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Date: 19 Jun 2012 13:28:00
Title: Cape Cod Canal to Boston, Massachusetts
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After a slightly delayed start, due to being aground in the marina this morning, we have now left Nantucket and are heading back towards the Cape Cod Canal.  The canal has been built to allow a safe route through the land, rather than have to go all the way round by sea, which can be very rough, as Cape Cod is one of the larger capes in the world and extremely exposed.  The trip to the canal from Nantucket is about 40 miles, it is shortened by a small 'cut-through' between the islands on the mainland.  This channel, although narrow, seemed fine as regards depth. When we entered, we made a quick change of plan and followed the route another similar boat had taken.  Fortunately, we had dropped the sails - there were huge rip tides raging between the buoys, so steering under sail would have been a bit tricky and more difficult than necessary.  
The plan was to arrive at the entrance to the Cape Cod Canal, and then anchor for the night so we could transit the canal early the next day. Finding an anchorage proved to be somewhat challenging.  There was a place mentioned in our cruising guide, but it was very difficult to determine exactly where it was. Before we had left Nantucket, we had been told about a marine centre with moorings and docks about two miles before the entrance which seemed like a good option.  The book we have did not include this place, but it is a book paid for by advertisers, not an independent book, so it doesn't include all facilities anyway.  After a quick call, a mooring ball was booked, and we went into the entrance channel.  The water was fairly shallow, but on a rising tide, seemed perfectly do-able - they guy who recommended it was the skipper on a boat a similar size to us, so we thought it would be ok.  You can guess where this is leading can't you?  After a while following the channel we came to a place where we had to decide which way to go, and which channel to follow, as I am sure you can imagine, we chose the wrong one! 5 minutes later we were stuck fast, aground on a sand bar.  What we did learn going through there was that if your depth sounder shows 0.0, you are probably OK as they are a little conservative anyway, but when it starts to flash - you are in trouble!! Once we realised we were not going to get off the sand bar ourselves, we decided to make a cup of tea and wait to float off - there was little else we could do.  I had been in radio contact with the marina a few times trying to get some help to find the correct channel, but they were no help at all.  Eventually a guy came out to us on his boat, and using a halyard from the top of the mast, leant the boat over so that the keel would lift & we could motor off the sand bar.  Once we re-floated, he then guided us in.  Our problems were still not over though. When the marina radioed back, they wanted to confirm that we were 40ft long with a 6 foot draft! By this time I was a bit fed-up and told then in no uncertain terms that when I rang an hour ago, I made it very clear that we were 55ft long with a 7 foot 6 inches draft! None of their moorings were big enough so we had to go straight back out again - a complete waste of time and a lot of stress for nothing!
We wandered about the area for a while looking for a suitable anchorage and eventually the canal patrol boat sent us off to Onset Bay which, although again not hugely deep, was very quiet and we dropped the anchor there for a great nights' sleep - it had been a very long day with one thing an another, and even getting in here wasn't easy with rip-tides, tight entrance channels, and lots of lobster pots!
Luckily when we woke up at 5.45am, the sun was shining and the winds were light.  The run through the canal was lovely in the sunshine, we had managed to time the tide right and had nearly 3 knots of current with us, so the whole trip took about 45 minutes.  On the other side we hoisted the large headsail and for the next 30 miles sailed comfortably downwind, heading for Boston.
The run into Boston from the southern harbour entrance is a bit of a trek - it seems to take ages, it winds all round the harbour as there is a huge sandbank in the middle, it is about 5 miles long and as we had the tide with us in the canal, we had it against us here which meant it was even slower - note to self, ensure tide going same way when we leave!
As we got closer the skyline came into view and the temperature started to rise.  We had got dressed at 5.30am as we had left at 6am, so it was cool enough then for thermals and foul weather gear.  Boston, however, was a steamy 100°F!  We had read about a possible heatwave but hadn't really expected this, and were somewhat overdressed for it!  After a quick wash down, boat and definitely the crew, we set off exploring our latest temporary home port.

The entrance bridge to the Cape Cod Canal, slightly hazy at 6am in the morning mist!

This sign does ay welcome to the Cape Cod Canal, but I can't make it any bigger

First view of the Boston Skyline, this time the haze is due to the extreme heat!


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