ARTICLES ABOUT M/V MORNING LIGHT

Cruises Planned In Red Brook Harbor, Pocasset River

This article, written by Diana T. Barth, appeared in the Bourne Enterprise.

The Morning Light, a 32-Foot Chesapeake Bay cruiser owned by Peter E. Moon of Pocasset, is expected to begin taking on passengers for tours of Bourne waters this season. Mr. Moon, who can be found working at the Kingman Yacht Center in Cataumet during the boating season, is starting the harbor cruise business.

Initially, on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, he will be picking up passengers at Kingman's for a tour of Red Brook Harbor. Mr. Moon envisions tours going around Bassetts Island and past Wing's Neck and Scraggy Neck. Kingman's, home of The Chart Room restaurant, should provide a more than adequate pool of customers, who might be interested in a tour of the area from the water, he said. Mr. Moon is also planning cruises departing from the town's Pocasset River marina.

He came before Bourne selectmen March 14, asking their permission to permit cruise passengers to park at that marina on Mondays through Thursdays. From there, Mr. Moon said, he could start out on the river and take passengers toward Mashnee Island, and under the Railroad Bridge.

He told Bourne selectmen he wanted to provide short-term parking permits for passengers wanting to lake a cruise, Saying that he was unaware of anyone else who was providing harbor cruises in the area, he told the board the tours would allow visitors to explore the town from a different perspective. He wanted to be able to buy 10 to 20 short-term, one-day parking permits from the town, and suggested that he pay $5 per permit.

After consulting with George W. Weinert, director of the Department of Natural Resources, who was present at the meeting, selectmen told Mr., Moon they believed the Pocasset River was the only marina location, where the parking lot is underutilized. Mr., Weinert said his department could find a method for issuing daily, date-stamped parking permits. Commercial boats and charter sailboats already come to town marinas and discharge passengers, Mr., Weinert said, and no fees are levied for those activities. Selectmen approved issuing Mr. Moon daily parking permits for three parking spaces, to be used for several trips per day, at a cost of $5 per car.

Mr. Moon said he is currently thinking of running six trips a day, possibly customizing some of them, he said. A breakfast in Wareham trip is a possibility, he said, as are specially arranged luncheon and dinner trips. The Morning Light can accommodate up to six passengers; the average trip will cost about $35 per person.

Morning Light, a 32-foot Chesapeake Bay cruiser, sits at anchor in the Pocasset River in a photograph taken last fall.