June 21 - Ptown to Scituate, a Lovely Friendly Little Town

Our 30 mile passage across Cape Cod Bay began at 7:30, both because strong winds were expected in the afternoon and because we wanted to explore this picturesque town where we had never been. Early in the passage I deduced the origin of the name Race Point, at a tip of Cape Cod: the tide surely does race past there, and today it raced against us. But once past the Cape we were able to come a bit more off the wind and our speed picked up. We began with reefed main and small jib but then the wind diminished, so we put up the Genoa and finally motor-sailed in very light air, the last two of the six hours.

On the interior walls of PTown's Pilgrim Tower are many blocks of granite donated by and engraved with the names of 17th century Massachusetts villages. One such block bears both the English and Native American name of today's destination: "Scituate - Satuit".

We took a mooring at the Satuit Boat Club and the friendly launch driver (who corrected my pronunciation of the town) dropped us off in town after taking a Club member to his boat. He also took our bag of showering things to the clubhouse so we would not have to carry it. In town Lene got her coffee and after checking out several restaurants and shops, we walked the shore road past the Club to the far northern reaches of town.

Lene rested on this bench overlooking the northern part of the harbor, with our boat out there and her coffee cup behind her. Town is south, at far right. Tide is near dead low, exposing the rocks at left.  We went to the Cedar Point community of cedar shake covered homes, like those that cover the former lighthouse keeper's home. Scituate is a suburb of Boston- a half hour commute. The point is where the now ornamental lighthouse is located.

  Local legend has it that the two young Bates sisters, daughters of the lighthouse keeper, saved the town from being sacked by the British during the war of 1812 by furiously playing the fife and drum, causing the invaders to think that a whole regiment was defending the town. A lovely legend for sure; truth, maybe. But that's my cynical side.

I walked out to the end of the seawall that extends out past the lighthouse and protects the harbor from nor'easters. Why; because it was there. That threatening rain cloud sprinkled only about five small drops on us while we walked back to the Club. There, after we had taken our showers, we met the same member who the launch operator had taken out to his boat before taking us to town, Bill Ketter. We got to talking and he not only recommended a restaurant, but drove us to it.

This is not a food blog but we had memorable food at The Mill Wharf. I ordered a Quahog  (a large stuffed clam for those not from New England), largely so that Lene could have a taste, her first of this delicacy, with large chunks of clam mixed with the bread and spices. I had "Lobster, Mac and Cheese" with large chunks of the meat of a whole lobster baked with the nice fat macs and Gruyere. And though I'm known to eat heartily, half of it came home with us for lunch tomorrow. At dinner we met Jim and Cynthia,who live here and sail a small simple boat.

We invited them to come aboard for a tour of ILENE, which had the side benefit of a car ride back to the Club. Like I said, a very friendly town.