Suggestions for Open Water Training in Cape Cod

Thanks! I'll check it out.

When I have been on the Cape and done the very same thing I would park my car at the Salt Pond Visitors Center (free) and ride my bike to Coast Guard Beach (about 2 mi).

That's great information-- thanx! What's an easy resource for finding tides and mung and shark sightings?

I stay in Eastham every summer for a month or so and do a long open-water swim almost every day. I mix it up between Herring Pond (on Herringbrook Road), the bay right in front of our house (Boat Meadow Beach) and the ocean (usually Nauset Beach in Orleans), depending on tides, weather, mung/seaweed, and the reported presence of sharp-toothed finned creatures (really only a problem oceanside in Chatham or south of Nauset Beach in Orleans right now, but unfortunately, that's my favorite place to swim). I also head up to Provincetown to swim at Herring Cove with a buddy up there. If you swim in the bay you need to pay attention to the tides, I usually start an hour before high tide so I can get a good hour and a half or two in before the water starts to really go out, it gets shallow fast. Make sure to wear a bright swim cap and maybe have a swim buoy or flag, there are boats around and they don't expect to see swimmers far from beaches. If you like colder water, like me, you'll want to go to the ocean, but there have been large patches of mung lately and more and more seals, at least in Orleans. Don't swim if there are lots of birds circling, they do that when the bluefish are running, usually at the end of August, and you don't want to swim into a school of blues! If you get to the parking lot before 9 am you usually don't have to pay the $15 fee...Not sure about Nauset Light in Eastham, but you could certainly get a good ocean swim in there. I am leaving the Cape next Monday, but will be back Labor Day weekend and am always looking for swim buddies if you are interested...just let me know.

Try local papers (The Cape Cod Times or The Cape Codder) for tides, you've got morning high tides in the bay next week, Monday 6 am, Tuesday 7 am, Wednesday 8 am, Thursday 9 am--there's no mung report, as far as I know, though it's a huge nuisance for fishermen so maybe it does exist somewhere--Nauset tides are @ 15 minutes later, but tide is not so crucial there (though if you swim at low tide you need to get out far to avoid the surf) wickedlocalcapecod.net is a good source for all kinds of info. I don't know how to get timely and accurate info on shark presence, it's a touchy subject and people tend to sensationalize any sightings--but I do know that they closed some Chatham beaches to swimmers at night last week, then earlier this week they closed a southern-ish beach during the day, and folks found a chomped seal carcass washed up at area 6 on the outer beach between Orleans and Chatham, so if you do any ocean swimming try for the middle of the day-ish and stick close to monitored beaches, I think they are keeping a pretty close watch out to see if the sharks are moving northward (I've seen a few spotter planes overhead the past few weeks). And when you've finished swimming get some indescribably delicious onion rings at Arnold's on Route 6 in Eastham, they're the best! (the lobster rolls aren't bad either)

First time user on this forum. I'm in Chatham now (September 11) through September 18. I'd like to swim at least one time while here-I know minimal about the area. I don't want to drive too far but will to avoid sharks. I'd love a local swim buddy- I typically swim about 1.7miles. I could swim more or less too; however, I'm not an aggressive swimmer. I'm used to colder water-I swim in Puget sound year round (48 degrees approx).