#2: [14-Apr-02]

13-Feb-2002 -- On a recent holiday to see my brother in Boston, my family and I went to have a look for the Degree Confluence 42N 70W.

Michael, my brother, suggested that the two families take a drive out to see Cape Cod while we were visiting in the US and that this would give him his first opportunity to go Confluence hunting. On consulting some maps it was obvious that we would not get to the CP, but it was on the way so why not have a look.

It was a freezing cold day and added to this the wind chill factor made for a good day to be driving, but not so good for walking around. We headed out towards the holiday town of Provincetown on Cape Cod and with it being mid February we were a good chance of missing the maddening crowds that are said to be there in the summer. We arrived in Provincetown to find that not only were there no crowds but most of the place is closed for the season. The tower/look-out & museum was our first stop and this is were we discovered that while it looked OK, weather wise from behind the windscreen, it was a different story when standing around discussing what to do next. We headed down into the town for a look around and some window-shopping and than a nice walk along the beach.

Once the children had had enough of that we all piled back into the cars and headed home. This was when we would look for the confluence. Having looked at different maps before setting off we were confident that we could find the road that lead to the right part of the coastline. This proved more difficult while driving along as most of the roads came to dead ends. Ultimately we found a road that lead to what looked like a car park that had a path leading to the beach. As the sun was setting we needed to get to the beach quickly and take our photos. Also, the temperature had dropped even further and this contributed to the small number of people that wanted to par-take in a confluence hunt that wouldn’t actually get to the location.

Michael and I decided that 1.44 km was as close as we were going to get, so we took our photos and headed back to the car to warm up.

PS none of our GPS device photos were any good so I guess we’ll have to go back and do it all again ;-) See you all there in the summer!

In the Gulf of Maine, 0.9 mi from shore, but with a good view of land.