Talking about a marine country like Indonesia, we can’t seperate the name from the fact that it has so many islands. Some of them are the known ones like Kalimantan, Jawa, Sumatra, or Madura, one of the largest salt producers. While the other small islands are even unnamed. These islands have the same ecosystem, but different in forms. An island ecosystem established dynamically and naturally. That’s why they have fairly different in shape and form. For example, an island has bays, while the others have their own capes. These cape and bay, are actually not the same.
Both of them have different meaning, and contrast to each other. Before actually differ them, it’s better to understand what they actually are. Bay is an area where the water is surrounded by landmasses from three sides. The example of this is Bengal Bay, Hudson Bay, and many others. Cape, what is cape?. It basically means land areas that go into the water bodies. So we can conclude that this land area is covered by water areas from the three sides. An example of this is the Cape of Good Hope. Now, after understanding the meaning of both cape and bay, let’s dive into the 3 differences of cape and bay:
1. The Shape
The first one on the list, which is very clearly seen is the shape. As mentioned above, both the bay and cap have different kind of form and shape. The bay is more like the water area that surrounded by three land masses on three sides. So you can say that the water takses about ¼ of total area. But, there are some bays that surrounded by land masses on the all frour sides, like Turmenbashi Gulf near the Caspian Sea. It’s located in the coast of Turkmenistan, surrounded by Turkmenbashi, Belek Turrkmenskiy, Hazar, and small part of Awaza.
Cape is rather different than bay. In general, cape is a small part of an island that surrounded by the sea on the three sides as well. Usually, the shape of cape is like a pointy finger pointing to the ocean. This small part of an island became thinner than others because of sea waves that scrape away parts of a whole island. People can go there though, and consider them as natural attractions, like Cape of Good Hope for Example.
2. Waves and Wind
Indonesia and all the other countries with most islands in the world, may have abundant numbers of bays and capes. Other than different in form, we can differ them based on the strong of wind and waves as well. Let’s take a look at the bays first. Because of bay consists of smaller part of ocean against the landmasses on the tree sides, the waves in the bays are considerd pretty calm. This because of the landmasses that cover the water from bigger waves. They also provide a defence against stronger sea winds, making the bay calmer and suitable for any light water sport, also fishing.
In the other hand, because there’s not protection at all, the waves and winds in the capes are pretty strong. If you stand on the cape, strong wind may blow you away. The wind that coming from the sea can go more than 15km/h, which is strong enough to blow your hat. The effects of strong wind also cause waves to rage. Because of how strong the waves are, some parts of a cape may fall apart. Because of that, it’s not recommended to go any further forward the ocean when standing on a cape location. Just standing on a save position, and capturing the moments of waves clashing against the cliff walls is a moment to remember.
3. Functions
The last one in of three differences of cape and bay is about their functions. Based on their characteristic, humans can take some advantage of them. Let’s start with the bays first. Bays have calmer sea waves and richer types of fish, due to stable condition. This is really suitable for aquaculture and fishing. It’s also well suited for building a port for harboring. Besides that, people can start to make settlements there.
Capes are rather have more aggresive winds and waves. So, people use it as natural attractions for the tourists. Usually they come there in order to see the scenic view, or just wandering around seeing how strong the waves are, etc. In a larger form of capes, which is a peninsula, people may also build their settlements there. Creating a new environment and the new life.