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You are welcome to apply any part of this article to your own personal use. Please do NOT publish any part of the article or apply any part of it to any non-personal use without the express written concent of the author.
Eastern Seaboard Cruise - Dispatch #7, Duxbury, Massachusetts.
July 8, 2001
The front that was expected to come through Newport last Sunday was rather disappointing. While in the Boston region lightning strikes and high winds caused power outages and downed trees, Newport saw hardly a sprinkling of rain and the winds were so light that the wind shift was hardly noticeable.
Late Monday morning we left Newport for Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts. Cuttyhunk was not in our original plan, whether northbound or southbound. But having been offered the use of a mooring in the harbor there, and not being bound by a fixed itinerary, we had decided to take up the kind offer.
The sail was glorious. The seas were in the 2-4 foot range. The winds were off the quarter in the low to mid teens, gusting only slightly higher. The sky was a clear blue dotted with puffy white cumulus clouds.
Kit, donning her Sail Mistress hat before we weighed anchor, called for double-reef in the mains'l as the weather prognosticators called for gusts as high as thirty knots. Then she donned her Miss Nervous Nellie hat and waited for the worst that never came. With each gust she prepared for Volant to heel way over by gripping her handholds until her knuckles turned white and making little squealing noises. When Kit realized that "Don't NOAA" didn't know, she removed her Miss Nervous Nellie hat, donned her First Mate hat, and thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the trip.
The only time of any concern was in crossing the wide Buzzards Bay Ship Channel at its entrance. Just as we came to the green #1 can buoy we could see a cruise ship hull-down and headed towards us from the Atlantic and a large tanker outward bound in the channel to our north. Judging our speed and their relative speeds, I figured that we'd make our way across to the red #2 nun buoy marking the far side of the channel before either ship came close. But the channel is about a mile wide at that point so it took us longer to cross than first expected. Both ships crossed our track when we were only a few hundred meters past the #2 nun.
Cuttyhunk Island was very charming. There's absolutely nothing to do there, and that is part of its charm. You can only get there by boat, by small floatplane or by small private aircraft (the one landing strip is barely 600' long, making it the shortest in the country. There are maybe a couple of dozen year-around residents on the island and a few thousand regular summer folk. Most locals use golf carts for transportation although there are maybe a half dozen small pickup trucks. There are perhaps two miles of paved roads leading to the marina and the main settlement. But most houses are reached by unpaved grassy tracks. There's one small market in the settlement, called The Market, that carries a small supply of a surprising variety of goods, from fishing lures to hot sauce. There's one restaurant on the island, located next to the marina, open for lunch and dinner. There's an artsy-craftsy tourist store selling tee shirts, oil colors by the local artist and the like, located next to the restaurant. The Cuttyhunk Historical Society building, open only a few hours each day during the summer season, contains only two rooms - one with an outline of the history of the islands in the Elizabeth Island chain, one that doubles as a meeting room and children's activities room. And no liquor may be served nor purchased anywhere on Cuttyhunk.
We spent a relaxing morning exploring the island by walking all the paved roads and some of the golf cart tracks. We met a few locals plus a few tourists along the way, all very friendly and interesting. As we got out of Rampant, our dinghy, at the dinghy dock we met a man that has been spending a month here every Summer with his family on his sailboat for many years. He uses and enjoys the laid-back life to recoup from his hectic life back in The World. At the highest part of the island there are the remains of a machine gun bunker, one of a number built for the defense of the island in anticipation of a German landing in World War II. There we met a couple from Duxbury, Massachusetts. They were relatively new to sailing and were visiting Cuttyhunk for the first time themselves. Since they weren't going to return to their mooring until Sunday, they offered it to us until then if we were going that way.
On Independence Day, Wednesday, at first light we left Cuttyhunk to catch the flood tide up Buzzards Bay. The winds were light, not enough for sailing. So we motored the entire way to Onsuch, Massachusetts, arriving in mid-morning. Onsuch is located at the top of Buzzards Bay at the western end of the Cape Cod Canal. We choose it as a destination for two reasons. First, we wanted to stage for transiting the canal. And we wanted to be close enough to the town of Sandwich where a friend from California was visiting for a family reunion.
After a short nap, we rendezvoused with Dianne. After meeting some of her family in Onsuch we moved on to Sandwich.
Sandwich has an annual Independence Day Boat Parade on the local millpond. People decorate all sorts of small watercraft, from rowboats to canoes. Each is provided with a dozen or so Japanese paper lanterns and some wood framing material. The parade occurs after nightfall so that the lanterns could be lit. The entries are judged on the best use of materials. Kit and I got roped into helping Dianne with her entry, a leaky six-foot flat-bottomed rowing scow without oars or oarlocks. Although we didn't win, we had a blast. Kit helped Dianne paddle their boat, Flower Child. I got to watch from the shoreline as the boats came around the corner from their staging area, hidden from the gathering crowd. It was almost ethereal with the lanterns floating in the air and reflecting off the water. No one knows about this event except the townies, and they'd rather be there than go to some of the larger townships nearby with their fireworks extravaganzas. It was a chance to experience a small slice of Americana.
We spent the night in Sandwich as the guests of Dianne's parents.
On Thursday we returned to Volant in Onsuch. We were joined in the evening by Dianne and Karen. Karen, one of our long-time friends, is now living near Boston. They spent the night aboard so that they could go with us through the Cape Cod Canal and on to Duxbury early on Friday Morning.
We caught the tide perfectly, receiving more than a four-knot lift from the current. We transited the just over eleven miles of the canal in less than an hour. We were now in Cape Cod Bay.
The sail to Duxbury was in eight to twelve knots of relative wind, close-hauled, with seas less than 2 feet. The three ladies aboard had some fun girl-time, ignoring the Captain who was trying to sail the boat. Fortunately Otto von Steerer, the autopilot, could handle helming chores so that I could do the sail trimming.
One mishap marred the trip. Otto has a cutout box down in the equipment bay that allows the switching from the inside (hydraulic) steering station to the outside (cable and quadrant) station. The rod connecting the box to a knob in the cockpit sheered when I attempted to resume steering in the cockpit. It was not a significant problem because I could quickly crawl into the equipment bay and make the adjustment directly to the cutout box.
But that gave us an opportunity for a shoreside adventure the next morning. Taking the broken rod with us ashore, we asked around and found J.R. at Bayside Marine. He didn't have a replacement part, nor could he weld it back together as his welder was off for the weekend. So he called around for us and found a welder in Plymouth who could do the repair. Then he very generously volunteered the use of his truck to drive there as he figured that we didn't bring our car along on our boat. If you should find yourself in Duxbury, be sure to stop by Bayside Marine and tell J.R. how you heard about them.
The welder fabricated a replacement for us. While waiting we chatted with a couple of his other waiting customers. One was a local caterer, originally from Ireland. He spoke in a New England accent with a slight Irish twist. Another was a septic tank inspector from whom we learned a bit of how sewage systems were done in this region.
Running the engine that evening to generate water, cool down the refrigeration, heat water and charge batteries, the watermaker's pressure control valve stem broke. So this morning we went hopefully back to J.R. Unfortunately he couldn't help us as most boaters in the region only go out for the day and didn't need a watermaker. Hmmm... Looks like a change of plans might be in order.
While ashore we took the opportunity to explore the Duxbury waterfront area by foot. It is a quiet town, pretty, mostly residential with a post office and maybe a half dozen shops in what might pass for a commercial district at the waterfront. We found a delightful French bakery there and picked up some special treats for our Sunday breakfast. Yummy.
Back at the boat we explored options. We could go for as long as a week without having to run the watermaker, and our tanks are full enough to last for longer than that if we go easy with our usage. Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, would likely have watermaker repair facilities. So would Boston, Massachusetts, and Portland, Maine. Yarmouth is a bit over two days away, Portland about twenty hours and Boston about ten or so. Yarmouth is where we want to be around the end of this coming week. Boston is slightly out of our way. Friends we met cruising in the Bahamas years ago live in the Portland area, and he now works for a marine retail products store. Portland wins.
Portland, here we come.
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