Cuttyhunk Pond MA USA

When we left Hadley Harbour at 1030 on Sunday 30 September it was glassy calm so we resigned ourselves to a motor for the transit 13nm west to Cuttyhunk.

The harbour at Cuttyhunk is a landlocked pool, entered by a short dredged canal (min sounding approx 2.5m). In summer, the place is so popular that there is also a large mooring field and anchorage outside the canal entrance, which is well-protected from the normal southwesterly winds, but we reckoned on there being plenty of space inside it being so late in the season.

And so there was.  The mooring field is huge and perfectly laid out on a square criss-cross plan, just like a huge chequers board when it’s empty, which it was almost.  Just to the north of the mooring field, there’s a small area of dredged water available for anchoring.  When we arrived there were 4 boats here (if you count the 2 that were rafted together as one) and not much space for more.  But we managed to squeeze in and decided to launch the dinghy for an explore ashore.

Mid-afternoon on a Sunday at the end of September Cuttyhunk is not a bustling, happening place.

Even the terrapins were taking life slowly, though we seemed to see the cop car wherever we went

There were a few people at the main dock enjoying a bite to eat from the Raw Bar and the policeman in his golf-buggy cop car seemed to be doing the rounds of the island but other than that it was all peaceful tranquillity.  In high season, on the other hand, the island’s sure to be a very different beast.

Views from Tower Hill, Cuttyhunk’s not very high high point. (Top) looking southwest across Westend Pond and (bottom) looking east over Cuttyhunk Pond, the entrance canal and Nashawena Island beyond

We walked up Tower Hill to the island’s high point where there are a number of concrete bunkers left over from WWII – protection for Buzzard’s Bay and the eastern entrance to Long Island Sound. The views and the concrete bunkers reminded us rather of the north end of Guernsey…..

On the way down from Tower Hill, looking north-northeast across Cuttyhunk Pond with Penikese Island beyond, just under the horizon

…..though, of course, the houses didn’t.

Ferry car park

Feeling that we should walk a bit further we headed towards the canal and came to the ferry terminal and abandoned Coastguard Station, with its parking ‘lot’ along the road.  There are almost no cars on Cuttyhunk just lots of golf buggies, some in a better state of repair than others.

We continued on to the end of the entrance canal, which has a number of small beaches along it, all with signs saying ‘No parking motorised watercraft’ and we thought about going out onto the isthmus that stretches towards Nashawena Island but it looked as if it were private land so we didn’t.  And so, after a major explore of the island, which took all of about 90mins, including a 20min stop to chat to some other cruisers, we headed back to BV and a glorious sunset to enjoy with sundowners.

Views from the anchorage including (top left) the disused Coastguard Station

Cuttyhunk Pond, Massachusetts, USA

Hadley Harbour MA USA

Long Point Light

What a difference a day makes! When we arrived off Provincetown the previous day, the Long Point Light was shrouded in mizzle and the beach looked grey and uninviting.  As we sailed past on Saturday 30 September, with sun blazing in a perfectly blue sky, it was quite clear why this is such a well-loved summer holiday location.

Hard on the wind and fetching the entrance to the Cape Cod canal

Not only were we lucky with the change in the weather, we were lucky with the wind direction too.  The forecast had been for southwest 10-15kts but there was rather more north in the wind and only about 10 knots of it.  So, full sail flying, we were able to fetch the entrance to the Cape Cod canal without tacking, saving us several miles and lots of time.  We weren’t the only yacht headed in that direction and it looked as if everyone else was having just as good a sail too.

Coastguard flypast

We reached the entrance to the canal a little earlier than we had expected, just as the wind dropped, and met half a knot or so of adverse current.  Nothing to write home about and we knew that it would turn and be speeding us through before long.  A Coastguard aircraft overflew us at low level, which was quite exciting, though nothing like as interesting as the night low-level flypast of the (unlit) Canadian Coastguard aircraft when we sailed from St Peter’s to Halifax.  They took a picture of the boat as well – Nicky says that the camera flash was immense – though all we can imagine they’d have seen was Nicky’s open-mouthed, surprised face mouth staring up at them!

Cape Cod canal – the 2 fixed bridges (each with 135ft vertical clearance)

Apart from that, our canal transit was quite uneventful, though it was nice to see the area in sunshine as it had all been rather dull and grey when we had gone through headed east.

The ConRail Railroad lifting bridge and cruises on the canal

The ConRail Railroad lifting bridge bridge behind us.  It’s normally open (135ft+ vertical clearance) but closes (7ft vertical clearance) for about 15mins once or twice a day after announcements on VHF Ch13

Once out of the western end, with what little wind there was hard on our nose, we motored towards the entrance to the Wood’s Hole passage and our destination for the night, Hadley Harbour. Wood’s Hole passage has a justifiable reputation for strong currents and all the pilot books and Eldridge’s (the nearest thing we have found to a tidal atlas and tide tables over here) warns of making a transit through at slack water or risk the dangers of up to 6knots of current with or against you in a very narrow, rock edged passage.

‘Cottages’ around the edge of Hadley Harbour

Hadley Harbour is at the northern entrance to the Wood’s Hole Passage so, whilst you need to take good account of any cross-tide as you enter, the tidal flow is less here than further into the passage and is by no means insurmountable.  But the gaps between the rocks at the entrance are not great so you don’t want to get distracted oohing and ahhing at the enormous ‘cottages’ that litter the shores of the outer part of the harbour.

Entering the outer part of Hadley Harbour and looking towards the entrance to the inner harbour

The outer part of Hadley Harbour was quite empty so we thought that we’d have a look at the inner part of the harbour to see if there was space for us to anchor in there.  We already had a number of AIS paints on the chart plotter and it was a beautiful Saturday afternoon so we feared we knew the answer but nothing ventured, nothing gained.  Unfortunately all the moorings were already taken as was what little anchoring space remains amongst the moorings, so we returned to the outer harbour and anchored there in about 5.5m – a good sheltered anchorage unless the wind goes north or northeasterly.

Escapade of Rame

And it’s just as well that we did as about an hour later Richard and Julie Farrington (Escapade of Rame) turned up.  We’d just had a very interesting chat to Bill of ConverJence – he and his wife had sailed around Newfoundland this summer so it was great to pick his brains – and just as he got into the dinghy to leave and take his dogs for a walk, a familiar yacht appeared. We had known that Escapade was quite close by but hadn’t known exactly where and so it was lovely to see her and to catch up with Richard and Julie again. We had a lovely dinner on board Escapade and talked until far too late but that does so often appear to be the case!

The pretty yacht before she dragged

Earlier in the evening, as dusk fell, we had been joined in the anchorage by 2 other yachts, both American, one of which was a very pretty 40 footer with not a lot of cabin space (they put up an all-over awning to cover their cockpit before nightfall).  At about 3am the wind picked up a little and shifted more northerly and the small wavelets, and the noise of our sinks gurgling as a result of the waves, woke Nicky.  She put the plugs in and stuck her head up to check all was well on deck……and saw the pretty 40 footer blowing steadily downwind past us and towards the shore. We had, unusually, left the outboard on the dinghy, so she jumped in and motored over to wake up the yacht’s crew. They were rather grumpy to be woken, though less so when they understood why, and rapidly went off to re-anchor, happily some distance from us and downwind of all the other yachts.  (Very kindly they gave us a very nice bottle of Chablis as a thank you before they left the next day.)

Adieu to Escapade

After the early morning excitement, morning ‘proper’ dawned rather sooner than comfortable.  We waved adieu to Richard and Julie – they were off to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, whereas we were off to Cuttyhunk – but we know that we are likely to meet up again in Newport in a few days’ time.  After all, we are all planning on going further west and the best day for that is looking to be next Friday when the wind is forecast to go northeasterly.  But for the time being, the holiday playground of the Elizabeth Islands beckons.

Hadley Harbour, Massachusetts, USA

Provincetown MA USA

Departing from Gloucester

It’s only about 40nm from Gloucester to Provincetown, on the tip of the Cape Cod peninsula, but we had been told that Provincetown is a ‘colourful’ place to visit and well worth a wander ashore, so we wanted to arrive early enough in the day to have time to explore. Consequently, we had another just after dawn departure as we left Gloucester on the morning of Friday 28 September. It all started so well, a little bit grey and damp but not exactly unpleasant…..

We didn’t order weather like this!

….but within minutes of our switching off the engine and getting sailing, it was pouring with rain.  Grey, miserable, solid rain, with poor visibility – true English Channel weather if ever there was some – and a swelly, cold, grey sea to complete the picture.  The only redeeming feature was that there was a good breeze so the sailing was reasonably fast.

Race Point Light at the northwest tip of Cape Cod

By about 1200 we were off Race Point but the tide was running against us so making our way under the tip of Cape Cod took longer than we had hoped and needed a couple of tacks.  The area off the tip of Cape Cod is a protected habitat for right whales and we saw several whale watching boats speeding in and out to the area where right whales are known to gather.  Right whales were hunted to the brink of extinction and their numbers are only very slowly increasing so sightings of them are very rare. But other whales like the plankton and small fish upwellings just to the north of Cape Cod’s tip too, so the whale watching in the area is, apparently, very good (not that we have seen any on either occasion we have sailed through).

Sunfish in Provincetown anchorage

We lowered the sails just outside Provincetown’s breakwater and motored to an area off its eastern end where we planned to anchor for the night.  With the wind in the northeast, this was the most protected place we could find but, with the bay shelving very gently we would still be a long way off the shore with a good fetch should the wind get up.  Close to where we planned to anchor we saw a fin in the water and at first though that it was attached to a floating, dead fish – a large sea bass or something similar.  To our surprise we found that the fish was very much alive and that it was a sunfish. We didn’t expect to see that around here.

The Pilgrims’ Memorial.  In November 1620 the
Mayflower landed at Provincetown and the pilgrims
 spent a few months here before moving to Plymouth
 where history has it they arrived in the New World

It was still grey and drizzly by the time we got ashore, though happily it had stopped raining heavily. Provincetown was not at its best. In high summer the town’s streets are a riot of colour and it’s a vibrant LGBTQ summer holiday base.  In late September the end of the season is nigh, indeed we arrived on the last Friday of the season according to several signs we saw, and the enthusiasm for holiday partying is similarly on the wane.

Nevertheless, the shops were still bright, with some amazing displays, and despite the lack of crowds there was still a surprisingly lively atmosphere, even if everyone was wearing jeans and T-shirts instead of full summer holiday rig.

Town beach with enormous beach chair. We’ve seen this style of chair all around Nova Scotia and the New England states

With the very autumnal weather, we didn’t feel like a long walk on the ocean side of the peninsula or a stroll on the beach leading out to the lighthouse.  However, the beaches do look lovely and it’s easy to understand why, in the height of summer with bright blue skies and blazing sun, this has become such a holiday mecca.

Departing Provincetown

As we left in the morning the sun shone almost as if to show us what we were missing.  But we didn’t have time to stay and see the town in the glorious autumn sunshine as we had a tide to catch at the entrance to the Cape Cod canal, 20nm away and, if the forecast held true, almost directly upwind.  We had to get going.

Provincetown, Massachusetts, USA

Whale Watching at Gloucester MA USA

Dawn at Wood Island Harbour

Our night move onto a mooring buoy meant that we slept much better for the last couple of hours of the night but it was still an early start for us from Wood Island Harbour on Thursday 27 September, especially as we knew that the wind had already gone round to the northeast and would help us on our way.

Departing Wood Island Harbour

We had the anchor up at 0655hrs and motored out of the harbour, via a rocky inshore route [Ed: to shave minutes off our passage time!], whilst we got BV ready to sail.

The previous couple of days’ passages meant that today we would try to get on as far as Gloucester.  It’s a distance of around 60 miles which was a reasonable way to go before sunset given that, though we would have a full period of ebbing tide with us, we would also have most of a period of flood against. It all depended upon our speed and we found that with the genoa poled out we made 5½-6 knots which was plenty.  We might have gone faster with the MPS hoisted but there were still quite a lot of bouncy waves around and we worried that the MPS would just keep collapsing with only 10-12 knots of wind.  Around lunchtime we passed the Isle of Shoals, off Portsmouth, which had been our back up destination if we didn’t thing we could make Gloucester by nightfall.

I decided to have an afternoon nap and Nicky kept BV going in the right direction with the distance to go to our waypoint slowly ticking down.  As we got abeam Cape Ann, about 12nm to the east of Gloucester, Nicky called out that she had seen a whale blow.  We had a little time in hand to do some unexpected whale watching and so rolled away the genoa rapidly.  It was a good call and almost immediately we were treated to this fabulous sequence…..

Wow!  It doesn’t get much better than that, we thought, except, perhaps, seeing a whale breach.

But it did.  As we watched we realised that there were several whales surfacing, indeed, several groups of several whales surfacing.

Each group would stay up for a few minutes and then disappear for a short while and, of course, we had no idea if once a group dived whether or not those whales would return to the surface close to us or further along the coast.  With the groups fairly well spaced out we had our work cut out watching for the blows to spot the next group surfacing.  We didn’t switch our engine on, and with only the mainsail up so that we didn’t go too fast or have an additional sail to handle we couldn’t really get from one group to the next between their dives.  So, we jilled around in the middle of the area they seemed to be operating in and waited for them to come to us if they wanted to.

Some spectacular fluking by the humpbacks

Thacher Island off Cape Ann with the only operating twin lighthouses in America – the question is, why?

There was a bit of a gap in the display and we thought that we really ought to get going…..

….and then, suddenly one whale decided that it really did need a close up look at the strange boat floating around in their swim space.  The whale surfaced so close behind us that Nicky squeaked and wondered if the whale was going to run into us.

It peered long and hard at us but it was so close I couldn’t get a decent photo with the telephoto ‘paparazzi’ lens I had on the camera!  However, we knew it was jolly close because the eye looked big and we could clearly see the white of its pectoral fins in the water.

Then another one surfaced next to the first …. and a second….and a third.  Shortly after we reckoned that we had 6 good-sized humpbacks gently swimming alongside us, apparently totally unconcerned about our presence.

And then, one by one, they dived away.  Clearly, it was time for them to move on.

It was time for us to get going too. We looked at the darkening sky and realised that we needed to hightail it under engine to get into Gloucester before dark (yes, there are lobster pots in that harbour too!).

We made it in around the breakwater and up to the middle of the eastern side of the large outer harbour, where we anchored close to a mooring field, just as the sun set.  We’d had a lovely sail south and a fabulous experience with whales.  What a great welcome to Massachusetts.

Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA