The decision where to go next was complicated by the timing of the current change in the Cape Cod Canal. We could make it to several ports along the way during daylight. But none of the ones we considered was very close to the canal entrance.
The distance from York Harbor to Scituate, MA, was not bad. But we would still have 40 miles to go to make it to the canal. The fact that the current turned in our favor at 6:30 in the morning meant we'd have to leave Scituate at about 2 o'clock in the morning.
Plymouth, MA, is about 20 miles closer to the canal. But to get into the Plymouth harbor requires an hour-long detour in some pretty swift currents passing through treacherous shoals.
Then we thought about Provincetown, MA, on the tip of Cape Cod, about 20 miles from the canal. We would arrive there after dark. I'd sailed from Provincetown once before with Tom Gilmore, but my recollection of the layout was hazy.
So we studied the charts and, as best we could see, entering the well-protected harbor posed no serious problems, even after dark. I phoned the owner of the mooring field in Provincetown and learned that we could arrive any time and would be met by a launch, directing us to a mooring.
This became the plan, and we aimed Robin's bow for Race Point.
It was a long day of motoring. We passed outside Isle of Shoals off of Portsmouth, NH, and then steamed at a leisurely pace, seeing the shoreline fade away in the western distance before returning toward us at Cape Ann and Gloucester, MA. We saw the Boston skyline in the hazy distance as we crossed Stellwagen Bank, an area known for whale sightings.
We saw no whales nor much else of interest, but before dark we could see the hazy shape of the Provincetown lighthouse. And then we saw the sun setting, molten, across Massachusetts Bay.
It was ten o'clock in the evening when we rounded the last buoy outside of Provincetown Harbor. With the help of the chartplotter, we lined up the correct red lights and called in for the mooring launch.
Before 10:30, we were on a mooring and bunked down for a five o'clock departure.
During the day, we had received a promising weather forecast for the next few days. It appeared that in two days, the wind would turn around to the northwest and then the east. If that forecast held, we would be able to sail straight from Newport or Block Island to Cape May, NJ. Taking the offshore route, we could avoid an extra day on Long Island Sound, as well as the traffic that that route -- going down the East River by Manhattan -- would include.
We crossed our fingers and hoped.