Anchorages east of Cape Cod Canal

[Brookelise]

Does anyone know of anchorages or public moorings east of the Cape Cod Canal (not the slips in Sandwich)? If you get through the canal, heading east, in the evening, what's the nearest spot to drop anchor or pick up a public mooring?

Thanks,

Brooke

[treilley]

Not sure Brooke. I did the canal a few years ago on the way to Maine and considered Plymouth or Provincetown. What is your final destination?

[Brookelise]

The destination would be Provincetown Harbor, but if the canal transit is late in the day, owing to the tide, there wouldn't be time to get that far. Also, on the return, we might have to anchor east of the canal and wait for the tide. I see that Sandwich has slips, but evidently no anchorage or moorings. There are lots of places to drop anchor west of the canal, but there don't appear to be any immediately east of the canal.

[Steve]

We ducked into Branstable in the past, not being familiar with it and it was at night (a black night), scared the hell out of us. Very shallow, narrow and dog legged channel. Likely to the chagrin of the harbor master, we lined up in a mooring field, kind of blended in with the flock so to speak for the night and left on the first light for the canal tide. Didn't really see any open anchoring areas there, we draw almost 7' loaded, so we don't have a lot room to explore.

[adavid]

You can anchor on either side of the breakwater outside the East side of the canal to wait out the tide. We just did it this week. We were heading west, but had 2 hours to wait for the tide. We anchored on the North side of the canal breakwater in about 22 feet of water. It's not a "real" anchorage, but the folks at Sandwich Marina told us that it was fine to do.

Andy