Red Brook Harbor

One of the biggest natural harbors in Buzzards Bay, Red Brook Harbor is home to more than 700 boats and that number could swell to between 800 and 900 on a beautiful weekend. It is well protected from the prevailing SW wind and is also a harbor of refuge for strong winds from any direction. A tour would include viewing the many and varied boats in and around Kingman Yacht Center and Parker’s Boat Yard and visiting the little coves such as Hen’s Cove, Hospital Cove, Barlow’s Landing and the Mill Pond. The east side of Basset’s Island is a popular anchorage at any time but the number of boats increases many times on a beautiful weekend. Along the way are the shorelines of Scraggy Neck and Wing’s Neck and the beautiful homes that have been built there as well as along the shorelines of Red Brook Harbor.

Pocasset River and the West End of the Cape Cod Canal

The pickup point for this trip would be the town marina at the Singing Bridge in beautiful downtown Pocasset. The town dock is convenient for such a starting point. Across from the marina is Barlow’s Marina with the many boats that are in slips and at floating docks. Going down the river toward the Bay, there are many beautiful homes with their boats tied to their own docks. Passing through the jetty, we are in Buzzards Bay with Wings Neck to our left and Toby Island, Monument Beach harbor and Mashnee Island to our right.

Heading NW to run by Mashnee Island, we come to the large red buoy, #10, which marks the edge of the Cape Cod Canal. One can easily see the roiling water caused by the canal current at any time, even that of slack current. Going straight across would take us up to Onset where, again, there are many boats and many beautiful homes. If, instead, we turned right at #10 buoy, we would head up into the canal and would have the opportunity to visit the Taylor Point Marina or go past Gray Gables where President Grover Cleveland summered and head up to the view the Railroad Bridge and the Bourne Bridge.

Turning around at the bridges and depending on the wind and current in the canal, we could head out to Buzzards Bay along the Hog Island Channel and when we came to the end of the channel, we would turn left, head over to Wings Neck and the Wings Neck Lighthouse and then turn left again to run parallel to Wings Neck and back to the Pocasset River.

Breakfast In Wareham

This is a special trip that is a great deal of fun and something that we do many times during the summer. We might leave from the town marina on the Pocasset River and when we pass the jetty, we head west to run parallel along Wings Neck. Before we get to the end of Wings Neck, we turn to the NW to cross in front of the southern end of the Hog Island Channel. From there, we head to Great Hill Point on which is a home in the design of a small castle. It is pretty, well taken care of and the grounds are beautiful.

From there, we head North and follow the well marked channel through many boats at moorings as well as many homes, most of which seem to be summer homes yet are probably now converted to year-round homes. As we slow through the no-wake zone, we pass Warrs Marina and Cape Cod Boat Building Company where the Bulls Eye’s have been built for 50 years or more. Far up the river, we pass the Nantucket Light Ship which is in the process of being refurbished and will eventually be taken somewhere for the tourists to discover.

We will tie up at the Town Dock and the passengers will walk around, over a small bridge and down to the restaurant, The Narrows. This is a great restaurant with a small town flavor that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. Everybody enjoys The Narrows. The return trip is just the reverse of our trip over and gives everyone time to enjoy the sights such as the Railroad Bridge, Wings Neck and Wings Neck Lighthouse and Scraggy Neck and the return trip up the Pocasset River.