Weepecket Islands
If you’re passing by with time for lunch and a swim, or you need to get the kids ashore, stopping here can be the perfect answer.
Quissett
This legacy of slow development, punctuated by a significant grant of open space, leaves Quissett’s waterfront pleasantly sparse and unhurried.
Tarpaulin Cove
Nowadays the cove, like the rest of the island, is largely uninhabited, the lighthouse is automated and the (relatively) few boats transiting the Sound rarely need a sheltered anchorage to wait for wind or tide. Tarpaulin Cove is left mostly to daytime visitors.
Red Brook
The harbor’s placid shorelines and quirky, down-the-rabbit-hole entrance make it worth a visit, especially if your schedule allows for time to get off the boat and explore the area by dinghy or on foot.
Quicks Hole
For a cruising sailor, Quicks is rarely on the way to anyplace except Menemsha, but it is a lovely and remote little stretch of water.
Padanaram
The harbor’s size, its quick access to Buzzards Bay, and the century-old tradition of the New Bedford Yacht Club station have made it a popular destination since yachting took hold here at the end of the 19th century.
Onset
The channel into Onset doesn’t feel as tight as the chart suggests, though, and at the end is a quiet, Victorian-inflected seaside resort.
Menemsha
With just one street of small shops, surrounded by beach, dunes, grass, mixed forest and vast saltwater ponds, Menemsha feels seductively like the edge of the world.
Marion
Marion offers a lovely, well-protected harbor and streets that are uniquely attractive among Massachusetts’ old coastal towns.
Hadley Harbor
This perfect little gem of a harbor sits near the Buzzards Bay entrance to Woods Hole – at the nautical crossroads of southern New England.