Wed. Lunch Paddle 8/4/2021: Winthrop to Lovells and beyond

[Joseph Berkovitz]

People: Robert Levine, Shari Gallant, Janet Lorang, Joe Berkovitz, Joyce Carpenter, Jody Harris , Ben Rechel, Barbara Ryan, David G Mercer

This trip took place on an overcast morning (Wednesday, of course!) with initially very light wind, air temperatures in the upper 60s: a continuation of the not terribly summery conditions we've had of late in the region.

We began a little before 10 am with a group discussion of the options for safely and efficiently making the crossing of the President Roads shipping channel towards Lovells Island, with an awareness of wind, current and boat traffic. Slack before flood was not due to occur until around 3 pm, so the ebb would be occurring most of the day. We decided that there were two decent crossing options: 1) cross from Deer Island Light to Nixes Mate and the entrance to The Narrows, allowing the ebb to push us to the east while heading towards the Nubble Channel.  2) take the ebb around the tip of Deer Island and then separately cross the north and south Broad Sound Channels.

Deferring this decision until we could see the area, we headed out of Winthrop along the shore of Deer Island. A couple of large ships were anchored in the "parking lot" off to our right but they weren't going anywhere. Eventually we got to the end of Deer Island. A modest tide race was running on the shoals south of the point, fed by an easterly breeze against the west-moving current accelerating over the shallows. Pleasure boat traffic seemed to be minimal and the Salem Ferry passed by right in front of us, taking itself out of the running. So we opted for option #1: drop-down crossing to Nixes Mate. We crossed in a nice formation and reached Nixes Mate quickly enough with a current assist. As we arrived there, a whale watch out of Aquarium Wharf zoomed out through the channel we had just vacated, traveling 20 kt or so. Looking both ways in President Roads does not buy you very much time!

At Nixes Mate a long-awaited goal of Janet and Bob was fulfilled using a set of coarse stone steps that somehow we had never noticed before:

On we went to Lovells for a lunch stop. At that point, Bob and Sherry and I — for different reasons — all had to turn around and leave the group to return to Winthrop, which we did via option #2 above. We were treated to a close view of a cargo-ship-sized barge pushed by a tug in the Broad Sound channel, as well as an outgoing LNG tanker sounding its sonorous horn.

What happened next on this trip? I DON'T KNOW! (except that everyone did come back safely). Hopefully someone can supply the remainder of this trip report!

[Benjamin Rechel]

The remaining six of us decided to head to the Brewsters, and were lucky to have just enough water to cross the Great Brewster Spit, making a direct course for Little Brewster for a few lighthouse photos.

We then rounded Great Brewster and returned to Lovells for a short break. We considered our options for the channel crossings as before, and with Janet and David as elected navigators we opted to return as we had come, from Nix’s directly back to Deer Is. Light. 

Joe’s warning about hidden northbound boat traffic in The Narrows was prescient, and a whale watch boat we had failed to spot earlier slowed while nearby as we held our position, seemingly mostly for the curiosity of its passengers. 

By this point the tide was turning, and we landed back at the Winthrop ramp around 3:30, and loaded our boats just before rain approached from the south. 

[Barbara Ryan]

Thank you Joe and Ben for posting some of the details of our Boston Harbor adventure! Another terrific paddling adventure with you and our warm and welcoming friends (some new). I will add the thrills of gliding over the spit with maybe an inch or so to spare, (and everyone exclaiming the equivalent of “yipeeee” as we did!) and riding the waves in the wakes of the pleasure boats and again the NEAquatium whale watch boat! I kept repeating the mantra to keep paddling and all would be well. It was great fun!!

Thanks to Joe and Bob and then Janet and David for taking the leads and also to Shari, Joyce, Jody and Ben for making this a good team work  and fun being together trip!