Tag Archives: Cape Cod Bay

Dredging At Rock Harbor On Cape Cod.

It must be that time of the year when they start dredging the harbors, getting ready for all of the boat traffic this spring and summer. We saw them at Wellfleet Harbor a couple of weeks ago and now they are at Rock Harbor. (Click on blog link for other photo.)

It was incredible how they dredge a harbor and painstakingly slow. With one backhoe on the dredger boat , they would scoop up a huge load, drain the excess water and then empty it into a barge between the boat and the dock. Another backhoe on the dock would scoop the sand out of the barge container and into a waiting truck. When that truck was full, it would deliver it to wherever it was designated to go and another truck would takes its place at the dock.

I sent a photo to Phil while I was watching and said, “One scoop at a time! Wow!” It will be very interesting to see how long the whole process takes. Quite amazing and so necessary as the sands wash in year after year making it too shallow to maneuver with a boat without dredging the channel.