Day 20- Jamestown to Cape Cod Old Canal.... It's a Scorcher!

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The widespread heat wave affecting most of the country has caught up with us, so I guess we're STILL looking for the cool weather we went north for!

There was one more errand to run this morning- refilling the propane tanks at the hardware store. We got there before they opened, so decided to have breakfast at the corner deli. By 7:30 the heat was already oppressive and iced coffee tasted pretty good.
We stuck with our decision to move north today since we were pretty sure it would be cooler on the ocean than sitting at anchor or on land.  For most of the day we were right, and reasonably comfortable.

9AM- we managed to be departing the harbor at the same time all the racing boats were also headed out to the race course, so we just fell in line with them and turned north as soon as we could while they continued east. This is *maybe* half of the racing fleet.

The "sailing" itself was uneventful. The wind was behind us (again!) so we motor sailed or just motored. The day got hotter as the sun got higher in the sky and we voted the ice machine our favorite invention ever. Later, when the biting flies found us, we debated which was most indespensable- the ice machine or the bug screens. Jury's still out. With the sea breezes it was still lots cooler than on land.

Shelby was totally diggin' her own personal fan!

Today's  journey has taken us through Rhode Island Sound and across the full length of Buzzards Bay ending with the Cape Cod Canal entrance right around the corner.  We are now in Massachusetts. 

 We have anchor down in a pleasant bay with a thin man made peninsula separating us from the canal itself.  The peninsula while keeping us out of the turbulence of the canal and also shelters us from the wind and waves coming up Buzzards Bay.  Our anchor spot was once the main channel of the canal before a major engineering  event that straightened and hardened the canal channel. Today this spot offers a safe but close look at the big ships transiting the canal on the opposite shore of the narrow peninsula. 



We took a barefoot walk along the beach, since there won't be too many more sand beaches from here north. The terrain will turn into larger stones and boulders.  The shells on the beach are changing, too. The oyster shells no longer look as smooth as Chesapeake oysters. The rounded shell is an Atlantic Surf Clam- it made me think of friends Rob & Vickie, who have lots of stories about clamming in their native New York.


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