Through the Canal
24 July 2006 | Onset
Dave
My upgraded throttle cable
After spending several days in Provincetown, I was getting the itch to start moving further south so we pulled up anchor and headed out for Wellfleet. With winds blowing hard we were in for a bumpy ride with seas predicted between 3-5 feet. Well as I have been told many times, things don't always go as planned when living on a boat. Ten minutes after pulling up anchor, the starboard throttle would no longer throttle. Lisa took over the helm while I went down below to check the situation out. Lisa did a great job handling the boat with the wind blowing 15 knots, lobster pots all around and only 1 engine operational. After about 10 minutes I diagnosed the problem to be a snapped throttle cable. So back to the anchorage we go to figure out the next step. With the help of Jack, we were able to jerry rig a solution that entailed using a pair of vice grips to pull the cable in and out while under way. It's not pretty, but it worked and we were able to head out for Wellfleet as planned. The delay helped because the winds died down and we had a comfortable ride. It took us about 4 hours, motor sailing most of the way though at one point we were able to shut the motors down and sail around 8 knots. Heading into Wellfleet prepared us for the Bahamas with only 8' of water the entire trip up the river. Lisa cooked up another great meal and her homemade bread is out of this world. The next day we headed for the canal and onto Onset. We timed the tides just right and had a great run through the canal. Safely anchored in Onset, we were ready for our first meal out. We spent a couple days here a few years back and had remembered a great pizza joint. Jack and Helen joined us and we showed them around town while picking up some provisions and checked out the laundry mat for tomorrow's entertainment.