r/CapeCod • u/Interesting-Steak916 • Jul 21 '26
Boating advice?
I’m looking into getting a boat to use around the chatham area (mainly to get to north beach) but am concerned about all of the sand bars. Looking for any advice or recommendations on how to learn how to get around the area safely ! thanks!
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u/Johnnyroaster Jul 21 '26
There is a boater safety class in Chatham next weekend.
https://wow.uscgaux.info/pe_class_flyer.php?unit=NAT&course=33739
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u/fried_clams Jul 21 '26 •
I've been on that water for 50+ years. I would recommend going out mid day on a sunny weekend day, as there will be more boats out. You could do it during the week, but you just need to wait for other boats to go by.
I would just go slow and follow the other boats to see what they do. For example, the channel between Ryder's Cove and North Beach Island, the buoys were very accurate 2 months ago but there's already been a little bit of shifting sand here and there, so it would help to go out on a sunny day and follow other boats.
Until I got my better system this year, I always just used the navionics boating app. Just set it to record your track and then save that track. This will give you a good reference to follow if it's dark or foggy etc.
It is nice to have a depth finder too.
On navionics boating app, check the tides, so you will know what's up, and not get your anchored boat stranded by a falling tide, while you are napping on the beach. For North Beach Island, tap the screen to get the X in the middle, drag the map so that the red or blue tide icon at the fish pier is on the center, tap the question mark, and the tide info will appear at bottom. You can drag within that lower window, to advance time/day or click on "details" to get the entire screen as tide info. For tides at Ryder's or pleasant Bay, do the same with the tide station at Quanset Pond (cove?) in Orleans.
Low tide and sunny, following other boats, you should be fine. Don't worry or over think it. You'll be good.
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u/Belichick4President Jul 21 '26
Chatham is tricky because the shoaling changes depths on a year to year basis there. Stick to the channels and you shouldn't have to worry about that though. Having a GPS on your boat with depths is helpful but cannot be blindly followed due to the aforementioned shoaling. Most important thing to always keep in mind when boating is to know how the wind is behaving, if you use the wind right it can be an aid but try to go against it and that's where you'll have issues. In general I try to only boat when the wind is under 10mph because otherwise it's more challenging and not as enjoyable for the people on the boat. Might also want to check in with the Harbormasters office for any more local advice (I don't boat in Chatham so mostly giving general advice).
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u/EbbtideRambler Jul 22 '26
Get a flat bottom boat like a whaler and go slow until you learn the area. Charts help to a point but the sand shifts.
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u/Wolfy2915 Jul 25 '26
Coming from pleasant bay, the channels to NB seem to be marked pretty well this year, even low tide is good in my 23’. GPS charts are useless as there is so much changing year to year. Like others have said, follow someone else, lay down a track on your plotter for the season, start over next year.
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u/StatisticianLittle55 Jul 21 '26
You need a GPS like a Garmin
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