation in the mid-19th century that wiped out more than 6.2 million acres of French vines. As a result, the Bollinger Vieilles Vignes is incredibly rare and special. I am also happy to note that is it available in a Nebuchadnezzar.

My second wine on the list would have to be a California Chardonnay. Here, I’ll include two options: one that I have tried and another that trusted friends assure me is magnificent. The first Chardonnay, which I know and love, is the 2001 Kongsgaard Napa Chardonnay. Now, I know I’ll get a lot of flack from customers and wino friends for this choice, but I truly believe this wine shows everything there is to love and hate—depending on your palate and preferences—about California Chardonnays. And it can’t be beat when paired with a rich, buttery meal of strong flavors.

The second California Chardonnay that I will blindly choose for my deserted island list is the 2002 Marcassin Chardonnay Marcassin Vineyard. The brainchild of extremely talented husband-and-wife winemakers Helen Turley and JohnWetlauer, this wine is nearly impossible to get your hands on, as it is produced in very limited qualities. Not unlike the great Californian grunion runs, this wine is worth foraging and waiting for, as it is apparently worthy of any and all aggravation.

Perhaps now would be a good time for a 1996 Mouton-Rothschild and a 1996 Bryant Family Vineyards. Both are Cabernets. Many believe that these wines are now just coming of age.When it comes to the Bryant Family Vineyards, the 1997 Cabernet received a better overall rating than the 1996, but I believe the 1996 to be more difficult and interesting. Since we happen to own both the Mouton-Rothschild and the Bryant Family Vineyards since their release, finding an occasion to drink them is highly in order.We can only hope that both have aged well like a Van Gogh and not like a hard-partying, chain-smoking Vegas lounger singer. Watch this space if you have any patience, as the wines should be drinking well between now and 2020. You never know—we could be holding out for the very last second of 2020 to enjoy them!

For my fourth choice, I have to go with a wine that is Shiraz-based and one of my favorite wines to drink. Every time I try Penfolds Grange, it has blown me out of the water, literally. I can only imagine what the 1976 can do. As this is a wine very close in age to myself, I believe the ’76 has a bit more aging to do and will be drinking well through 2025.

Like a well-planned chef’s tasting menu that starts with something light and crisp, slowly building in heaviness to finish with some rich sweetness, a good favorite wines list should do the same. So with no further adieu, I give you dessert for this deserted island list.

First, a little background on sweet wines: Expensive to produce, sweet wines come from grapes that have been left hanging on the vine for unusually long times to combat noble rot and frost. Consumers must remember that it sometimes takes an entire vine to produce just one glass of sweet wine, which is oftentimes reflected in the price.

While many connoisseurs consider Chateau D Y’quem to be liquid gold and one of the finest sauternes in the world, I have had the unique privilege of tasting a 1990 Chateau Climens, which I think rivals the Chateau D Y’quem. The Climens is known in its circles as the lord of Barsac, the region from which these fine wines both hail. Although the wine should be cloying and sweet, it is surprisingly light and refreshing. It is this very surprise that makes the 1990 Climens delicious, exceptional and unexpected.

While I truly believe in all the wines I have included in this list, it is by no means complete. A true student of the vine, I have much more research to conduct and wines to drink before the list will be complete. As always, I am open and available to suggestions and tastings.

For Fun Try:

Behrens & Hitchcock
2003 Chien Lunatique $$

Aerope Grenache
Two HandsWinery $$$

Red Car Sonoma Pinot Noir 2005 $$