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I like to leave positive reviews, BUT, we made a reservation along with ten of our other yacht club members. We arrived at around 3pm. Contacted the harbor master by vhf. He asked me what mooring am I assigned. That is what he is supposed to advise me. He then directed AMITIE to head into harbor to pick up number 6 , a yellow and green mooring “can”.
We watched the mooring numbers go up. We contacted him again but he did not respond. Finally, marine patrol, unrelated to harbor master, advised to follow him back away from the harbor. We followed for more than a mile towards the Chatham entrance to harbor and located #6. The mooring ball, not can, was the first mooring you pass when coming in the channel.
It had NO line whatsoever to pick up, only a rusty thimble and no way to reach to run a line. Thankfully, the marine patrol (UNRELATED to harbor master) assisted to run a line down. Tying up to a rusty thimble in 20 knots of wind was considered unsafe for the night. We dropped of after an hour and came into the inner harbor and grabbed one of the many available moorings that had a proper line to pick up.
After speaking to other sailors, we learned this has happened before and harbor master or assistant thereof was similarly unhelpful. Bottom line: we are very underwhelmed by the Chatham harbor master and very thankful the marine patrol was listening to our many attempts to obtain accurate information from the harbor master. Anyway, quite pathetic by harbor master office.