Tuesday October 16th 2018

The day started sunny and windy. The inside temperature was only in the low fifties when I got up. As the day went on the windy died down and the temperature peaked in the mid to high fifties.

Sagamore Bridge over the Cape Cod Canal as seen from the east end of the canal.

This afternoon I took a drive to Sandwich MA at the east end of the Cape Cod Canal. All of the Army Corp of Engineers Recreation facilities have been buttoned up for the winter. The restrooms are closed and the trash cans all have canvas covers locked on so no one will use them. Even so, there were plenty of people enjoying the sunshine canal side. There were people out walking, riding bicycles and plenty of fishermen. I did a little walking, but mainly sat on one of the benches and watched the activity in the canal.

Sailboat entering the Sandwich boat basin.

The primary entertainment was the Cost Guard. Two CG boats were conducting training exercises in the canal. I think one of the exercises I watched was a boarding exercise. One boat would pull along side the other and crew would transfer from one boat to another. Then the boats would switch roles and the transfer would even out the crews again. That exercise was confusing to watch, so it could have been something completely different. The man over board exercise was obvious. A buoy got thrown into the canal, someone yells “man overboard” and then the boat maneuvers to pick up the buoy. I don’t know if different people were at the helm of the boats, but they repeated the exercise many times.

Two Coast Guard boats training in the Cape Cod Canal.

Man overboard drill. One of the boats is about to retrieve the black buoy on the right side of the picture. The buoy represents the “man overboard”.

Later I drove along the Cape side of the canal stopping at the railroad bridge parking area and the Bourne Bridge parking area before returning to my RV home. This area of the canal was quiet by comparison with the east end. I saw one big dual hull sailboat fighting the current.

Catamaran style sailboat.