CAPE COD CANAL

The Cape Cod Canal provides a wonderful short cut provided you get the tide right. The northern entrance was only 50 miles from Salem and the weather was perfect. Under full main and headsail we sailed on a broad reach at 7knots arriving at the entrance with the tide flowing with us at about 4 knots. We had planned to spend the night at the marina but after refuelling we decided we had just enough daylight to transit the canal. Motoring at 6 knots through the water we travelled at 10 knots over the ground. In less than an hour we had done our transit of the canal and picked up a mooring at Onset for the night.
The next day with westerly winds of 10-15 knots and clear skies we had an easy sail down Buzzards Bay to Cuttyhunk Island, negotiated the narrow entrance and picked up a mooring in the dredged pond. The moorings were very close together and had a stiff penant and mooring ring sticking up about 6 feet out of the water. Threading a line through the ring was tricky and even though we pulled ourselves up on a short tether we still fouled the mooring behind when we swung on the breeze. As it was the end of the season there were few boats in the harbor and we were disappointed when a young man appeared alongside in a dinghy and asked us for $40 (the nightly mooring fee). He assured us it was the last day the charge would apply and we could stay from then on for nothing. It was tempting but we needed to press on. Cuttyhunk is a delightful little island full of holiday homes, shacks and a small permanent population of mainland dropouts. Electric golf carts provide the main form of transport and when we expressed a desire to do some coastal walking an elderly female resident invited us to jump on board her golf buggy and drove us down the narrow roads and tracks to a convenient sarting point.
It was now mid October and the nights were getting cold. We pulled out our down filled sleeping bags and decided to keep moving south with the ever increasing flocks of Canada geese.