New Bedford to Sandwich
July 1, 2013
We stopped in New Bedford and attached ourselves to the bottom of the harbor via mooring ball. Thing is that no one came to collect the fee so we owe them one. It was heavy weather last night and today was no different. We left NB at 0650 in order to catch the tides flowing the right way through the Cape Cod Canal. As it turned out we hit it right and were rewarded by a 3.4 knot current in the right direction. At one point, we were scooting across the ground at just over 9.4 knots.
Big time storms chased us all day. Fog and rain obscured our view of Buzzards Bay so it was another day staring at the radar and the chart plotter, sort of like IFR flying only slower. The weather did ease a bit once we entered the canal and the reward was a pleasant, fast ride. It was a bit funny to be completely alone in the approach to the entrance and a moment later several other sailboats emerged from the fog ahead and astern.
The Cape Cod Canal was built in 1914. It was 100 feet wide and 15 feet deep. Today it is over 500 feet wide and 35 feet deep. It shortens the trip along the coast by a hundred miles or so. More importantly for the crew of Why Knot, we are now on the northernmost segment of our cruise. We are in Cape Cod Bay, well almost. We stopped in Sandwich, Mass whose marina is on the canal just a half mile from the Bay proper. The next stop to the left is Plymouth that had just a small part in American History. I wonder if the rock is the real rock the Mayflower crew used? To the right and a mere 25 miles across the bay is Providencetown, Mass at the very tip of Cape Cod. Back to Sandwich: which was the first town settled on the Cape in 1637 by Quakers getting away from religious prosecution in Boston. Seem they did not like the Celtics or beans and wanted no part in the Big Dig.
We may stay another night here just to watch the stuff happening in the Canal. There are two restaurants near the marina and when asked if they have lobster, the harbormaster said that if they did not offer it they would not be allowed to stay where they are. Could it be that Bear will finally have her fill of that bugg? The tide at this marina is 10 feet and you can almost watch it move. The BGT here is 9.0.