Information about Falmouth, MA

Falmouth Harbor is conveniently located on the south side of Cape Cod halfway between Newport, RI and Nantucket Island with easy access to the renown cruising waters of Buzzards Bay, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Sounds. Falmouth Harbor has a full compliment of marine related services including Marinas, fuel, provisioning and dining.

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Boating in Falmouth, MA Map View

Falmouth Harbor, the open roadstead off the south shore of Cape Cod eastward of Nobska Point Light, affords an anchorage for vessels in 24 to 36 feet about 0.8 mile from shore. Smaller vessels can anchor closer to the shore in 15 to 18 feet. The bottom is generally sticky and good holding ground; the depths shoal gradually toward the shore. The anchorage affords a lee in northerly winds; in southerly winds the sea is somewhat broken by L’Hommedieu Shoal and the shoals westward of it so that a vessel with good ground tackle can ride out a gale in comparative safety.
Falmouth Harbor is frequently used by vessels with good ground tackle that prefer this anchorage to the anchorage in Vineyard Haven Harbor, which may be crowded in bad weather. Vessels approaching the anchorage are cautioned to stay clear of the two shoal areas with depths of 10 to 16 feet marked by buoys which extend westward of L’Hommedieu Shoal.
Prominent Features
Falmouth Heights, about 3 miles east-northeast of Nobska Point Light and east of the town of Falmouth, is a prominent yellow bluff on the summit of which are numerous homes and a large hotel.
Navigation:
Vessels can enter Falmouth Harbor from the southward on a course of 344° with West Chop Light eastern, and pass about 0.1 mile westward of Falmouth Harbor East Shoal Buoy 17. Vessels in the vicinity of Nobska Point Light can pass 0.4 mile eastward of the light on a north-northeasterly course, and when Tarpaulin Cove and Nobska Point Lights are nearly in range, stand eastward to an anchorage.
Falmouth Inner Harbor, westward of Falmouth Heights, is a dredged basin about 0.7 mile long and less than 0.1 mile wide, on the north side of Falmouth Harbor. A tall green standpipe, about 1.5 miles westward of Falmouth, is one of the most prominent landmarks in this vicinity. The yacht club dock and flagpole, just inside the entrance on the east side of the harbor, are conspicuous from close inshore. The harbor is entered through a dredged channel between two jetties; a light marks the end of the west jetty. In March 2004, the controlling depth was 7.1 feet in the entrance channel to the inner harbor; thence 6.2 feet in the inner harbor, except for shoaling to 3.7 feet at the upper end of the harbor along the NW side.