Saturday, July 3, 2010

Oh, Swell


Coast Guard Shark Advisory for Northeast

Actually, I think this is a ploy on the part of the Coast Guard to get the media and the public to pay attention to their annual reminder about wearing life jackets, carrying a marine radio, eschewing alcohol use, etc.  As Great Whites are seen off the coast of Cape Cod every day, this is hardly a news flash.  Well, except to reporters whom I suspect do not actually swim, boat, surf, or wade.  If they go to the beach at all, it's to sit in a comfy chair and sip chilled white wine or something.

I was once menaced by marine life off the coast of Cape Cod, though, in the open ocean just outside of Provincetown Harbor, when a humpback whale became enamored of my boat's hull and decided to "go courting", which meant it kept coming closer and closer; so close that I could reach its tail fin from my perch at the tiller. 

Never tacked so fast in my entire life.