Cape Cod Canal, Massachusetts
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Thu 20 Sep 2007 02:35
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41:48.046N 70:29.243W
On Sunday (9/16), we left Hull Bay and the Boston
area behind and headed south to the Cape Cod Canal. It was a lovely
motorsail (the sails really were helping...honest, they weren't just up for
show), although a bit on the cool side. We haven't seen the '70's for a
while, and the nights in the 40's are a bit chilly. We are still chasing
that dream of perpetual summer that went poof when we hit Nova Scotia
in early August. Summer showed itself a bit in Maine and then again
in Provincetown, but has been elusive ever since. Brrrrr!
Once we hit the canal, we had a marvelous
ride. We happened to get there at the right time for the right current in
the proper direction. There are no locks in this canal, and the tidal
range is quite different from one end of the 15 mile canal to the other; 10-11
feet on the east or Cape Cod Bay side and 3-4 feet on the west or Buzzards Bay
side. As a result, the currents within the canal can be vicious -
especially if they are coming from where you'd like to go (the current
direction reverses depending on whether the tide is coming in or going
out). Given the positive 4 knots of current, we transited the canal in
record time and set new speed records while doing so. With the current, we
were traveling more than 11 knots [non-boater translation: those
that live in the Boston area would say, 'wicked fast']. It felt
like we were gliding. We were going about 7 knots through the water, but
the land was sliding by at more than 11 knots because of the current, and the
water was so smooth and flat that the sensation was truly like floating through
the air.
The picture below shows two of the three
bridges we went under on our way through the canal. The one in the
foreground is a vertical lift railroad bridge - at 544 ft across, it is the
second-largest lift span of its kind in the world. Apparently the
bridge is generally used for only one purpose - that being for
the 'trash train', which carries garbage off of Cape Cod to some other
unlucky place. Kind of a fancy bridge for a garbage run.
Anne
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