(Nauset Light) Shark Week

We head out after cleaning up from dinner at the cottage.  Cottage life means no dishwasher and we cooked (well, grilled) dinner and clean up takes a bit of time.  Our destination is Nauset Light Beach, which is part of the Cape Cod National Seashore.  Although we are going to a beach, we don't plan to swim.  For a few reasons.  The water at Nauset Beach is chilly and while it would feel refreshing on a hot summer day, this is a cool summer evening.  Another reason - sharks.  According to shark safety rules, which we follow, swimming at dawn and dusk is a no no.

As we're driving into Orleans, we pass by a digital road sign which reads "Nauset Beach Open."  Over the past few years, several beaches on the Cape have been closed to swimmers due to shark activity.  Nauset Beach is one of the beaches where sharks are routinely spotted.  While seeing a shark, preferably when no one is in the water, would be amazing, as we told family visiting from out of state, you simply cannot expect to see a shark.

This sign greets us at the entrance to the parking lot.

There are enough shark warnings that you would have to be the most oblivious person in the world to not realize sharks are present.  Never mind the fact that this is the ocean and all.


Check out that water temperature.  60 degrees.  Brrrrrrrr.











Nauset Beach faces east so the sun sets behind you.  The sky surrounding the beach is beautiful at sundown.









Our big shark story.  We're pretty sure we spotted a shark.  As we were walking along the beach, tussling in the water a bit offshore caught my eye.  I thought (as in 99% positive) I saw a fin and yelped for Rich and the girls to look.  They did and Rich agrees that it was probably a shark.  We aren't 100% positive but we see enough seals and it did not look like a seal.  Well, maybe a seal being eaten.  I wasn't taking photos at the time and I sure wasn't going to miss out on the experience by trying to take a photo.














Seal.  Not a shark.


More seals.

A few days after this visit, we were at our local beach, where there have not been any shark sightings, and the girls were swimming as usual.  Suddenly, Allie came running out of the water, looking a bit scared.  When I asked why she was no longer swimming, she said there was a seal in the water.  She'd overheard another group of swimmers point out the seal and then she saw the seal herself.  I looked about and spotted the seal too.  (Maybe I shouldn't have been reading.)  It wasn't too close to shore but close enough.  She knows not to swim near seals and was concerned that sharks could be around.  Shark safety 101.