Cape Cod Water

By Bob Surrette  (photo by Ken VanTassell)

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One of the best things about the Cape is the water, especially the salt water. People come here to enjoy our access to the Bay, the Sound and the Atlantic Ocean, all filled with salt water from top to bottom. While there are some fresh water ponds here and there and almost everywhere, a lot of our in-land puddles are tidal, filled and emptied by tidal estuaries that start and end at the ocean's edge.

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Most of my clan that visited the Cape on vacation over the last seven decades just scratched the surface of our waters. They came, they beached for a week, then went home.  The rule of thumb for my siblings was to not venture further out off the beach and into the sea than we could stand with our heads above water. This was a great formula as it aged well without Mom having to develop an age specific rule of thumb as we grew, both in numbers and in statute.

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I learned to swim in a pool at the Y and practiced in the freshwater lake near where I grew up in the outer suburbs of a major mid-Massachusetts municipality.  I preferred to swim in fresh water back then, especially when I accidentally took a mouthful. Fresh water frolicking also had the lucky strike extra of allowing us to skip our baths that night. But in my later years I learned to greatly enjoy the extra buoyancy that salt water provides me. Sadly, it is only temporary and gravity had its way with me when I eventually had to waddle back on shore.

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Like my clan back then, many visitors to the Cape today only to get enjoy the views of our littoral waters from the shore line as I did for fifty years or so. I never stepped on a boat until my much younger brother convinced me to go out on his sloop one blustery day.  I got to practice my salt water swimming that day when the wind conspired with a rogue wave to topple us. My brother laughed it off; I haven't been on a small boat since.

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 There are many people who are lucky enough to be Cape Cod boat people, they own them or ride on boats of others.  They get to see the Cape from the water to the shore, and a very pretty picture it can be, as you can see from this photo. This picture was taken from the ferry on the way back from Nantucket. Postcard perfect, no?

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The Secret Life of Boats on Cape Cod

By Bob Surrette  (photo by Ken VanTassell)

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We all want our personal water craft to create a hole in the water for us when we are at sea, in a pond or on flowing water in a tidal estuary or another waterway. However, when we are done and it's time to drag our floatation device on shore and leave it until later, we don't want it to hold water. So, we tip it over, turning it bottom up to the elements and the sky above. I am sure these vessels are not happy, not only out of their element, H20, but now not putting their prettiest side forward for passer-bys to see.

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Many have their bows and sterns unceremoniously stuck in the sand. Some have homes on custom racks. My canoe sits on two pallets I got from a "Free" pile on the side of Great Western Road at the end of the season last year. With great difficulty, I had wrapped it in one of those ubiquitous blue tarps. I didn't do a very good job as the tarp gushed water this spring when I freed the bungee cords holding in in place. The good news is that I didn't find that any critters, such as raccoons, had taken up residence in there, away from the elements.

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Little bigger boats are trailered to driveways or backyards and protected from the elements as best their owners can. Usually turning them upside down is not an option. Commercial boat yards offer the option of sealing even relatively large boats in white plastic. How do they breathe in there?

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Very few boats spend the winter in the water. Some commercial fisherpeople must work the off-season, no? And the ferries run all year except when the weather or mechanical glitches shut them down.

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I met a couple on one of our islands a few years ago who live on their boat. It wasn't very big but neither were they. They told me they spend the fall motoring down the East Coast in search of warmer waters for the winter. In the spring these boat people reverse course, arriving back in the islands just as the high season starts. Now, there's a boat that has to be happy year around, don't you think?