This is something that I have wanted to ask for some time and something that is rather urgent. My wife tells me that we are going to Brewster, Massachusetts this weekend and I am decidedly not looking forward to it. Brewster is firmly on Cape Cod and on the beach and people just love to pour down there on the weekend. However, it might as well be the scene of a nice Wal-Mart parking lot to me because the beach is where the sand meets the water and this water happens to be very cold. That kind of ruins the entire thing. People fall all over themselves to go to Cape Cod every summer often spending thousands of dollars to stay 50 miles or less from home for a week. Why is this? Why didn’t they just sit in a lawn chair in their back yard (my yard is very big and nice BTW).
I love going to the beach…in Florida or better yet the Caribbean that is. I swim and snorkel for hours at a time because I love being in any non-freezing water. Help me out. How am I supposed to enjoy a cold-water beach? Should I buy a wetsuit tonight to make things better. Help me see it through your eyes although thoughts of casually sitting in sand will not be entertained.
I like the shore but I find the beach boring. I also don’t like getting wet and then lying in sand all that much. I’d much rather be on a beach or shore community where there’s actual stuff to do or places to hang out.
A lot of beach areas like the Jersey Shore, the Hamptons, Fire Island, Newport and parts of Cape Cod have a nightlife scene. People go out to the clubs and bars at night and then spend the day nursing a hangover on the beach during the day.
I dunno, man. I don’t get it either. (I can’t tell you how shocked I was to put a toe in that beautiful blue water in Hawaii. It didn’t look cold!) Were I you, I’d park it at the bar and eat crab cakes and plan next year’s Florida vacation.
Be glad you’re going to a beach on the Cape – Cape Cod beaches are warm compared to those further north, where the Gulf Stream has no influence. Try Salisbury Beach in Massachusetts, or Hampton Beach just across the border in NH. You feel warmer after you get out of the water, and the wind is cooling the water on your skin.
Don’t worry, I have. That is how this whole belief system came to be. I went swimming in Marblehead and even Maine once. I had to loan a jacket to a penguin on vacation. I would like to say it made me a stronger person but it probably just made me bitter. We visited friends who rented a house on the Cape last July. Sitting on the beach a big breeze kicked up for a while and the kids started shivering and screaming so much we had to leave. Good times. Put that Cape Cod shack on my wish list next Christmas.
I am seriously thinking about buying a wetsuit after work. Do those work well? My toes and face and maybe lower legs will be exposed and even that seems a little daring.
Could we talk actual temperature? I’m not understanding where your comfort line is. From what I remember, Cape Cod has good temps for swimming – a little colder on the north part, but still fine. Energizing, even. It helps if the air is very warm, because you (or rather, I) appreciate the contrast. And then there’s the issue of how active the swimming is … I would get cold too quickly if I was lolling around in the water like I would do in the Florida Keys, but cooler water temperatures are good for water games like races, tag, that sort of thing.
I remember the water at Old Silver beach being significantly warmer than other places on the Cape. It smells a little sulpherous because of the sand, though.
Well, to answer your larger question, I grew up travelling internationally with my parents because my father always had to drag us somewhere for his projects, or we we used to go on vacation somewhere tropical (mostly India)…but in terms of my daily life, I grew up in extremely to very cold climates (N. Quebec, Massachusetts). Freezing cold water temps are all I’ve ever known for beach trips and when I was young I wanted to go play in sand and water and be toppled over by waves. I don’t think my parents wanted to wait until vacation to take me and my sis out to the beach, you know? The mewling might have killed them. We made do with what was available…the Atlantic, fresh water lakes blahblahblah.
Besides, I consider Cape Cod water temps kinda warm compared to other places-the ice bucket beaches off of Maine or PEI are way colder. And you’d probably run shrieking at the large glacial temperature lakes I used to swim in Quebec.
I happen to love cold-water beaches (and not just for argument’s sake). When I swim in FL or SC, it feels like stepping into a luke-warm bath. I just don’t find it comfortable.
Then again, I grew up swimming in Lake Michigan. I suspect that people learn about the “shrinkage” concept rather earlier than our Southern friends.
I’m another one who can’t stand cold water. The furthest north I’ve ever swam outdoors was in Maryland. Here on the Gulf Coast the warm is so luxuriously warm, although unfortunately filled with debris from the hurricanes.
Lewis and Harris (Scottish Hebridean (western) isles) both have gorgeous deserted beaches, both being quite a bit further north than any other in this thread. Here’s one
. Now I’m not saying that the North Atlantic is toasty warm, but in summer you can easily find a gently sloping beach where it’s pleasant enough to splash about in the water without worrying about losing extremities. And you will have the place to yourself. It’s kind of great really to be in the sea thinking that westward the next piece of land is almost the Southern tip of Greenland and the next bit continuing north is some random bit of Siberia near the Bering Strait.
That reminds me, Agent Foxtrot and I went swimming off the Greek island of Aegina (right off Athens). It was beautiful but COLD! I never went swimming in Istanbul but I saw kids splashing around in the Bosphorus, diving off docks. It was May/June.
Last year, my family annouced that we would be going to the beach. Being in NC, this meant the Outer Banks, or something equally YAY! Unfortunatly, the announcement was shortly followed by the words “…in New Jersey.” Yes, we live a few hours from the beach, but instead we went to the Jersey Shore. On paper, it sure didn’t look like it would suck.
But it rained on and off a few days. It was 60 degrees, raining, and the water hadn’t warmed up from winter yet. I went swimming anyway, and it was rather fun. I’m done swimming, let’s get out of the water. Oh wait, more water! Hooray!
My business partner is a southerner in Cape Cod right now.
You could do what he did and bring your laptop along and say “I have to work” every time the family runs off to the beach. He was online at least 6 hrs a day this week. But he was able to make it out for lobster
And they say Southerners aren’t that bright. Pure genius. I don’t have a laptop but the trip has been postponed until tomorrow and Best Buy opens early. I have to agree about the lobster.
I’m used to the much warmer Gulf waters by Destin, FL or the slightly cooler waters on Kwajalein. I can’t tell you how many people, who are used to this water temp, are amazed at how cool Hawaiian waters really are–that is, compared to what they’re used to or have read about.
Folk who are used to the cold Atlantic water probably don’t find it anything but glorious.
Same thing, but more, when friends reared on Baywatch, etc., actually dip a toe into SoCal waters…dang, that stuff is COLD!!!
I wouldn’t bother with the wetsuit. It will keep you warm, but they aren’t comfortable. I would personally rather just stay out of the water than struggle into a wetsuit. Just have a few drinks and run into the water really fast, you’ll get used to it in a few minutes.
