Farewell to Cape Cod

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The weather is glorious. Sunny. In the 80’s during the day and the 60’s at night. The forecast says that this weather will last.

We continue “up the coast” ... but this in fact means that we must run right across the mouth of Cape Cod Bay to the “mainland”. (The canal means that Cape Cod is now technically an island!) We are heading for Scituate. The water is pretty lumpy as we head out into the bay, probably because the tide is rushing in all the way around the tip of Cape Cod and into the harbor. The seas quieten down as we proceed across the mouth of the bay to Scituate. They are benign by the time we arrive in early afternoon.

On past visits to Scituate, we have always bought dock-space at the wonderfully convenient Cole Parkway Marina. This time, we decide to rent a mooring from the Cedar Point Launch. The harbor is well protected by a pair of breakwaters and our mooring turns out to be both comfortable and in a pretty location. We think it would be hard to find a mooring that was not in a pretty location in this very pretty harbor.

Scituate is unusual. It is a very popular home port for both sailing and sport fishing. It is also a serious commercial fishing port. And it is within reasonable commuting distance to Boston. In fact, I think they have recently reopened a commuter rail line to Boston.

So this is a great little town. It used to be a Perfect Cruising Port but the small “ships store” has closed and the local hardware store, while good, is not geared to sailors. With that one exception, everything you need or want, including a decent Village Supermarket and a handful of (non-fast-food) restaurants, is on Front Street within a quarter mile of the Cole Parkway Marina.

The Mill Wharf Restaurant sits right alongside the entrance channel to the inner harbor. It is always the first place we visit when we arrive. The main dining room has a good view but the one from the upstairs bar is spectacular. The Mill Wharf serves “pretty good seafood pub food” (my description) with an extensive and varied menu that suits us just fine. Service is fast and friendly. The stuffing in the Quahogs is tasty and appropriately chewey ... :-)

On Friday we take a circular walk through town and along the full length of Front Street, where Jana gets a little shopping therapy. At 5:45, we go to Riva, an unpretentious looking restaurant just up the street from the marina. On previous visits, we have always passed by this little place. We find a table in the rear bar-room, which will seat just 24 people. By 6:15, every seat is taken, there is a couple waiting in the doorway for the next available table and people keep popping in and out in hope of finding a seat.

The rest of this blog is all about food!

For an appetizer, we shared a “crab tartar” which was a delicious pile of well spiced crabmeat topped with a pile of micro-greens (which Jana inhaled), served with an unusual and tasty sauce, reminiscent of tahini.

For a main course, we shared a dish of littleneck clams and shrimp, served in broth with spaghetti. It is stupidly difficult to get this dish well-made here in New England, where the perfect ingredients are so easily available. Here the dish was perfect. The broth was appropriately salty.

We finished the meal with expressos, Limoncello cheesecake and a cognac for me. People were still standing in the doorway waiting to be seated but the waitress made it clear that we should enjoy our dessert and leave when we were ready. Which we did. A perfect end to a perfect day. Made just a little more perfect by a not-too-shabby sunset.

This is where we have been for the “next” few days ...
Saturday to Monday, Aug 17 to 19 - Brewers Hawthorne Cove Marina, Salem, MA

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Fishing boats
What a great photo.