W
NW
N
N
NE
W
the Degree Confluence Project
E
SW
S
S
SE
E

United States : Massachusetts

2.6 miles (4.2 km) E of Truro, Barnstable, MA, USA
Approx. altitude: 0 m (0 ft)
([?] maps: Google MapQuest OpenStreetMap topo aerial ConfluenceNavigator)
Antipode: 42°S 110°E

Accuracy: 20 m (65 ft)
Quality: good

Click on any of the images for the full-sized picture.

#2:  Chris and Elaine Stephens, shore support #3: capturing a GPS photo in a kayak is not easy #4: looking out towards the confluence from land #5: the house once owned by my great-grandmother, 4 K from the confluence

  { Main | Search | Countries | Information | Member Page | Random }

  42°N 70°W (visit #2)  

#1: the Cape Cod coastline as seen from the confluence

(visited by Natcho Stephens)

14-Apr-2002 -- This confluence sits about 1.3K off the coast of Cape Cod, in the Atlantic Ocean. I had wanted to visit the spot in February with a friend from Vermont, but he was convinced by another friend that the whole endeavor was foolhardy. Returning to the area in mid-April, I decided to give it a shot with my foldable kayak. The forecast was not very promising (20 kt. winds, 4 ft. seas, and chance of rain) but it was a sunny Sunday morning at my folks house in southern Massachusetts, so I convinced my father, Chris, and his wife, Elaine, to go for a drive and check it out. As it turned out, the day was perfect: warm temperatures, calm seas, few tourists, and forsythia and daffodils blooming everywhere. We took South Pamet Road from Rt. 6 in Truro, which leads straight to some nice beach access directly inland from the confluence.

I decided it was too warm for a drysuit, thereby insuring that I would flip the kayak while launching and soak myself, to the amusement of some surf-casters fishing nearby. With some help from my shore support I regrouped and launched successfully. About halfway to the confluence a humpback whale surfaced 70 meters in front of my kayak. Fantastic! A couple minutes later I heard the spray from her blowhole as she kept cruising north.

From the confluence there is a fine view of the Cape Cod coastline and the dunes and bluffs rising behind it. It took some pictures of land and tried to get a GPS shot, but the surface current pushed the kayak away from the confluence as soon as I stopped paddling.

It turns out that a house just down the road from the launching point once belonged to my paternal great-grandmother. She vacationed there with her second husband, a fellow named Drewsen, who was elected mayor of Northampton, Massachusetts on his platform to keep flouride out of the water.


 All pictures
#1: the Cape Cod coastline as seen from the confluence
#2: Chris and Elaine Stephens, shore support
#3: capturing a GPS photo in a kayak is not easy
#4: looking out towards the confluence from land
#5: the house once owned by my great-grandmother, 4 K from the confluence
ALL: All pictures on one page
  Notes
In the Gulf of Maine, 0.9 mi from shore, but with a good view of land.