Hi,

We're spending the week of the 8/18th up along the Cape. We are wondering if it is better to leave Capecod on a Saturday or a Sunday in terms of traffic. Do most people exit the island on Sunday?
All thoughts are welcome.
Thanks,
Pete

Pete,
Not to be critical, but Cape Cod is not an island. To answer your question, the best time to leave would be late Sat. night. Weekly rentals end on Saturdays, so everyone who was there for the week leaves on Sat. Weekenders all leave Sunday - the worst traffic day. So, best bet is to leave Sat. evening.

In a word, Sunday traffic leaving the Cape is horrendous! Leave anytime on Saturday and you should be okay.

Well, kcd, it is an island, as it is a land mass surrounded on all sides by water. A man-made island, yes, but an island nonetheless.

Pete, either leave on Saturday or really late (after 9PM) on Sunday night. Traffic backups trying to get over the bridges are routinely 6 miles down rte 6 and 28.

gc,

You are right that an island is surrounded by water on all sides.

But if you look at a map, you will see that ther is no water on the western side of the cape.

The Cape is a peninsula

Actually, the Cape was a peninsula, and has been bisected twice since 1933 by water. The cape cod canal separates the cape from the mainland. you cannot walk a land route from Hyannis to Plymouth. You must cross either the Bourne or Sagamore bridge that span the Cape Cod Canal, the western, water boundary of the cape.
Also, several years back...1996 or so, after a severe winter storm, there was a full breach of the land mass out near Truro somewhere, separating by salt water the northernmost section of the Cape from the rest. I don't know if the breach still exists, but if it does, that would make Cape Cod into two islands.

topping

Hey guys, what about the Portugese islands off the east coast of Africa that are called Cape Verde?

I'm not sure if a man-made canal technically makes a peninsula an island, but it does make for an interesting discussion. Actually, gc, the canal is a bit older than you said - it opened in 1914. You may have been thinking about the current three bridges (including the railroad bridge), which do date from 1933.

There's never been a serious breach across the Truro area, in modern times anyway. I believe there may have been a bit of minor flooding at Blackfish Creek during an unusually high tide a few years back, but it was no big deal - well, I guess it probably was to the local residents. Of course, if there had been a real breach it would have been repaired immediately - there's a fair number of people in P'town, even in the winter. When people on the Cape talk about "The Breach", they're usually referring to the break in the barrier beach off Chatham (somewhere around 1990 as I recall, perhaps earlier) that has caused so much erosion and resulted in the loss of several homes.

A couple of other things about the canal. Just about everyone thinks the canal land cut runs north-south, but actually it's closer to east-west and with the compass declination in this area it's just about exactly E-W magnetic. I've piloted many boats through there over the years.

The other thing people like to argue about is where the Cape actually starts. Newbies insist on the canal as defining the "real" Cape, but the Cape was there long before the canal. Geologically and in just about every way you can think of, the Cape actually starts in Plymouth and Wareham, which mark the landward extent of the terminal and interlobate moraines that were deposited during the Pleistocene glaciation around 10-20,000 years ago.

Oh yeah, Pete was asking about the traffic. Sunday afternoon is definitely worse, but the cottages turn over on Saturday (as kcd said) so heading off-Cape on Saturday morning is no picnic either. Best to schedule either a late Saturday or very early Sunday departure.

Dick difinitely has Canal Knowledge!

Sunday traffic is HORRIBLE. Leave Saturday night.

OK--OK--OK
While our kids are NOW busy debating whether or not Capecod is an island;
we have decided to do a Monday to Monday
trip. That should take care of the traffic problem. We're hitting Falmouth
on Monday, then taking our bikes onto the ferry on Tuesday to MV for 3 days.
MV is an island, right?
gt;) ONLY KIDDING!
Thanks for all the feedback---you saved
a family of 4 from a horrible traffic experience. And I am grateful!
Pete

Dick,
Thanks for the illumination. You're right, I was assuming that the dates of the bridges (1933-35 I believe) were the same as that of the canal. Obviously, I was mistaken. Regarding the breach on the lower cape, I just remember Dickie Albert getting all excited about it on a weather report.

We used to spend summer vacations at Scusset beach, just west of the canal on the bay, where we had a family compound, of sorts. All the uncles had these little 600-900 square foot cottages...probably worth 500K each by now.
My friends always used to say it wasn't the real cape.
Pete, smart move Monday to Monday.
Are there any geography types out there that can clarify the island/peninsula quandry?
FYI, here are some resources...
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&i...+cod+peninsula

Saturday: Leave before 8:30am or after 6pm and you should be fine

Sunday: If its rainy then leave before 10am. If its sunny then leave before 2.

Saturday is absolutely the worst because you have traffic hitting the Sagamore rotary from all directions. If you are coming up 28 to the Bourne Bridge to rt 25/495 then traffic is not as bad.

So now I read you are doin the Monday thing. Okay - there will actually be some traffic in the late morning because lots of people have that idea. Also, sadly, the bourne/sagamore connector roads get all backed up on weekday nights from 4-6.

Anybody offering on-cape employment? Dick, do you have any openings on your boat?

Haven't been through there in a boat in quite a while years, Mark. I was a researcher at Woods Hole in the 70s, but decided I needed to go somewhere else and make some money.