Onset, Massachusetts
30 September 2019
• Onset PIYC
by Michael and Barbara Turney • Sunny
Monday September 30, 2019
Today would be the start of the first new day in the United States. We spent a very comfortable night on this prohibitively expensive mooring in the town mooring field. I don't see how they expect to rent these mornings out at these prices but apparently they do, and in fact they have regular customers according to the tender operator. I guess if you want to come and stay here and don't want to anchor this is the game. There are two dingy docks here. One is here at the marina with the moorings and the other one is a municipal dock. The municipal dock is free while the marina dock is available only to their customers. I will say that the facilities are beautiful, new, and clean. Plus the staff is professional, knowledgeable, and courteous. Still - $155Cdn for a mooring. Even the staff seemed embarrassed to be charging it. The only excuse he offered was that P'town was now on a par with Nantucket. I don't see that as a reason. If we come here again we will be anchoring since I now have an idea of where to do it.
This morning we tried our best to squeeze every penny out of our mooring fee with a tender ride in and out, a long hot shower, and picking the tender operators brain without mercy about the town. For example, did you know that the Pilgrim Founders landed here first, before they continued on to Plymouth? They did! But they couldn't find a source of water so they continued on. Next year it will be the 400th anniversary of their landing.
How about that!?
I have been on the phone with US Customs and Border Protection and the roam app works! Two things wrong and they were both my fault. I wasn't supposed to submit my arrival report until we actually got here. Makes sense. I don't know why I thought that I had to file the report as I left Shelburne Harbour. The other was that they were supposed to send me a cruising decal which, if they did I don't know what I did with it. Regardless, a very pleasant CBP Officer cleared us for entry and will make the trip to Onset tomorrow to issue us with our decal and collect $19US. If you are not familiar with this app, first you have to get a NEXUS card which flags you as a trusted traveller. This is well worth it for clearing into Canadian Customs too regardless of what country you are arriving from. With this you can set yourself up on their system with your passport numbers, NEXUS cards all all that. Then you simply file an arrival just an hour before you arrive and most of the time you are cleared by telephone. Neat, eh?
Also, on our trip from P'town we saw our first larger marine animal of the trip. Not a whale or porpoise but a moha moha or what I refer to as God's incomplete project. It's a fish that seems to have a head and dorsals but then it's almost like the creator said to himself, "Getting late. I'll finish this tomorrow.", and slapped a dorsal fin and a tail on it and walked away. As a result you have the ocean sunfish. A beastee that can grow to 600-700 pounds but has to make do with a head and not much else.
At 13:40 hrs. local time we completed our crossing of Cape Cod Bay. Although it was only three hours it was a lot nicer three hours in the previous three days. Then, we arrived at the Canal earlier than we needed to and did the 15 mile transit in about an hour and a half. That's an average speed of 11 knots. We were flying! In fact we were traveling at such a clip that I was worried about being able to turn off and negotiate the 100 meter run perpendicular to the current to get into the entrance to Onset. We did but it was a hairy few seconds.
Now it is 04h06 local and we have fueled up and docked at Onset at the Point Independence Yacht Club. The Dock Manager, Barry, was great! Hospitable. Friendly. Informative. He knocked some money off our dockage. And he has lent us one of his cars for our stay. Can't ask for much more than that, can you?
We are going out for dinner to a place that another boater here has recommended and then we will be back for sundowners and a good relax.
Tomorrow will be busy fixing broken boaty things.
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