The Warmest Water of the Year Arrives After the Lifeguards Leave

There is a gap in the Cape Cod calendar that almost nobody plans for, and it opens on the first Monday in September.

Cape Cod National Seashore staffs its ocean beaches with lifeguards from around the third week of June until Labor Day. Outside that window there are no lifeguards on duty anywhere in the park. The park states it plainly: no guards between Labor Day and the third week of June.

Now put that against the water. Sea temperature on this coast lags air temperature by roughly six weeks, so the warmest swimming of the entire year falls in late August and the first half of September. The crowds have gone home, the light is better, the parking is easy, and the ocean is as warm as it ever gets.

It is also completely unsupervised. And white sharks remain active into the autumn, with activity around the Outer Cape peaking from roughly August into October, which is to say precisely across the unguarded weeks.

None of this is a reason to stay out of the water in September. It is a reason to swim differently in September.

• Stay close to shore, in water where somebody could reach you.
• Do not swim alone. The beaches are emptier, which cuts both ways.
• Find the emergency call box at the beach entrance before you go in, and note where it is.
• Read the signage at the entrance even though no flag is flying, because at an unstaffed beach the signs are the only warning system present.
• Keep away from seals and from schools of fish working at the surface.

Town beaches run their own staffing and their own seasons, generally shorter than the calendar summer, and several stop guarding before the Seashore does.

The same gap exists at the front of the season. Early June has open restaurants, long days and thin crowds, and on most days no lifeguard on the sand either.