June 26 2010 - There are two ways to reach a beach on Cape Cod's Atlantic coast from Chatham. One is to navigate a car northwards through a dozen or more miles of traffic to reach a scrap of sand on a crowd infested shoreline at Orleans or the National Seashore. The other is to take a boat across turquoise water to the pristine and virtually empty island, known as "north beach" that's south of the new cut into Pleasant Bay. For the past few years tour boats such as the Beachcomber have taken beach goers from Chatham's fish pier to the cut itself. But this year, as reported by Doreen Legget in the Cape Codder, tour boats are banned from dropping people off at that location. Chatham's park and recreation commissioners put a ban into place last Tuesday because the currents flowing into and ebbing out of Pleasant bay are simply too dangerous. Spots south of the break are now under consideration for tour boat drop-offs. There are no lifeguards in the area and tourists are generally unaware of just how dangerous the currents can be.
