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a Whale of a Time
at Cape Cod.
We had
flown in from the UK and were exploring New England. Driving down to Cape Cod I was quite surprised to see so many familiar British place
names.
There were big distances between the houses and anything that
was recognisable as a town centre. We quickly gained an understanding
of how essential the car was to the American way of life.
We
drove past trees whose leaves had turned golden and wondered what it
would be like to live in the houses with back doors that opened out
into the wild forests.
Willows hung low by the
highway and telegraph cables looped from pole to pole. A horse flicked
his tail at the flies and we met sun flowers with faces as big as dinner plates.
The
houses seem old and well cared for,
but occasionally there was one that seems to creak and lean
with faded blistered paint.
A white wooden spire pointed skywards and
"The
Open door church of God" seemed
in danger of becoming the open roofed one!
There was pleasure in
driving on country roads punctuated with mail boxes and in following
the yellow school bus. At it’s flashing lights all traffic stopped
and the children ran over the grass to home to be welcomed by a
dog with wagging tail.
 We
rounded a bend where an elderly couple were picking apples from a tree
and as we smelt the tang of salt in the air realised
that we had arrived at Barnstable in mid Cape Cod.
The place was a hive of activity. Small boats were being
launched from trailers that were being backed down a slip to join
others already bristling with fishing poles.
Deep sea sports boats were edging from the marina
and beyond the harbour people were carrying picnics towards the
sand
We
went aboard the big white Whale
Watcher boat and joined the hamburger queue. By the time we were
squirting the mustard on them, the vessel had backed out and we were
speeding confidently backwards out to a narrow marked channel
We
were soon passing the low lying landscape and heading around Sandy
Neck where the lighthouse was built in 1857. Beyond it lay a vast bay.
It was then, that over the PA. System, we heard that the crew of our
boat didn't know where they were going, it was just a question of
finding where the whales were.
They invited us to help look out for
the signs of them, so we
scanned the horizon for a sighting of birds or a spout of spray. A pod
of dolphins skimmed over the surface riding on the bow wave of our
boat. and the on board naturalists gave us an interesting commentary.
The sun was warm and it was pleasant enough as the boat whizzed across
the waves but just as I was just beginning to think that it was going to be a ‘no
show’ affair,  the keen watchers up front suddenly became agitated, they had
spotted the circling sea birds and then, a mile ahead,
a tell tale spot of spray shot skywards. It was all rather
infectious and we roused ourselves from the warm sun induced stupor
and joined the crowds at the rails. A couple of Minke whales were our
first sighting. Eventually the throb of the engine stopped and we
drifted within yards of a spot where a fin had broken the surface.
The boat drifted as we waited while they dived below for a
couple of minutes and then resurfaced again for air.
Later
we saw Hump Back whales. These grow up top forty foot, and weigh a ton
a foot and it’s because
their mass is so bulky that you get the impressive flip of the massive
tail as they force the tons of blubber below the surface and
push their bodies straight down through the water column.
The underside of the tails have pattern that is as individual to each
whale as our finger prints are to us. There was something quite moving
about having such close contact with the great creatures.
It
was a memorable day but I’m still trying hard to forget one line
from the commentary: “now it’s a cow whale with her calf,
the dad’s a bull, so what do you call a cow that’s
just had her baby? .de-calfinated.!”
...ouch.
.
FACT
FILE
Hyannis Whale Watcher’s Cruise, Barstable : Adults - £14.
Children - £9.60 .
(Tel.
in) US.1-800 287 0374 or
508 362 6088
Cape
Cod brochures - Discover
New England, UK.
01732 742 777
Report
by Allan Rogers
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