Continued
An early start on Monday was the plan as Roger and Chris Jones were due back on Monday morning and needed their mooring. We had water pump problems and ended up hanging on the mooring for longer that expected. We diagnosed the problem and Tony was in the middle of fixing it when Roger and Chris approached on their sailboat looking for their mooring. They ended up picking up another mooring, in the meantime we fixed our problem and were off, and they returned to their mooring. Talk about overstaying your welcome. Nevertheless, Roger and Chris were real sports about it and could not have been more understanding and hospitable.
Our goal for the day was to make it to Onset, MA which had us cruising up Buzzards Bay, the 30 mile stretch of water between RI and MA. Onset sits just off Buzzards Bay at the southwestern tip of the Cape Cod Canal. We selected it as the stopping-over point with a plan to run the Cape Cod Canal early the next morning. We arrived at
5:30 p.m., later than we expected, given our delayed start, took on fuel and grabbed a mooring for the evening. Of course this was the one spot where you pay for a mooring and there is no launch service. We ended up putting the dingy in the water and went into town. (Under normal circumstances we would not have done this, but Tony was out of beer, so it was considered an emergency!)
Cape Cod Canal, to Scituate, MA - Tuesday July 15
An 8:00 a.m. start from Onset insured favorable tides through the Cape Cod Canal. The canal is a seven mile land cut across the neck of Cape Cod to points north and east, saving boaters from the long and arduous trip through Nantucket Shoals and around Cape Cod to reach Boston or Maine.
The canal was begun in 1880 with shovels and wheelbarrows, and construction continued fitfully until it opened in 1914. It was 25 feet deep and only 100 feet wide. Today it is 32 feet deep and 480 feet wide. (Thank goodness!)
This is one of those bodies of water you need to time your navigation just right or you have a heck of a time getting through. We were fortunate to catch it just at the right time. We were with the tide the entire time, clocking boat speeds up to 11 knots. (For all those that don’t sail, 11 knots is unheard of…we normally cruise at speeds of seven knots or less under full sail and the engine going). The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers manages the canal and does not allow the sail boats to sail through the canal, motoring only is permitted.
Upon leaving the canal, we ran dead into a fog bank so thick you could not see 80 feet in front of you. We were never so happy to have radar installed. (This was a new addition installed in the late Spring anticipating this trip). The only problem is radar does not pick up lobster pots, so I stood on the bow, communicating to Tony via our walkie-talkie system when he needed to navigate around the lobster pots.
The fog continued through the remainder of the day – approximately 40 miles until we reached Scituate, MA. Scituate remains a traditional but still thriving seaside village with accommodating shops and services for boaters and a small, snug harbor, deep and well protected. We pulled into the Scituate harbor and it was crystal clear, you would never know there was fog on the ocean. We were happy to be in and safe out of the fog. We stayed the night on a mooring at the Scituate YC, re-provisioned and moved on the next day.
We left Scituate around 9:00 a.m. knowing we had a short day to Gloucester, MA, approximately 25 miles away. We had some patchy fog underway, but had great wind and some rollers behind us. We approached Gloucester harbor mid afternoon passing Eastern Point and some very familiar “old stomping grounds”. While we lived in New York and CT, we kept the boat in Gloucester and made some life long friends. We returned to see them all and catch up.
We stayed at a restaurant dock in Smith Cove, on Rocky Neck. The restaurant used to be owned by our good friends Vini, and Ann Olivo. They set it up for us to be able to spend a few nights at the dock. That evening the Olivos, Vini, Ann, Sarah (18) and Jamie (15), picked us up for dinner and treated us to our first ‘lobsta’, and did we ever enjoy it!
We enjoyed returning to Gloucester and catching up with old friends. Like many towns we’ve visited more than 12 years ago, Gloucester has changed in many ways and in some ways is still friendly and familiar. It has gone crazy as far as real estate, and with that comes renovation of old homes into spectacular upscale homes. The number of boats in the Gloucester harbor and Smith Cove has increased by at least 30 percent in what was already a very crowded harbor and cove.
