Nantucket Adventures: Let's Go to Nantucket

Let's go to Nantucket.  This was the conclusion of a discussion with my sister, Myrna, about how to take advantage of the fact that we had a 63 foot boat at our disposal that basically had not moved (except for a 3 hour cruise to Boston) since our arrival on May 5 from Norfolk.

We scheduled the cruise for a four day weekend to Nantucket starting on Friday, 18.  The grand plan was to cruise south Friday to Marshfield Mass to take on fuel at bargain basement prices and then continue south to Kingman Marine in Cataumet via the Cape Cod Canal.  Then on to Nantucket the following day.  Spend Saturday and Sunday on the island and return to Hingham (105 NM) on Monday.

This grand plan required reservations.  Welcome to New England.  It's a short season and we charge a premium for your cruise in this part of the world (at least that's my interpretation based on the following facts).

Dockage on Nantucket is outrageous at $7.50 per foot and you must have NON REFUNDABLE reservations.  In other words if the weather turns out to be lousy and you choose not to put lives and property at risk too bad.  So, our reservations for two nights (Saturday and Sunday) were $945 - use it or lose it.  The reservation at Cataumet's Kingman Marine was SLIGHTLY friendlier.  Forfeit 50% of $4.50 a foot (or $141.75) if you have to cancel.

Oh did I mention fuel costs?   Our average price for diesel since taking possession of the 63 on February 10 was $3.98, which was pretty good.  Fuel prices in Boston area run $4.80 at Marina Bay to $4.69 at Hingham Shipyard Marinas.  Ouch.  However, Green Harbor Marina in Marshfield Mass, which was on our way, was charging $3.72 per gallon.  So the final grand plan was to stop at Marshfield to take on fuel and then proceed south to Cataumet.  We also planned to pump-out while taking on fuel.

Explanatory Note: Pump-outs: Again, welcome to Massachusetts where we restrict overboard discharge of "black water" (human waste) but fail to provide convenient and adequate pump-out facilities.  Cruising 6,150 miles on the Great Loop and 1,500 miles north from Fort Lauderdale to Hingham we had no problem pumping out.  We pulled up to marina gas docks, took on fuel and concurrently got rid of black water.  Not so in Massachusetts.  Hingham Ship Yard Marina's pump-out is not at their gas dock.  Rather it is tucked away next to their travel lift dock where it is inevitably blocked by a boat recently or awaiting launch. The Hingham Harbor Master has a pump-out boat which comes to the marina once a week.  Put out a flag and they will pump you out (if they can gain access to your deck fitting with their SHORT hose.  More on our pump-out adventure as this story unfolds.

Now to the cruise.  We departed Hingham Shipyard at 9:45 AM (15 minutes ahead of schedule) on a beautiful sunny day with light winds out of the north.  The first leg of our route took us past Peddock Island, Hull Gut, Boston Light, Harding's Ledge (I used to fish there with my uncle louis - circa 1958), Minot Light (Cohasset) and finally to the Green Harbor River where we stopped for fuel.  

Peddocks Island

Hull Gut and Pemberton Point

George's Island

Boston Light being renovated

Diana, Kodi and Myrna as we cruised on Massachusetts Bay

Minots Light off Cohasset

Now I understand the bargain fuel price ($3.72 per gallon).  Green Harbor Marina is located in a shallow tidal river (6.0 feet at mean low water) with a NARROW channel leading to the marina.  The marina has a small 45 foot floating gas dock with a very tight space to turn around.  Maneuvering a 63 foot boat in this channel is not for amateurs (present company included). Fortunately the weather was perfect and we timed our arrival as the tide was coming in (up about 2 feet at the time of our arrival).

Marshfield Mass' Green Harbor River - shallow and narrow

On big boat arriving at one VERY small fuel dock

We stuck out a bit (how about 20 feet?)

Departing the narrow channel

The Sagamore Bridge heading south in the Cape Cod Canal

We arrived at 1:30 PM, waited 10 minutes for a boat to finish fueling, docked and took on 676 gallons of diesel.  No pump-out.  No problem (for their viewpoint) you can pump-out at the town dock but be careful there's shallow water over there. UNBELIEVABLE!  We departed at 2:40 PM.

Explanatory Note: Fuel management, specifically, how much is on board and how much did we use has always been an area of key interest.  Sea Ray's fuel gauges were notorious for overstating fuel usage. Hence, I went to elaborate lengths to calculate fuel on board.  I developed adjustment factors based fuel added in relation to tank level.  These were constantly refined over time to the point where I could predict within 2 to 3 gallons the amount of fuel that I would need to take on.

It seems that I am to be further challenged by the 63.  Here today's facts: I had transferred fuel from my auxiliary tanks to the mains upon arrival in Hingham until the site gauges read empty.  In theory, I should have had empty auxiliary tanks and should have taken on 150 gallons in each.  Not so.   The port side took 122.4. The starboard took 127.0. (based on filling to the top by listening for the change in sound as the tank tops off) Conclusion: When the site gauges read zero there's still about 25 gallons in the tank.  The mains showed 320 on the port side and 325 to starboard.  Simple math showed a need for 180 gallons to port and 175 to starboard (total of 355).  We took on 676.5 gallons as compared to a prediction of 625.  On the surface it looked close but it's not.  We were approximately 50 short in the auxiliary tanks and considerably over on the main tank predictions.  Bottom line: I do not have a good handle on fuel usage and fuel on board. To add insult to injury, my Tank Tender shows 113 gallons in each of the auxiliary tanks (vs 150).  After traveling 35 NM to Cataument, the main tank's site gauges show full (impossible) while the Tank Tender shows 437 to port and 450 to starboard (versus 500 on each side).  The Cat engine monitors show a total of 30 gallons used.  Note: I topped-off the mains based on sound.

We arrived at the northern entrance to the Cape Cod Canal at approximately 5:00 PM.  Our timing was DEAD ON.  We were at full ebb tide and being pushed through the canal on a 3.4 knot current.  We showed at one point a maximum speed of 14.2 knots.

The graph above shows the current running southwest (248 degrees) at 3.4 knots

Explanatory Note: The 63's engines were set at 1500 RPM, which yields 9.0 knots at 8 gallons per hour. Our speed was 13.2 due to the favorable current.  Perspective: The 63's top speed at 2500 RPM is 13.1 knots with a fuel burn of 50 gallons per hour.  The current was pushing us at our top speed while we were burning only 8 gallons per hour.  WOW!

Approaching the Bourne Bridge

At 5:55 PM we rounded Wing Neck and headed for Cataumet Harbor at low tide (OK we eon on the canal and lost on the arrival) through a long winding narrow and shallow channel with tricky buoys.  We passed a sail boat hard aground (sorry no photo).  40 minutes later we arrived at Kingman's gas dock where low and behold they had a real pump-out (compliments of the State of Massachusetts).  Just like that we had an empty holding tank.  HURRAH!

We moved to our assigned space of their face dock at 7:00 PM and checked in with the Chart Room receptionist for our 7:15 dinner reservation.  Yes, if you are paying attention, we covered 60 nautical miles over 8 hours, stopped for fuel, pumped-out and made our dinner reservation at the Chart Room on time.  I would like to take credit for all of this but I cannot.  DUMB LUCK.

Witch, a 1929 Elco cabin cruiser at the Kingman Marina

Hope you enjoyed.  Stay tune for more in the next three days.

Written by Les.

DATA:
Hinghan 9:45
Marshfield: 1:30 PM Took on 676.5 gallons at $3.715
Marshfield 2:40 PM
Cape Cod Canal:5:00
Buzzards Bay: 5:35
Wink Neck off Cataumet: 5:55
Kingman Pump-out: 6:45
Kingman face dock: 7:00