Choose Granite Countertops Near Me Eastham, MA for Elegance and Durability

ORLEANS, Mass. —

Two bodies were found on board a missing fishing boat off Eastham, Massachusetts, in Cape Cod Bay, the Coast Guard confirmed Wednesday.

F/V Seahorse was last seen leaving its slip in Orleans, Massachusetts, with its captain and his girlfriend on board Sunday.

Family and friends said the bodies are those of the boat's captain, Shawn Arsenault, 64, and the captain's girlfriend, Felicia Daley, 54.

Felicia Daley

Felicia Daley

On Tuesday, the U.S. Coast Guard said Arsenault and Daley were known to be fishing in the vicinity of Eastham's Target Ship Wreck in Cape Cod Bay, but a cellphone ping last placed the boat 2 miles offshore of Chatham. The couple left out of Rock Harbor in Orleans with plans to go clamming.

Shawn Arsenault's brother, Paul Arsenault, said the faint image of the Seahorse's overturned white hull has confirmed his worst fears.

He thinks his brother's boat may have gotten hung up on something while fishing before taking on water.

"It's like a nightmare," Paul Arsenault said. "I'm waiting to wake up."

He said fishing was in his brother's DNA.

"He just loved being on the water," he said. "He loved the excitement. He loved being his own boss. He loved being a captain."

Friends of the couple are devastated.

"If you had her as a friend, you had a good friend," Daley's friend, Scott Amerault, said.

They are now remembering their time together.

"One thing about Shawn, you would know he was in the next town over, because his voice was so loud, he'd be cracking jokes," Shawn Arsenault's friend Patrick said.

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard is investigating reports that equipment on the boat was thrown overboard by Shawn Arsenault shortly after he left.

"It was reported he was throwing something overboard," Coast Guard Cmdr. Cliff Graham said. "I can't confirm what kind of equipment or what it was specifically."

On Sunday morning, Sam Miller found a GPS unit on a nearby beach. The name on the blue tape matches the missing boat, and her family left a note on Shawn Arsenault's pickup.

"I noticed in the surf there was something floating, so I went down to see what it was, and it turned out to be a GPS unit off of a boat," Miller said.

However, when the truck had not moved the next day, they called the harbormaster, who then alerted the Coast Guard.

Some who are familiar with the 30-foot boat said they had concerns.

"That was not a very stable boat," charter operator Hap Farrell said. "It had a round shine, and a lot of gear high. If it got hung up on a drag or something like that, it'd go right over."

As questions linger, friends are left wondering what could have gone wrong to cause the boat to take on water.

"Who knows, it's the ocean," Amerault said. "It takes you when it wants to. You can't question what the ocean does."

The Coast Guard is now urging members of the public with any information to call the Sector Southeastern New England command center at 866-819-9128.

LOCAL

Cape Cod Times

EASTHAM — An operating budget of $45.7 million, a capital budget of $2.4 million, and the acquisition of two condos along Route 6 opposite Salt Pond sailed through town meeting May 5.

But disagreements over articles regarding a real estate tax transfer fee, zoning bylaws and spending community preservation act money on renovating an apartment above the Eastham Thrift Store brought voters to the microphone.

Voters approved all of the town meeting articles, except for a citizen petition article.

That measure, Article 9A, the most contentious on the warrant, was drafted by the Eastham Part-time Resident Taxpayers Association and called for an independent auditor to create a tax strategy before the Select Board makes any changes to the FY26 tax structure.

In January, Select Board members indicated their support for instituting a residential tax exemption. The move would shift the tax burden from residents whose primary homes are in Eastham to non-resident taxpayers, with some exceptions. Provincetown, Truro and Wellfleet have already instituted RTEs to help their year-round residents cope with rising property values and taxes.

The Select Board will make a final decision on whether the town will implement the resident tax exemption for fiscal 2026 during a tax classification hearing in August.

The comments made during discussion of the article highlighted the animus between full- and part-time residents. Only residents who are registered voters in Eastham may vote at town meetings, but their votes are binding for part-timers.

The part-time residents group says full-time residents seeking financial relief aren't taking full advantage of help from the family support package, taxpayers' assistance fund, short-term rental tax, and use of Community Preservation Act money, according to wording in the petition. They should be embraced before any RTE is considered.

Short-sighted planning and borrowing have produced skyrocketing debt and taxes, according to the petition, and "further tax breaks for local special interest groups” are not justified.

There was consensus among voters that while the town has faced many financial challenges, it is well run and its boards and committees diligent and transparent in budgeting and planning. And the implication that year-round residents are a "special interest" group was demeaning to some speakers.

One resident said she was having trouble paying for her only home while part-timers seemed to have trouble affording a second home.

“Oversight on the Select Board is an affront to how nice this town is run,” said Russ French, a longtime Finance Committee member.

The town has a AA+ bond rating and its finances are audited annually by the state's Division of Local Services and an independent auditing firm, according to the warrant.

The petition failed on a 304-54 vote.

Article 5A, accepting a seasonal communities designation, passed 418 to 64 after spirited discussion about allowing tiny homes by right. Tiny homes would change the character of Eastham, one man complained. Select Board Chair Aimee Eckman said tiny homes wouldn’t be allowed everywhere, and that a zoning task force will lay out provisions for where they can be located.

Denise Coffey writes about business, tourism and issues impacting the Cape’s residents and visitors. Contact her atdcoffey@capecodonline.com .

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NEWS

Cape Cod Times

Before tourists and traffic, and long before clam shacks and ice cream parlors, 19th century essayist, naturalist and thinker Henry David Thoreau walked Cape Cod’s outer shoreline — marveling at the shipwrecks, lighthouses, dunes and the salt-weathered locals who made a life there.

Now, more than 150 years later, a rare manuscript in Thoreau's own hand, describing a visit to Eastham, was sold for $12,183 at auction.

Nate D. Sanders Auctions, based in Los Angeles, completed the sale on April 24 to an anonymous Massachusetts buyer, who was one of four bidders. The starting bid was $5,000.

The document, yellowed with age, is included with a 10-volume set of the 1906 manuscript edition of "The Writings of Henry David Thoreau," published by Houghton Mifflin. Only 600 numbered sets were produced, each featuring a two-page original manuscript bound into the first volume. The recently auctioned set with Thoreau's observations about Eastham is number 326.

"The manuscript offers a rare window into Thoreau’s creative process, filled with pencil edits, revisions, and additions — hallmarks of his precise and contemplative writing method," the auction house notes in an April 28 press release.

What did Thoreau say about Eastham?

Written in the early 1850s, the manuscript includes observations that later appeared in Thoreau’s "Cape Cod," published in 1865 — two years after his death. The auction took place just days shy of the 163rd anniversary of Thoreau’s death on May 6, 1862.

In the manuscript — 10.25'' x 8.5'' unfolded — Thoreau describes the Eastham landscape, noting it was starkly different from the familiar terrain of his inland home in Concord.

"All sands are here called 'beaches,' whether they are waves of water or of air, that dash against them, since they commonly have their origin on the shore," the manuscript reads. "The sand in some places,' says the historian of Eastham, 'lodging against the beach-grass, has been raised into hills fifty feet high, where twenty-five years ago no hills existed... rocks, which were formerly covered with soil, are disclosed, and being lashed by the sand, driven against them by the wind, look as if they were recently dug from a quarry.'"

Thoreau: 'Great crops of corn' in Eastham

Thoreau also expressed surprise "to hear of the great crops of corn which are still raised in Eastham, notwithstanding the real and apparent barrenness..."

Born in 1817, Thoreau is best known for his books "Walden" and “Civil Disobedience." Through his writings, a blend of self-reflection and insightful observations of nature and society, he encouraged people to connect with the natural world, question societal norms, and live more consciously.

In October 1849, June 1850 and July 1855, he walked along much of the outermost Cape, from Orleans to Provincetown. His book, "Cape Cod," contains reflections from his treks, observing the land, the sea, the people, and the unique challenges of life on the Cape.

Heather McCarron writes about climate change, environment, energy, science and the natural world, in addition to news and features in Barnstable and Brewster. Reach her at hmccarron@capecodonline.com.

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