Tag Archives: Galilee
Breakwaters have protected Galilee from storms for over a century. Now repairs are needed
On a recent overcast morning fisherman Mike Marchetti boards his vessel Mister G, a 50-foot lobster boat converted into a scalloper, and gently pulls out of the Port of Galilee’s UU dock. The slate water reflects the sullen sky, but Mister G chugs along pleasantly past the docks, through the breachway and out to the Point Judith Harbor of Refuge. That name – “Harbor of Refuge” – is at risk of becoming a misnomer to Marchetti. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers created the Point Judith Harbor of Refuge in the early 20th century when it constructed a series of breakwaters to protect the port from hazardous sea conditions. These days the sea is winning. As Mister G nears the main breakwater – a v-shaped 6,970-foot-long wall of massive boulders – Marchetti looks out the starboard window and points at wide gaps in the breakwater. Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 07:45
Local fisherman make their pitch to governor
Fishermen like Jon Williams, who call Galilee home, have depended for too long on the port’s aging docks and rusty bulkheads. Williams’ Narragansett Crab Company brings in millions of pounds of fish per year, but he’s hamstrung by a dock that dates back to 1948 and can’t be used because it’s in such poor shape. But he struck a hopeful tone Friday when Gov. Dan McKee came to his business to learn how Williams and his brethren would benefit from a multi million-dollar project to get the port ship-shape through repairs and modernization. >click to read< 08:00
The Sea Is So Great…
The New Year came in on a dour note, wind-driven rain slamming the south-facing windows near the foot of my bed. I would not sleep, I knew, so I stayed up late, reading a book loaned to me several years ago. The bookmark was about four pages in, then I must have put it down before eventually giving it an “I will read you, truly, someday” place on a shelf. It seemed I had been sick forever, the winter cold and everything else that is always “going around” and my normally slow reading pace had been accelerated. It was late, deep into the morning by the clock, the storm on the edge of abating when I finally went upstairs so it was correspondingly late when I first looked at the news on New Year’s Day and saw that a fishing vessel had gone down in that terrible weather a few miles south of Block Island. >click to read<
