Crossing President Roads

[JohnHuth]

 

I'm contemplating a Cohasset to Ipswich urban paddle.    One point of concern is the jump across President Roads - like Long Island to Deer.   Obviously the question is whether boat traffic is just too heavy to safely cross.   The alternative, I suppose, is to go way into Boston Harbor, but I don't know if this would really be any safer.  Any thoughts or experience would be helpful.  

Maybe try to do it during a weekday and off-season when there will be less recreational traffic?

[Joseph Berkovitz]

I have done it a couple of times and it's definitely not an easy place to cross when there is traffic. Off season and weekday would be better to be sure.

My experience (limited as it is) is that it's much safer to go outside of Long Island and cross from Nixes Mate or Lovells so that you have good visibility for all three of the outside passages which connect to President Roads: Boston North Channel, Boston South Channel and (especially) The Narrows which sees high-speed ferry traffic during the season. Crossing from Lovells has the advantage that you can first cross the Narrows quickly from Georges and get that traffic out of the way, then deal with the North/South Channels and President Roads itself in full view. If you go even further offshore you can even cross the South Channel first and then the North Channel.

I'm curious to hear from more experienced hands on this too.

[JohnHuth]

Thanks!  I've been out there on large sailboats, so that makes sense - farther out allows the traffic to fan out more.   

[Nancy Hill]

I just went through a bunch of photos from 4/17/16 of a trip from City Point, going with the tide out through President Roads, past the tip of Deer Island, then turning east (crossing North and South Channels) on to Calf Island. I remember the day very well and there was no boat traffic. The only boats I see in my photos are a tanker way off The Graves and a Tugboat heading out to it. Here's a picture from Calf Island looking toward Deer Island. It was a Monday. I think off season is your best bet.

[Dan Foster]

You might look at the [boat traffic] Density Map layer on Marinetraffic.com to get an idea of how the traffic fans out and if there are any places you can hide "mid-stream"

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-70.9/centery:42.4/zoom:11

You might also have someone checking AIS data on the water to see if any really big ships are headed through the channel.

[PeterB]

The crossing from Nixes Mate near the head of Long Island  to Deer Island is handy,  and a bit less than 1/3 of a mile, : I have done it several times at different times of day &  year  and didn't have any trouble. In that area  the big boat traffic is from predictable directions and with only 5-7 minutes in the boat channel it's pretty easy to do a crossing. Going further into Boston harbor to cross would not be a good idea unless you just want to tour the inner harbor as part of your trip : more boats of all kinds are  concentrated  in there.
 There is also the  Outside Option:  to go from the Brewsters to the Graves and thence to Nahant, which is a real outer crossing. Paddles from Nahant to the Graves & back have been done in the  past, but probably best done  with a solid  group of paddlers. 

 

Edited February 27, 2019 by PeterB