Featured Stories & Articles from Cape Cod Travel Magazine: Get Out On The Water

With water, water, water everywhere, Cape Cod is always an exceptional vacation destination; soaking up some sun or some history, taking in the unique towns, and hopefully even getting in some boating time. We’ve got whale watches and seal watches, pleasure boats and fishing party boats, deep sea fishing and shoreline tours. All over the Cape, seasoned sailors offer unique and unusual expeditions designed to give their guests a taste of life at sea.

 

Since 1962, the Scudder family has run Hy-Line Cruises, providing ferry service to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, as well as offering an impressive array of ways to just enjoy the ocean. In addition to deep-sea fishing and a Cape Cod Canal Cruise, there’s the Hyannis Harbor Cruise. Aboard the company’s beloved first boat, Prudence, an old-fashioned Maine coastal steamer, guests enjoy a live narration while sailing by the Kennedy Compound and the John F. Kennedy Memorial, Veterans Beach and Kalmus Beach, and the little Lewis Bay Light, a privately built miniature replica of Brant Point Light on Nantucket. Other highlights of the Harbor Cruise include views of the Hyannis Yacht Club, Great Island in Yarmouth, Egg Island and Squaw Island. If you’re a fan of Ben & Jerry’s, every Sunday afternoon Hy-Line offers an Ice Cream tour, a one-hour cruise that adds a make-your-own-sundae option.

Another family-run boating operation, also providing ferry service (to Martha’s Vineyard) as well as pleasure-boat tours, is Patriot Party Boats, out of Falmouth Harbor, owned and operated by Jim Tietje.

 

“We are involved in fishing, sailing and sightseeing, and have been doing it for a long time,” Jim said.  “Dad moved to the Cape in the early 50’s as a charter captain and my brother, Chris, and I continued the family business. We’re all about family fun on the water. A trip on one of our boats will be the highlight of your vacation,” he added.

 

Patriot offers ‘open boat’ sport fishing aboard the Minuteman. Fishing on an open boat is unique, Jim said, because it allows a charter boat fishing experience at a party boat price. Jim has found his pricing, $70 per person, attracts a lot of families.

 

“A lot of people might want to do it, but can’t afford a charter boat,” he said. “Kids love sport fishing. We have a lot of first-timers who never caught a saltwater sport fish. It’s great to see a dad and son and the son catches his first fish.”

 

For people wanting a completely different experience from the Hy-Line and Patriot powerboat options, there is the beautiful 74-foot, 3-masted schooner, the Liberté, run and owned by Jim Tietje’s brother, Chris, and wife Jane.  The regal vessel also sails from Falmouth Harbor.

 

Chris’s Liberté is popular for its sunset sails. He’s seen so many sunsets, he rates them all from one to ten. “A ten rating needs not only the aspect of dropping into the Woods Hole Channel, which makes it a ‘water set’, but you also need little clouds up in the sky to pick up the afterglow, with the moon rising,” he said, adding “Every sail is different, you never know what’s going to happen.”

 

Sailing aboard the glamorous Liberté also offers the chance to spot some other spectacular yachts. “We sail by some beautiful boats; The Alabama out of Vineyard Haven and the When and If, General Patton’s boat,” said Chris.

 

The brothers Tietje appear to be endlessly enamored of their life at sea. “You’d think we’d get tired of this, but every day we have different weather, different wind, different tides, different people…and I love working with my brother,” said Chris. “It’s a family business, an old timey Cape Cod experience.”

 

Yet another type of sailing experience offered on Cape Cod is catboats, a type of sailboat so named because they behave like a cat; quick, smooth, and quiet. Captain Marcus Sherman has been sailing his 34-foot catboat, the Eventide, out of Hyannisport since 1987. He explained that trips on the Eventide are an intimate experience. “We’re smaller and more personal. I’m an easygoing guy; I’ll talk to anyone who wants to talk with me.”

 

Sherman and his crew offer a number of specialty cruises: the Blue Water Sail, out into Nantucket Sound, the Sunset Cocktail Cruise, past Pine Cove Wildlife Sanctuary, and the Hyannisport Cruise, which sails right past the Kennedy Compound.

 

All of the Eventide tours have a relaxed atmosphere to them. “It’s fun. It’s a sailboat ride, not a sightseeing tour. We don’t necessarily have a set route. I just try to take advantage of the wind.”

 

A perpetual family favorite in the world of Cape Cod boating options is the seal cruise. Several companies, most sailing out of Chatham, provide quick trips out to nearby beaches where the inquisitive creatures loll on the sand, just watching the people watching them.

 

The Monomoy Island Ferry’s Rip Ryder, with Captain Keith Lincoln at the helm, offers 90-minute seal cruises from June to mid-September. Lincoln generally finds herds of seals on the shores of Monomoy Island, just south of Chatham. There are literally hundreds of seals calling these fish-rich waters home and getting up close and personal is a common occurrence. The beasts have no fear of the pleasure boats and the Rip Ryder often comes within 20 feet of the pack.

 

For those looking for a serious deep sea fishing expedition, there’s Rock Harbor Charter Service in Orleans. Owned by Roxanne Hayes, the well coordinated service connects private boats owners with families, groups and individuals. With 15 vessels, most of them fishing Cape Cod Bay for bluefish and striped bass, Rock Harbor has one of New England’s largest charter fleets.

 

Captain Hap Farrell has a 35-foot Harris charter boat, with fighting chairs, outriggers and salons. “It’s just like when you watch fishing programs on television…multiple rod holders with a multitude of lines,” he said. He finds some people are just looking for some sun and sea while others are all about the fishing. “These people are looking for some serious fishing; they’re really intense and into the hunt.”

 

With so many companies offering so many varied ways to enjoy the waters surrounding the Cape, there is just no excuse for heading home without getting out on the water.