Monomoy Island Excursions, Part 3

Even more seals!!!  

So much sand on the bottom that the water is very clear.  It looks tropical but make no mistake, it's very cold.

Started the trip back at high speed, barreling towards the Atlantic.  I was still in the bow and I admit to a little nervousness at hitting those waves head on.

This was the only shot I could get once we were on the ocean side because the waves were choppy and the boat was going really super fast and just flying up and down off the waves.  I was whoo hooing...couldn't help but let out a whoop on a ride like that.  

I had hoped for a shark sighting but alas, not this day.  Although we did see the shark spotter plane flying overhead.  It's marked not to swim anywhere in Chatham but people do it anyway.

On the way back, we detoured into Stage Harbor real quick.

The tour guide said that this hasn't functioned as a lighthouse in many, many years, and was purchased for pennies on the dollar by someone who uses it for their summer home.  There is no electricity and only an outhouse for facilities.  Up to that point I was thinking how cool it would be to live in that place, but sorry, not without plumbing.  Princess needs I need a real indoor bathroom and electricity. And internet access.  

On the way back into Saquatucket Harbor, we passed this guy using a bullrake to dig for quahogs.  Russell has one of these rakes and the thing weighs a ton empty and it's also super long and unwieldy.  It's damn hard work what this fisherman is doing.  Part of the charm of Cape Cod is that fishing, shellfishing and lobstering are still done.  These are all working ports, wharves and marinas with a way of life that dates back centuries in families that have been here just as long.

90 minutes later, headed back into port.

I was utterly thrilled to get some close up shots of osprey!  Early settlers misidentified them in my part of the Cape and that's why my town and the body of water outside the Canal are called Buzzards Bay instead of Osprey Bay.

This is also known as a seahawk, from which the team took it's name.

Gorgeous birds.

Highly recommend this tour.  Next time I book, I want to do the South Monomoy Lighthouse trip!!

Monomoy Island Excursions, Part 2

I absolutely could not get enough of the ocean waves on the sand.  I'm not sure if it was an optical illusion, but it seemed as though the Atlantic was at a slightly higher elevation on the other side of the islands than we were in Nantucket Sound.  It made for a dramatic effect.

 I can't help but wonder if there is any beach glass on there but I'll never find out.

Oh. Right.  This is a seal tour, which I half forgot about!

Monomoy is just a fairly flat bit of sand, beach grass and apparently lots of poison ivy.

There's that Atlantic again....

There were so many seals that it was too hard to try to count.  They are very curious and popped their heads up to get a look at the boat, which they are now used to.

These were my two best close up shots.

There's Chatham Light.  Do you know how hard it is to time a shot of the light on a boat that's pitching up and down?

More seals under the water.

Tons of birds too.  All the pics I've seen from this seal tour shows them up on the sand but they were all out swimming the day I went.

Monomoy Island Excursions, Part 1

I knew there wasn't going to be much in Harwichport, so to make the trip down there worthwhile, I reserved a spot on the 90 minute Monomoy Island Excursion seal tour.  I had no idea what to expect.  I've always been intrigued by Monomoy Island, because you can't get there except by boat.  And no one's allowed on there anyway because it's a wildlife and bird sanctuary.

We left from where the first red 'ramp' is pointed, Saquatucket Harbor, and sailed over to south Chatham and the top part of the island, above the word 'Monomoy'.  Due to last winter's violent storms, this area has shifted and changed so much that it hasn't been re-charted.  Sand was washed away to build new 'islands' and other islands are now under water.

Checked in, got my ticket and went down to the docks to wait.  It was high tide.

2 fighter jets from Otis AFB flew overhead, which is unnerving ever since 9/11.  However I do not believe there was a sinister reason for that day's flight.

That's the boat we took, a high speed catamaran.  I was lucky enough to get a seat right up front in the bow. 

Leaving the harbor.

Headed out into Nantucket Sound

North Monomoy Island.

This is a fish weir.  The fisherman is one of only two in the entire state who is licensed to fish this way and that family has held that license for generations.

I'm still not entirely sure how it works, other than the nets under the water that round up the fish.  Seems to me the whole set up would be difficult to repair after a storm.

This looks like it walked off a Winslow Homer painting.  Not that he ever painted this lighthouse when he was on the Cape, but it still looked Homeresque to me.

At this point the boat was making so many twists and turns around sandbars just under the surface and beaches and channels that I got really confused as to what was part of Monomoy Island and what was still part of the southernmost beaches of Chatham.  That's looking at the Atlantic, which we did cross into both going and coming and it was a wild ride on those waves.

That's definitely Monomoy.

I know that is the Chatham beach because there were people on it.  You can walk there from town, over 2 miles on soft sand, or reach it by boat and/or kayak.

And to think we haven't even gotten to the seals yet!