The Old Harbor Life-Saving Station will be open for four days. Photo by Michael DiGioia.
Visit for Maritime Days
A Cape-Wide Celebration of the Maritime
By Kahrin Deines
April 29th, 2008
The name says it all: Cape Cod. But there is still more: at least 600 miles of coastline, a twisting spiral land mass always surrounded on two sides by water, and a maritime culture that continues to evolve.
 | Learn about pirates, piping plovers, courageous life-savers, lighthouses, whales and more during Maritime Days in May. |
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From whale hunting to whale watching, from fishing to the beach-days and sunset-gazing of today’s tourism, Cape Cod has remained connected to the Atlantic in its way of life. The sheer length of its shared border with the Atlantic has made, and will forever make, the sea central to its culture.
To celebrate this long marriage with the ocean, each year Cape Codders host the Maritime Days, a series of events that honor the various roles the sea has played in Cape history. From bow to stern, the whole length of Cape Cod comes together for the celebration, which includes scheduled events in almost every town.
Usually only a weeklong series of events, this year the Cape’s Maritime Days celebration will run for almost the whole month of May. And Provincetown, no exception to the Cape rule of symbiosis with the ocean, will host a number of events to honor its rich maritime heritage during the month-long affair.
The events begin with a “Pirates of Cape Cod” presentation at the Province Lands Visitor Center on May 5, featuring tales of treasure and yarns about Black Sam Bellamy, the fabled pirate of the famous Whydah.
The visitor center is hosting a number of other presentations, focusing on topics from the piping plovers who live in the area’s dunes and beaches to the Stellwagen Banks National Marine Sanctuary, a favorite feeding ground with the whales. Later in the month, on May 24, the award-winning author Jim Coogan is also scheduled to regale visitors with tales about courageous Cape Codders adventures at sea.
Meanwhile, the Old Harbor Life-Saving Station, one of only 13 such stations still intact, will be open for visitors the first three Sundays of May from 1:30 to 4 p.m. And on May 31, the author and historian Richard G. Ryder will be at the station to tell tales about the life-savers.
Race Point Lighthouse will open for Maritime Days as well, with a tour of the lighthouse and its sister buildings on May 18. Cape Cod National Seashore rangers are also hosting a campfire at Herring Cove Beach on May 26, along with a walking tour of Provincetown on May 30.
To find out more about Maritime Days events in Provincetown, or other Cape Cod towns, visit The Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce.
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