New England – Week: 15 (Back To The Cape Cod Canal)

September, 7th to 13th, 2026

Day 97 – Monday, September 7th, 2026 – In: Salem, MA

On our final day in Salem, we had tickets for the tour at the House of Seven Gables. Built in 1668 by Salem merchant and sea captain John Turner, the House of the Seven Gables is one of New England’s oldest surviving timber-frame mansions. The roughly 8,000-square-foot, 17-room house became famous after Nathaniel Hawthorne used it as inspiration for his 1851 novel The House of the Seven Gables. By the early 1900s, the home had deteriorated, and in 1908, philanthropist Caroline Emmerton purchased it and undertook a major restoration. Between 1908 and 1910, they essentially rebuilt portions of the house, reconstructing four missing gables, rebuilding the central chimney, adding a secret staircase and other Colonial-inspired features, and incorporating elements from Hawthorne’s novel. The restored house opened to the public in 1910, with proceeds from the house supporting Emmerton’s settlement work helping immigrant families in Salem.

The grounds of the house are beautiful and include a relocated counting house and Hawthorne’s birthplace, which was also moved to the site. Our tour was scheduled for 10:15. At 10:25, our guide had not shown up, so I went to the ticket desk to see what was going on. There was some general confusion; apparently, one of the guides called out, and no one thought to rearrange the schedule. They got another guide sorted, and we began our tour. In the end, we got lucky, because our stand-in tour guide is an English Professor, who is a descendant of one of the people hanged in the witch trials. His knowledge of Hawthorne and the period’s history was excellent!

After our tour, we walked around the gardens for a while, then decided to make one more circuit of downtown. We saw a glassblowing studio yesterday, but it was closed, so we stopped by to check it out. There wasn’t much there, mostly “witching balls” and glass witch hats. We visited a couple of other gift shops, then started looking for a place for a snack. On Essex Street (the main street downtown), we saw a large hole dug in the street. Apparently, there had been a major water main break overnight, and most of downtown was without water, so all of the restaurants were closed. So we headed back toward the boat and found an open place near the marina.

After our snack, we headed back to the boat to relax. I did a few minor boat chores and got ready for tomorrow’s trip to Scituate, and Brenda caught up on her sleep. At 5:30, we walked to Derby Wharf and had dinner at a restaurant called Finz. Brenda had sushi, and I had their BBLT (Double Bacon). For dessert, we had their Warm Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie. Very tasty.

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Day 98 – Tuesday, September 8th, 2026 – To: Scituate, MA
Cole Parkway Marina

Our next stop is Scituate, Massachusetts, 28 miles across Massachusetts Bay. This is a fill-in stop. We want to go to Provincetown on the tip of Cape Cod, and then to Newport for the boat show. We have a few extra days, and we didn’t want to go back to Boston or Plymouth as it’s quite expensive and we’ve just been there. Some boater friends had stopped in Scituate and said that it was a cute little town. Not a lot there, but a sheltered harbor and a good place for a couple of days.

With only 28 miles to travel, we waited until 10:30 to leave Salem. The wind was up, but coming from onshore and at our stern, so even with gusts to 22 mph, we hardly felt it. We ran fairly slowly, and because we were about 12 miles offshore due to the bay dipping in toward Boston, we were away from most of the lobster buoys.

There wasn’t much to see. About halfway across, we passed a tanker anchored near our route. A bit later, I was placing an order for parts on my phone, and Brenda was checking Facebook. We would both glance up occasionally, keeping an eye open for the random lobster buoy. Brenda suddenly said, “Oh! He’s big!”, I looked up, and didn’t see anything, then looked to my right. There was a large fuel barge on our starboard side, heading right toward us. We were still about a mile apart, but I hadn’t noticed it.

There is a glitch in Garmin’s AIS system where the information about a target disappears. It still shows a little red triangle, but the proximity alert and course projections don’t show. I think that if we hadn’t noticed it, they would have called us on the radio to see if we wanted to play chicken! I pushed up the throttles, and we zipped across their path to get out of the way.

As we approached Scituate, Brenda caught sight of a small whale breaching between us and the beach. We thought we had seen a whale on our way from Boston to Gloucester, but it turned out to be a definite sighting. We have heard that the area between Boston and Provincetown is prime whale-sighting territory, so we’ll have to keep our eyes peeled when we head out into Cape Cod Bay.

We arrived at the marina and pulled up to our T-head dock. We had been talking to the Harbor Master, but no one was there to meet us. It was an easy docking, and we tied ourselves up. We saw two guys ambling down the dock in uniform with badges. There was a harbor master police boat next to us, so we assumed that they were going there. It turns out they were from the office and were coming to help us. “Looks like you’ve done that before!” one of them said! We chatted with them for a few minutes, and they asked a bunch of questions about the boat. After they left, we did our usual docking stuff, and a steady stream of people came down to see the cool boat. We were the talk of the harbor!

After getting settled in, we took a walk into town. There are only a couple of restaurants and a handful of shops. We started at Galley Kitchen for our docking refreshment. Then walked up one side of Front Street (two whole blocks!) and down the other side, two whole blocks, one of which is taken up by a large CVS. So, by 5:00, dinner time, we had pretty much seen all there is to see!

For dinner, we went to Mill Wharf, on the old wharf next to the marina. Back in the day, Scituate was a lumber town, and the wharf had a large lumber mill complex. After it was closed and torn down, they saved the timbers and used them to build the restaurant.

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Day 99 – Wednesday, September 9th, 2026 – In: Scituate, MA

Wednesday dawned cloudy. The forecast is for thunderstorms and winds up to 50 mph overnight tonight. We are glad we are in a very protected harbor! Since we’d seen most of town, today was boat project day. After breakfast, we moved the boat across the fairway to the pump-out dock to empty our black water tanks. Our tank gauge indicated we were only 3/4 full, but our toilet system indicated we were full and shut down. The harbor has a pump-out boat that comes to your boat, but it is currently out of commission. Since we were at the dock and it was self-serve, we took the opportunity to flush the tank a few times. Hopefully, that will clear whatever is blocking the tank sensors. After emptying and flushing the tanks, we backed back across the fairway to our slip.

Next on the project list was updating the software on our headsets. I didn’t think it was going to be easy. The update process on our last headsets from the same company (Sena), was a project. The new headsets just connect through an iPhone App, and auto-update. Easy!

Next was changing the fuel filters for the engine and generator. When I floored it to get out of the tanker’s way, I got a low-fuel-pressure alert. We’ve been over 100 hours on our current filters, so I assumed that was the issue. The needle on the pressure gauge was in the red. This is the first time I’ve changed the filters myself, so there was a bit of a learning curve, but it only took about an hour to swap out the three filters and clean up the mess that I made. The filters were black. When we were in Castine, we got fuel at the marina, and I don’t think the tanks were very clean. Also, I didn’t see a filter at the pump, so I’m assuming that’s where we got the dirty fuel. I checked the separators and found no water or debris, so that was good news. I’ll have to keep a closer eye on it for a while.

While I was in the engine compartment, I took the opportunity to check the raw water strainers for the engine and generator. Both were clean! I did my normal engine checks while I was there as well so I don’t have to do them tomorrow morning.

Last on my list was cleaning the raw-water strainer for the air-conditioning system. This strainer was full of sea grass, bits of shell, and mud. We were in pretty shallow water in New Castle, and we must have sucked up some junk. I cleaned the filter and vacuumed out the housing with a wet-vac. Then put the filter back in, opened up the valves, and started the system. Done for the day!

I got cleaned up and went into the office to work on the blog a bit, and something didn’t sound right. You get to know how the boat’s systems sound, and when something isn’t right, you notice it. The sound was the a/c water pump. It was running dry. I forgot to purge the air from the filter housing before starting the air conditioning pump, and it lost prime. This has happened a few times before. I tried to get the hose off one of the connectors, but it wasn’t budging. Since this is not uncommon, I decided to make a fitting that would allow me to both prime the pump and flush the system. Michael, our mechanic, had added a manifold to our old boat for this purpose. So, I walked to the local hardware store to see if I could find some parts to add a flush connection.

The hardware store is pretty small, and they didn’t have what I was looking for. Neither did the marine supply store next door. So, I went to plan “B” and got a few plumbing parts that I could jerry-rig a solution until I can order the parts I need for a permanent solution. It took me about 2 hours and two trips to the hardware store to fabricate a cap for the filter, attach a hose, and flush the air out of the lines. It worked like a champ! Not pretty, but functional! While I had the hose out, I filled the water tanks while I picked up.

By this time, it was just after 3:00, so I cleaned up, and we took a walk into town to see if we missed anything. We found one shop that we’d missed. Most of the shops here are clothing boutiques or high-end beach decor, so interesting to look at, but not much for us.

For dinner, we stopped at an Irish Pub, The Hibernian. We were expecting the normal pub food, but they had an excellent menu. Brenda had their Ribeye Steak Frites, and I had the Pork Shank with Mushroom Risotto. Both were excellent! We watched the football match (Liverpool vs. Atlético Madrid) while we ate dinner. On the way back to the boat, we stopped for an ice cream dessert.

As we got to the marina office, a bunny was munching on the grass along the walkway. Aside from keeping an eye on us, he didn’t seem to be bothered that we were walking past.

As we got back to the boat around 6:30, the weather was starting to come in. We felt our first few drops of rain. We have small craft advisories for overnight and into tomorrow with winds predicted in the 30-40 mph range. So we are not sure if we will leave for Providence in the morning.

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Day 100 – Thursday, September 10th, 2026 – To: Provincetown, MA
Provincetown Marina

When I got up at 6:15, the winds at the marina were only 7 mph. It was overcast, and the flag that we could see across the harbor on the ocean wasn’t looking too bad. I checked the weather buoy out in the middle of Cape Cod Bay, and it was showing winds of 20 mph and 3.9ft waves with a period of 3.4 seconds. That’s outside of our comfort zone, so we would have to wait a couple of hours to see if it calms down. We decided to go up into town for breakfast to kill some time. After breakfast, we stopped in at the Harbormaster’s Office to see what they thought of the conditions. They recommended waiting until around noon, but said that aside from being a little lumpy, we would be fine. At 11:00, I checked the weather buoy again, and it showed the waves were down to 1 ft with a 3-second period, so a moderate chop. Go Time!

We left Scituate Harbor, and as we cleared the breakwater, we could see that it would be a good ride. Once in open water, I brought the boat up to 17 knots to blow out the turbos. Once I reached 17 knots, I brought the engines up to full throttle at 22 knots for about 10 minutes to make sure that changing the fuel filters resolved my low-pressure warning. That seems to have been it, no warnings, and the boat ran great. Then I brought it back down to 17 knots, which is about 75% engine load for the rest of the 90-minute crossing to Province Town. I had plotted a route that would take us to the tip of Cape Cod so we could take some pictures of the lighthouses dotting the shore. When we turned to follow the cape, I slowed to 10 knots.

As we approached the Race Point Lighthouse, the water looked as if it were boiling! This was caused by the current that spills around the point. We were watching the rough water ahead as we approached when a whale surfaced about 1,000 feet in front of the boat! Very cool!

We looped around the cape past two more lighthouses, around the breakwater, and entered Provincetown Harbor. We called into the marina, and they met us at our slip for an easy docking. They asked how the crossing was, and we said that it was fine. Apparently, another boat had come in from Boston earlier, and they said they had a rough crossing. We are glad we waited!

After getting settled and rinsing down the boat, we took a walk into town. The marina is on a wharf that leads directly into the middle of the downtown area. It was quite busy, even on a weekday after Labor Day. We wandered down the street, getting the lay of the land and looking for the 1620 Brewhouse. When we got there, it was just before 5:00, so we decided to combine our afternoon snack and dinner.

The bartender gave us a few suggestions for other restaurants to try while we were in town. One of the places she suggested was a bar that sits on a pier overlooking the harbor, so we walked back through the center of town and found it. The view was good; however, it was not our type of place as it appeared to be mostly the Provincetown local gay community hangout. We walked back toward the marina, stopping at Ben & Jerry’s for an ice cream, then went back to the boat for the evening.

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Day 101 – Friday, September 11th, 2026 – In: Provincetown, MA

Friday was our day to explore Provincetown. We started with a walk up to the base of the Pilgrim Memorial Tower. From downtown, there is a funicular that brings you up the hill to the base of the monument.

Many people don’t know that the Pilgrims actually first landed in what is now Provincetown, MA. They spent 7 weeks here, and the Mayflower Compact was written while the ship was anchored in Provincetown. There was not enough farmable land as most of Cape Cod is just sand dunes, and they had limited fresh water. They scouted the coast of Cape Cod and selected Plymouth, where they moved and made the permanent settlement.

The Pilgrim Monument sits at the top of 100-ft-high High Pole Hill, making the top of the monument 350 feet above sea level. It was built between 1907 and 1910 to commemorate the Pilgrims’ first landing in the New World at Provincetown Harbor on November 11, 1620, before they moved to Plymouth. Standing 252 feet tall, it is the tallest granite tower in the United States and was modeled after the Torre del Mangia in Siena, Italy. President William Howard Taft laid the cornerstone in 1907 and dedicated the completed monument in 1910. The tower remains one of Provincetown’s most recognizable landmarks and a symbol of the town’s connection to the earliest days of the Plymouth Colony.

We rode up the hill and went into the tower. The tower has 116 steps and 60 ramps to reach the top. I tried to get Brenda to go all the way up, but after the first set of steps, which got us to the first-level observation windows, her knee started bothering her. She’s pretty good going up, but coming down is the challenge, so we stopped there and took some pictures before going back down.

We went to the museum and walked around looking at the displays. Most of them focused on Provincetown’s history, with one section dedicated to the Native American perspective on the area’s colonization. One of the most fascinating displays was a discussion of the area called Long Point on the cape. This is the hook that turns back in and forms Provincetown Harbor.

Long Point, at the tip of Cape Cod in Provincetown, was once home to a thriving fishing and salt-making community that began around 1818. By the mid-19th century, the settlement included roughly 30–38 homes, a schoolhouse, post office, stores, wharves and several saltworks, with the nearby lighthouse guiding ships into Provincetown Harbor. Around 1850, the community began to decline as local fishing grounds became less productive and cheaper salt from New York made the saltworks unprofitable. Rather than simply abandoning their homes, many residents had them lifted from their foundations, placed on scows, and literally floated about a mile across Provincetown Harbor to the town’s West End. The remarkable relocation continued through the 1850s, with the last Long Point house reportedly moved in 1867. Many of these so-called “floater houses” still stand in Provincetown today and can be identified by distinctive blue-and-white plaques. Long Point eventually became largely deserted, leaving the lighthouse and traces of later military fortifications as reminders of the once-busy community.

After exploring the museum, we did the requisite selfie with the monument, then rode the funicular back to town. We spent the next couple of hours just wandering around the east end of town, checking out the shops, art galleries, and the interesting characters walking the streets. Around 1:00, we popped into the Governor Bradford for a drink and a snack. Our bartender was an aging drag queen whose general demeanor suggested he/she might be questioning his/her life choices. Oh well.

After our snack, we stopped at a Portuguese bakery for some breakfast treats, then went back to the boat to drop them off. Later in the afternoon, we walked back into downtown, planning to explore more of the west end. As we went past the City Hall, there was a tour trolley just getting ready to depart for a tour around Provincetown and the Cape Cod National Seashore. We decided that it was our best chance to see the other side of town, so we jumped on.

The tour was interesting. It answered a bunch of questions we had about specific buildings and about the evolution of Provincetown from a Portuguese fishing and whaling port to the tourist and alternative-lifestyle center it is today. As we drove through the west end, the guide pointed out the plaques that identified the houses floating across the harbor from Long Point. The tour bus then went past Pilgrims Park, where the Pilgrims first came ashore, and into the Cape Cod National Seashore. The National Seashore is a National Park with the specific charter to protect and provide recreational access. The land along the entire Atlantic side of Cape Cod, from the tip of Long Point to Chatham, some 40 miles of coastline, is all protected as part of the park.

The tour looped around to the east side of Provincetown, to the area where the railroad used to come through to the docks to pick up fish and bring them to Boston and New York. Then down Commercial Street, and back to the Town Hall. As we were passing the houses that had been moved, Brenda tried to get a picture of a couple of them, but the trolley was moving too fast. We decided to walk back to the west end to get a few pictures and a closer look at some of the historic houses.

It was a bit further outside of town than we thought. It ended up being about a mile out and back and it was after 5:30 by the time we got back to the commercial district. We looked around for a place for dinner. Many of the restaurants were either quite busy or setting up for their evening Drag Shows. We finally found the Mayflower, a Portuguese restaurant that looked pretty good. Brenda had an excellent Baked Stuffed Haddock, and I had Portuguese Pork Chops, Carne de Vinha d’Alhos, which were excellent as well. They are pork chops marinated in wine vinegar, garlic, bay leaves, and spices, then grilled over a super-hot grill to crisp the outside.

After dinner, we headed back to the boat. We had tried to do a Geocache earlier near the town hall, but the area was too busy for searching. Brenda found another one right at the end of the wharf by the marina, so we decided to try for that one instead. Brenda spotted it right away, so #566 was an easy find. We then walked to the other side of the wharf from the marina to check out what was there and see if we could get a glimpse of the sunset, before heading back to the boat for the evening.

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Day 102 – Saturday, September 12th, 2026 – In: Provincetown, MA

Saturday was another nice day, a bit cooler in the morning, 62° vs 72° yesterday, but with a clear blue sky. We spent the morning on the boat. I worked on the blog, paperwork, and route planning. Brenda did a couple of loads of laundry.

We had seen signs for a swimming and kayaking event, Swim4Life, that was going to be held in the harbor at noon. We walked over to the park where the event was happening and got there just as the swimmers in the 1.2 mile swim were arriving back at the park. There was a large crowd of supporters to chear them on. We heard that there were just over 50 swimmers who made the swim in the 68° water. The swimmers ranged in age from teens to some in their 70’s and 80’s.

We watched most of the swimmers come back, then waked down commercial street. We were still looking for a T-Shirt from Provincetown. We had been looking during our roaming over the past few days, and went back to a couple of shops to make our final choice. While we were shopping, we stopped at the 1620 Brewhouse for a snack, then continued our browsing.

Around 3:00, we had seen about all of Provincetown we wanted to, and between the Saturday crowds and the extra people in for the Swim4Life event, the streets were very crowded, so we headed back to the boat and relaxed until dinner. Earlier this afternoon it was in the upper 70s but by dinner time, it had dropped to 64°. We put on long pants and broke out our jackets for the walk to dinner. We had picked a new restaurant, Freemans on the east end of Commercial Street. When we arrived, they were fully booked for the evening, so we went next door to The Squealing Pig for dinner, not as high-end as Freemans, but still tasty. After dinner, we stopped so that Brenda could have her nightcap (ice cream), and then went back to the boat for the night.

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Day 103 – Sunday, September 12th, 2026 – To: Sandwich, MA
Sandwich Marina

Our next big stop is back in Newport, Rhode Island, to visit with Andrew, our boat designer, again, and for the Newport Boat Show. Between Newport and us, we have to transit the Cape Cod Canal. We could make it from Provincetown to Newport in a day; it’s about 95 miles, but that would be a long day, and we want to try to do the canal with a favorable current. So, we are breaking it up by making a 27-mile run to Sandwich at the East end of the Canal for the night, then to Newport on Monday.

When we woke up, the wind had picked up, and when we checked the weather, it predicted rain in Sandwich at 11:00, with the system heading across Cape Cod Bay toward Provincetown. It also predicted that the wind would drop off after noon. So… There was some “discussion” between Brenda and I. I checked the wave buoy in the middle of the bay, and it was showing 1.3-foot waves at 3 seconds. Not ideal, but definitely doable. I made my case, and Brenda wanted to wait until the afternoon. Looking at the rain meant crossing the bay in heavy rain, with the possibility of thunderstorms.

I agreed to wait, and we had breakfast, after which Brenda looked at the weather again and said, “Okay, let’s go.” I called the marina in Sandwich to make sure that if we got there early, we would have a slip. They said that it was fine to come in. So, we quickly dropped lines and headed out. As soon as we cleared the harbor, I brought the boat up to 17 knots (19.5 mph) to smooth out the ride and to get it over as quickly as possible.

The waves were about what it showed. They were on our beam (side), which made the trip a bit rolly, but I think that “we” (that’s the Royal we) are getting more used to it. As is usual, every 6th-8th wave is a bit larger and gives us a good tip. When we tipped, we heard a bang from up on the flybridge. The davit wasn’t tight enough, and it was hitting the rail. I slowed down, put on my life jacket, climbed up to the flybridge, tied the davit to the rail, and tightened the straps for our bikes leaning against the davit.

For such a crappy day, we were surprised at the number of other boats out in the bay. Lots of small fishing boats, some commercial fishing or lobster boats, a couple of sailboats, and one or two other cruisers.

About halfway across, it started to rain lightly. Brenda was going to move our fenders when we got to the marina, but I figured the rain would get heavier as we got closer, so I went out and moved the fenders. As we reached the outer marker for the Cape Cod Canal entrance, the rain picked up quite a bit. The Marina is just 1/2 mile inside the canal, so I called in, and they said they would meet us at the dock. Docking was easy, wet (for Brenda and the dock hands, I was inside driving the boat), but easy. We were tied up and connected to shore power in under 5 minutes.

We did our shutdown and logging stuff. Today I didn’t need to do a rinse down of the boat. The rain was taking care of that for me. About 10 minutes after we docked, a large tug and barge came past. I’m glad we didn’t meet them while they were trying to cross the canal to get into the marina. A few minutes after that, the skys opened up. The rain came down in buckets. We were glad we left when we did.

It rained for the rest of the day. We got the occasional downpour and steady rain the rest of the time. I finished up the blog. Brenda worked on some route planning and a project for the Social Committee back home. We’ve been having a problem with our toilet system. There is a gauge that shows the tank level, and when the tank is full, a pressure switch prevents you from flushing. Earlier this week, the pressure switch tripped even though the gauge said that the tank wasn’t full. After we emptied our tanks, it worked again for a while, but about every other flush, the pressure switch tripped, shutting down the system. We knew the tank was empty, so I thought something might be stuck in the pressure switch. We pulled the mattress out of the bed in the guest berth where the black water tank is, and I pulled the pressure hose off of the fitting. There was a whoosh of very stinky air. That told me that the vent hose was blocked. We had done an override of the system, thinking the main tank level guage was correct, and that must have pushed black water into the vent filter, clogging it.

I pulled the vent filter, and it was full of “stuff”. I flushed the vent line with a garden hose, then pushed air through it with the pump we use to inflate fenders. I had Brenda flush the toilet and confirmed, with another woosh of stinky air, that the line was clear. I always carry spares of all of the filters on the boat, so I was able to replace them. Another boat problem solved. After we put the guest bedroom back together, we sprayed half a can of Glade, opened every window we could that wouldn’t let in rain, and turned on a fan to vent the smell from the boat.

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Weekly Recap

This week was a bit lower-key than the past few weeks. We’ve only done about 92 miles and are just about to go through the Cape Cod Canal into Long Island. The highlight this week was Provincetown on the tip of Cape Cod. We have never been here, and it was an interesting experience! Like at other stops, there was a lot of history they didn’t teach us in school. If you are into people-watching, this is definitely the place!

Next week, we go back to Newport for the week to visit with Andrew and the Newport Boat Show, then begin a more thorough exploration of Long Island Sound.