PILGRIMS' PROGRESS

Provincetown, Cape Cod, is as much a beacon of hope and sanctuary now as when the Mayflower's passengers stumbled ashore there in 1620. Robin McKelvie revels in its energy

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When the Pilgrim Fathers on the Mayflower stumbled ashore in 1620, after a 66-day struggle across a wintry Atlantic, Cape Cod offered safe harbour. And hope. The settlement that grew up in their wake, Provincetown, today shines as a beacon that offers safe harbour in an America currently embroiled in stormy waters. And hope.

I make landfall just a few miles from where the pilgrims were saved. A simple plaque marks that spot. The first thing that strikes me is the hulking 77-metre tower erected in their memory. The second would have those immigrants from England turning in their puritanical graves. Half of the New York Store is a cheery traditional ice cream parlour; the other half revels as a cannabis dispensary, a fitting welcome to the most inclusive, progressive and tolerant town in New England, perhaps the US.

You can pick up a free map on the ferry from Boston to “P-Town”, as it’s almost universally abbreviated. I don’t have time to even open it en route as I am too busy spotting humpback and minke whales, who also harbour in the nutrient-rich protected waters. We’ve voyaged a mere 60 miles from Boston, but Provincetown feels an ocean apart from much of Trumpian America. We're at the very tip of the Cape Cod peninsula, yes, but P-Town very much feels like an island oasis.

That free map is an exuberant “Queer Adventure Guide & Map to LGBT+ Provincetown”, bursting with information about the “Gaybourhood”, including drag shows, tea dances and “Boy Beach”, the last a cruisey playground befitting its moniker. Queer lifestyles are not just tolerated here, they’re reassuringly the norm, making P-Town a blessed relief to anyone who has spent part of their lives trapped in any form of closet.