{"id":2260,"date":"2023-10-22T10:01:18","date_gmt":"2023-10-22T17:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/?p=2260"},"modified":"2023-10-22T10:01:22","modified_gmt":"2023-10-22T17:01:22","slug":"nautical-terminator-capes-points","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/general\/nautical-terminator-capes-points\/","title":{"rendered":"Nautical Terminator – Capes & Points"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Does it bother you that Cape Mendocino, which looks like a point, is called a \u201ccape,\u201d while Point Reyes, which looks like a cape, is called a \u201cpoint\u201d? Cape Hatteras is more of a bump but still gets the title \u201ccape.\u201d Even Cape Cod, which looks like a cup and maybe at best an upside down cape, as worn by an upside down superhero running towards Texas, gets to call itself a cape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cCape\u201d\nsounds more important. The three \u201cgreat\u201d capes are Cape Horn, The Cape of Good\nHope, and Cape Leeuwin. There are some \u201cgreat\u201d points, like on Nantucket, but\nthey really aren\u2019t all that great. Point Conception is sometimes called the\n\u201cCape Horn of California,\u201d as if this were an upgrade. Is it because royalty is\nforever parading around in capes, and not the commoners?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            It is\nnatural to think that when something is called a cape it is because of its\nresemblance to the article of clothing. Geographical features are often\nmetaphorically described using familiar objects: the bottom of the ocean is the\nocean \u201cfloor,\u201d a river has a \u201cbed,\u201d Italy is a \u201cboot,\u201d and so on. In this case,\nhowever, \u201ccape\u201d does not get its meaning from haberdashery. It ultimately comes\nfrom the Latin \u201ccaput,\u201d which means \u201chead.\u201d The Spanish \u201cCabo\u201d comes from the\nsame family of languages as cape and caput. So it is not the garment but the\nhead that sticks out like a point–at least in my case–that explains the\ntitle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The\nwhim of the discoverer or common usage determines if it\u2019s a cape, headland, or\npoint, not some commission dedicated to consistency like the International\nAstronomical Union that says Pluto isn\u2019t a planet. So we end up with, for\nexample, \u201cBodega Head.\u201d The word \u201cbodega\u201d is Spanish for wine cellar or\nstoreroom, and head is English for cape, although not because it looks like\none, which it does. At least \u201cBodega Head\u201d goes straight to the point and\ndoesn\u2019t involve any Latinate pretension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Well,\nwe don\u2019t have any capes in San Francisco Bay but we have plenty of points, like\nPoint Potrero, which is where the Red Oak Victory is tied up, and Point\nRichmond, which, if you don\u2019t know, is located at those dilapidated pilings at\nthe end of Potrero Reach where the ferry used to land. It could have been \u201cCape\u201d\nRichmond, but it just wasn\u2019t ambitious enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Does it bother you that Cape Mendocino, which looks like a point, is called a \u201ccape,\u201d while Point Reyes, which looks like a cape, is called a \u201cpoint\u201d? Cape Hatteras is more of a bump but still gets the title … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-nautical-terminator"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2260"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3372,"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2260\/revisions\/3372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}