Codzilla: a wild, wet, loud ride in Boston Harbor

By Kim Foley MacKinnon, Town Correspondent

Part of a series in which our correspondents experience a city attraction as a tourist might.

Tall ships, harbor cruises, whale-watching expeditions, and narrated tours around Boston Harbor are all well and good. But when you want to really get your blood pumping on the water, forget about the usual sedate tourist offerings.

Instead, head for the scary-looking boat, its hull painted with a fish with razor-sharp teeth, Codzilla!

Boston Harbor Cruises offers this fast-paced thrill ride departing from Long Wharf daily in season. The 70-foot specially outfitted boat, which sports two turbo-charged diesel engines with 2,800 horsepower, can turn a full 360 degrees, and does so several times on every trip.

The people behind the scenes at Codzilla boast that the show is professionally scripted by Hollywood screenwriters and orchestrated to an originally scored soundtrack. The guides spin tall tales---hey, did you hear that scary-sounding thump under the boat?---while you and 134 other passengers slowly cruise out of Long Wharf into deeper waters.

The sound system features 30 marine-grade speakers and to ramp up the excitement, when the boat is free to go fast, the music matches the intensity.

At first you may think the 40-minute trip isn’t going to be that big a deal, but when the captain lets loose and you’re racing along at 40 miles an hour, you’ll quickly come to change your mind.

Within seconds you’re soaked to the skin, everyone is laughing and you realize they weren’t kidding about going in circles. After several spins, fast starts and stops with plenty of seawater splashing almost everyone on board, the all-too-short ride ends and it’s time to head back to the harbor.

I can’t argue that this adventure is anything but entertaining. You’re not going to get a history lesson, a great overview of Boston Harbor or even a particularly good photo opp (you get wet, remember). But you can do all that at any number of sights near Long Wharf, including the New England Aquarium and Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum, to name two.

For a local though, a perfect follow up to Codzilla, especially when you’re soaked to the skin, is to head to the Barking Crab to sit at a picnic table with a cup of chowder and a beer.

After all, sometimes girls just want to have fun.

Kim Foley MacKinnon, who covers Roslindale for Your Town, can be reached at kim@kfmwriter.com.