Cape Cod Canal North Bound

Departing Pocasset Red Brook Harbor, we ran the Cape Cod canal with six Island Packets as we are traveling in a fleet. The tides in this area are about 10 feet and the current in the canal can run 3-4 knots so you need to wait for, and time the run into the canal so you are going with the current. For us, the best time to make this run would have been at 1430 hrs but we decided to run earlier against the tide in order to make the 7-8 hr run up to Scituate Harbor. Weather, as usual, was rain, fog and thunderstorms, so we watched the radar and tracked the storms via Weather.gov and SIRIUS Weather. Lucky for us, the frontal line parted into two systems with a hole directly over the canal. So we ran out of Pocasset with a storm to our SE and one to or NW and just light rain traveling NE with us in the canal.

It was really cool to see the fleet under the Railroad bridge as that is the true beginning of the canal. We timed it and reached the railroad bridge at 1230 hrs when it was slack low, and from then on we had a push out the rest of the canal.

While in the canal, we had the special treat of being passed by Jim Grundy's brand new TRIPP 75' race boat called BELLA PITA. What a machine that was and she was so close, the owner yelled over...."Meet the guy who designed it....BILL TRIPP!".....She was beautiful and on her way to Marblehead for the Race to Halifax. Google: Belle Pita and Jim Grundy...impressive!

Blasting into Cape Cod Bay, the winds picked up to 15-20 knots SE with slight rain, so we set full sails, main, jib and cutters and sailed on a beam reach to a broad reach up to Scituate Harbor. We arrived at Scituate in low viz with fog around 1730. We are geting better at running in fog and rain and 20 knots of wind. Up here, they have had 27 days of rain in the month of JUNE! We are hoping that this is now over....

BELLE PITA Tripp 75' Passes us in the Canal

The Designer is onboard (blue hat)

Massive Rig with 3 spreaders

The Fleet sails Cape Cod Bay for Scituate