Buzzards Bay has a (well earned) nasty reputation. In the summer, there’s a consistent southwesterly afternoon sea breeze, and with up to 5.5kts of current at its peak, the ebb tide flowing out of the Cape Cod Canal can cause some gnarly standing waves. Growing up nearby, this was not news to us, so we had to plan this portion of the trip carefully. With the timing of the tides on Monday, we had to be careful not to arrive too early and put ourselves smack in the heart of the worst of it. But arrive too late, and we’d have enough current running the other way to make the turn into Onset tough.
We motored out from Block Island in a light fog that you could tell was worse out to sea. In a few hours, we were passing Cuttyhunk and the Elizabeth Islands, putting us in new territory for the first time on our way north. Ironic since we’re both from the Cape (I used to use that phrase without hesitation – obviously “the Cape” is Cape Cod – but now that we visit/sail past so many capes, I feel the need to clarify), but neither of us have really sailed our home waters beyond Town Cove in Orleans, where we kept our first boat ages ago.
By the time we reached Falmouth, the sea breeze had set up, but we couldn’t sail because we’d be too fast. We rolled out the jib, hoping to keep ourselves under 4kts over ground, but even that was too much sail, so we reefed, and reefed again… and again, until we had just a scrap of sail out. The waves built quickly as did the breeze, and soon we were seeing gusts up to 25, which is typical in that area. We saw another boat coming out of Hog Island Channel, which is technically the entrance to the canal (even though I always think of it as starting at the Mass Maritime Academy), so we radioed over for a conditions check. Sloppy at the entrance but not too bad, came the report, so we decided the timing was right to go for it. We had 6′ waves every 2 seconds, but it honestly wasn’t too horrible. Some of our other “sporty” inlet experiences had us well prepared for this, and about 1/4 mile in, things laid down nicely. The current was still calm enough that the entrance to Onset was easy, and we picked up our mooring without much trouble.
My parents, one of my brothers and his girlfriend came to meet us for dinner and to see the boat, and we had so much fun catching up. Today, we got in a little time exploring the town before my father-in-law picked us up for lunch, took us grocery shopping and brought us back to their house to meet their new dog. We got to satisfy our bad Chinese food craving with takeout from Tiki Port (which we were happy to learn was NOT closing, despite rumors to the contrary).
My sister-in-law and her oldest daughter came out to spend the night on the boat with us and join us for our trip to Salem. We wanted to hit the Cape Cod Canal just around slack, before the flood started running, which meant a 6am departure so it was just easier to have them stay.
It was a whirlwind couple of days catching up with family, but it was pretty special to us. Even though we didn’t technically sail home (Onset is just off Cape), we were pretty darned close and it was nice to finally be able to show my family where we live now. I’m positively giddy about getting to transit the Canal but a little nervous too. But we’ve done the hardest part already and are in the perfect spot to hit our timing just right, so it should be an easy trip.
