July Night in Menemsha Bight

July Night in Menemsha Bight

Friday, August 24, 2012

Dinghy Docks - New Bedford Harbor

There are three public dinghy docks maintained by the City of New Bedford in the inner harbor.  The first is at the Gifford Street location, which I discuss in the post before this one.  If you are leaving your dinghy here for any time, you want to lock it up.

As you proceed further into the harbor from the barrier there is another public dinghy dock on the south side of what is known as State Pier.  The north side of the pier is used by the fast ferries.  The face of the pier usually has some large yacht or little cruise ship on it.  The dinghy dock is located where the south side of State Pier and the intersects with pier boardwalk.   You won't necessarily see the dinghy dock until you enter into the passage between the docks in this area.  You will see large fishing boats stacked up in this area and you will think you might not belong, but you do - just keep heading in.  The dock is a floating dock with ladder up to sort of boardwalk area.  This area is where there is a small "park" dedicated to the Coast Guard.  There is not much mention of this "park" in many maps of the area, but it does exist with a little monument.  If you tie up here, you will enjoy walking the docks in this area and checking out the boats.  Cross the street (very wide) and you will be in the historical area of New Bedford with great restaurants, bars, stores, museums, and such.  I'll go into a little more detail in another post on what you might find in this area, but it is where the action is.  National Park service has a little facility in this area as well a a larger facility across the street and in the Historical area.  You will see State Pier in the photo below.  Dinghy dock is between the docks to the left in photo and can't be seen in this one.

 

The third dinghy dock has only been around for a year or so.  It is located on Pope's Island.  Pope's Island is the relatively large island in the middle of the upper harbor.  A bridge from New Bedford to tiny Fish Island then crosses over to Pope's Island, then crosses over to Fairhaven.  The section from Fish Island to Pope's has an antique swing bridge which allows passage further north in the harbor, but you are not going that far to get to the dinghy dock.  The dinghy dock is on the south side of Pope's island, to the east of all of the docks associated with Pope's Island Marina (owned and managed by the city of New Bedford).  It is a long floating dock, leading up to a playground, green area, adjacent to a public parking lot.  Unless you are renting a mooring or a slip from Pope's Island Marina, you do not have access to the showers, laundry facilities or other limited amenities at the marina.  You can use the parking lot and green area.  Across the street (Rt. 6) from the dinghy dock is a large hardware store that has a small, but healthy marine hardware section and should be checked out before you go over to West Marine, which is also just across the street.  There is a Dunkin Donuts on the island, a strip club, a restaurant, and some marinas which I'll talk about in another post.  There is no reason you can't tie up at this dinghy dock and walk into either New Bedford or Fairhaven to see some sights.

 

You cannot see the dinghy dock in this photo as it had not been constructed yet.

The link below, if I've done it correctly will show you a nice map that the harbor authority has published showing the dinghy dock locations.


http://www.portofnewbedford.org/documents/Inner_Harbor_Map.pdf


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