Provincetown, MA

Disproving the old dogs new tricks theory, we caught two fish (both bluefish, one pretty big, so now all we need is a Red Fish) on the way from Cuttyhunk to the Cape Cod Canal. We let them both go. A brilliant day sailing up Buzzard's Bay to the Canal, arriving for the change of tide. With around 4 knts behind us, we roared through into Cape Cod Bay in a couple of hours, and in the late afternoon light, set our course to 060M and Provincetown, Massachusetts. P-Town is on the northern end of Cape Cod, in that bay created where the Cape rolls back on itself. Have a look on a map: it's a spectacular piece of geography. The photo above is of our chartplotter, with the boat about 1/3 of the way across Cape Cod Bay.

The bay is windy, but protected from the Atlantic by the huge, long white beaches of Cape Cod. As tends to happen, we got shot out of the canal with another boat of similar size. As also tends to happen, it quickly turned into a race. We put a mile on them early, but they picked up a nice easterly wind shift and pulled well ahead. We gained on them all afternoon, then set our spinnaker and lifted our speed from 4 to 7.5 knots. Later skater. Although the kite was very shy, with the pole almost resting on the forestay, we were able to carry it full but it took some serious concentration not to backwind it. We have a nice photo of the other boat way on the horizon behind us, silhouetted by the setting sun. Later we saw them on their mooring and said gidday to the crew: some MIT students, and very pleasant they were too. (BTW, I think we're sailing the boat pretty well now, and this boat is very lithe, but we don't always win these duels: a while back we were SPANKED by a Swan 48 while sailing up Vineyard Sound...I think the other guy had his feet up in front of the telly by the time we got to Woods Hole in the failing light).

Now, P-Town, much to the amusement of my friends, who I note had not mentioned a thing until now, but had chuckled when we said we were going here, turns out to be largely a gay resort for older couples. Now we have no problem with that, of course, but it was a bit of a surprise when we went out for a drink. Fortunately Greg was with me, and acted somewhat like a decoy...(he's going to be so mad when he reads that! HA!).

From here, we plan to sail across Cape Cod Bay, heading northeast, to Boston harbor. In doing so we will cross one of the most prolific Right Whale breeding grounds. Expect good fishing shots tomorrow. (Just kidding: they're endangered and you're not allowed closer than 500 yards). I do hope we see one - I've only seen one real-life whale before.

Have to fly...