The Three Amigos Cruise Again

If you are a regular reader, you know that our friend Peter often cruises with us. In late July and early August, we all took a 17-day cruise south and returned on August 9th. We were due to head up to Maine, but a brush with a hurricane scuttled that trip.

Since then we’ve had several out of town guests, so Friday was Peter’s first cruise in six weeks.

Sunday is the Pig Roast at The Coop de Ville, which also meant our seventh and final visit to Oak Bluffs this season.

First Stop Falmouth

Since we stayed in OB on our last cruise, I booked the big slip at the Falmouth Town Marina for Friday and Saturday night.

We never considered Falmouth as a cruising destination. It has long been a very accessible Dock and Dine for Buzzards Bay boaters. In fact, we even came here in our marginally seaworthy Boston Whaler.

Then, on our Memorial Day visit, Peter discovered the Shining Seas Bike Trail.

It may well be the best bike trail on the South Coast. To the north is a shady and generally uncrowded trail that winds along the coast of Buzzards Bay.

To the south, it’s a five-mile beachside promenade that ends up at the Ferry Terminal in Woods Hole.

The bike trail was the first thing that got me considering Falmouth as a cruising destination. The second was the restaurant renaissance happening downtown. There must have been a half-dozen new restaurants opening over the past few years, and all are excellent.

Combine all that with a nice variety of shops and excellent Uber service, and Falmouth suddenly emerged as a great cruising destination.

As cruising destinations go, Falmouth is embarrassingly close to home – 22 miles from Onset.

We left our slip at 10:15 and I had to pull back on the throttles to stretch it to a 50-minute ride.

We tied up and immediately unloaded the bikes.

We planned to head north on the bike trail after lunch in town. There is a low-stress route to town if you head straight out of the Harbormaster’s parking lot down Queen Street and then take a right on King Street.

Although we planned to hit some of our favorite restaurants on this trip, we also committed to branching out to explore new ones.

The Quarter Deck

As hard as it was to pass up on lunch at Anéjo, we decided to try the highest-rated gastropub in town.

The yelpers gave it a 4.1, which generally means quite good.

The Quarter Deck offers a full menu of classics and a few one-offs. Mrs. Horne went old school and ordered the Tuna Melt and Sweet Potato Fries.

It was really done well. The chunks of tuna were too big to come from a can. It was also light on the mayo – the way I like it!

I’m not a big sweet potato fry fan. Mostly because they are never crispy. The Quarter Deck Sweet Potato Fries are quite crispy.

They offer something called Old Bay’s Homemade Potato Chips. We wanted to try them, but we didn’t want to give up our fries, so Peter and I decided to split the Cali Wrap and get both chips and fries.

The chips were very good. The wrap was perfectly executed; the tortilla was soft and everything was wrapped tightly.

Biking North

After lunch, we headed up Depot Road to the Shining Seas path. We’ve added a little detour with a left at Chapoquoit Road heading toward Buzzards Bay and Chapoquoit Beach.

It’s a great beach and it was fairly packed for a Friday in September.

We continued north to the end of the path. The entire trip totaled just under 20 miles, which is where Mrs. Horne likes to call it a day.

I liked detouring from the path down the oceanside country roads. If anyone knows any good country road detours, please share them in the comments.

Since we planned to bike on Saturday as well, we didn’t want to stow the bikes. The finger pier is narrow and it would have been rude to leave them there. I decided to try to fold them up and leave them in the lower cockpit.

I spent the rest of the afternoon reading on the Skydeck amidst a near-80° late summer day.

We planned to try Tap City Grill for dinner, but Mrs. Horne was wiped out after four days of golf and late-night dinners with her guests from Bermuda, and told me and Peter to go without her.

I said: “We are the three amigos, we must stick together, I’ll order a pizza.”

Supreme Pizza

Several pizza joints deliver in Falmouth. After a little research (Yelp reviews, Google Photos, and trying out various ordering apps), I settled on Supreme Pizza.

The website works very well. The prices were reasonable and they delivered a hot pizza to the end of Slip F7.

How many times do you order food from Uber or DoorDash and see the price double by the time you check out?

Not Supreme Pizza!

Of course, I paid more. As I always do, I opt to pay a cash tip and in the special instructions I said “Bring the pizza to the boat hot and I’ll give the driver a $15 cash tip.”

Worked like a charm!

Woods Hole Saturday

The Shining Seas Bike Trail gave us an easy 5-mile ride to the Ferry Terminal in Woods Hole, so we decided to check out the lunch options there.

Although the ride was short, the entire trip felt more like riding down a crowded promenade than a bike trail. There were lots of walkers, baby carriages, and people who looked like they were riding a bike for the first time.

Still, despite the forecast for temperatures in the low 60s, it was a pleasant day for a bike ride.

I had planned on getting lunch at the Water Street Cafe, but when we arrived it was closed. Given that it was a beautiful sunny Saturday in mid-September, I’d guess they have closed for the season.

I opened Yelp and plotted the route to the next best-rated restaurant in Woods Hole when Mrs. Horne said: “ I’m hungry, let’s just eat here?”

Captain Kidd

I started to point out its 3-Star rating on Yelp, but quickly acquiesced to the crew and went inside.

The bar and the inside dining rooms feel very much like an old-time seaside tavern. Mrs. Horne led us to the back porch and the iconic seaside view.

Although the menu was full of the dishes we see everywhere, I quickly spotted two unique items.

The homemade pimento cheese was incredible; full of fresh flavor and a loose texture that made it eminently spreadable.

I also spotted the Reuben Egg Rolls, but I’ve been burned in the past with fancy pants egg rolls that arrive with thick wrappers and very skimpy stuffing.

I asked the server about them and she immediately said, “They are very popular, but I don’t know how they are made. Let me ask the kitchen.”

She quickly came back with the right answer and I ordered them.

They were perfectly executed!

The corned beef was shredded and likely homemade. The wrapper was as thin as possible and the Thousand Island dipping sauce was on point.

Mrs. Horne and Peter shared a burger…

As we all enjoyed a great lunch, reasonably priced, on the waterfront porch of a classic tavern, I got a little pissed at the 3-Star rating on Yelp. As soon as I got home I went to Yelp, posted these photos, and gave the Captain Kidd a 5-Star rating!

New Friends From Belfast

As we were leaving for our bike ride, we met a couple walking a small dog. They were in the slip across from us and cruised out of Belfast Maine. We invited them over for cocktails at 5:00.

We shared stories about cruising. They regularly travel from Bar Harbor to Nova Scotia. Mrs. Horne was keen on making that trip until Elizabeth told her about the time they were in the middle of the Atlantic, in pea soup fog, and a giant whale almost sank their boat!

Lawrence hadn’t crossed through Woods Hole in years and wanted some advice. I took him to the bridge and showed him the three routes I follow (for more on the hazards of crossing through Woods Hole click here.)

Romeo’s

Although we hit a lot of new restaurants on this trip, we also ate at a few favorites. I’ve written a lot about Romeo’s, so I’ll just share what we ordered.

Sunday Funday – Oak Bluffs Bound

Sunday morning we left Falmouth around 10:30 and headed for Dockside in Oak Bluffs.

Much to my surprise, Vinyard Sound had turned rather snotty…

Amazing Grace took it with, well grace, but it did mean we needed to give her a bath before lunch in Oak Bluffs.

Martha’s Vineyard Chowder Company

We were expecting cool weather, which meant indoor dining. I lobbied for the Offshore Ale House, but the crew wanted sushi.

Band On The Boat

Perhaps the best musical experience on Martha’s Vineyard is the Coop de Ville’s Band On The Boat.

We first stumbled upon this in 2019 and have been loyal fans ever since.

The centerpiece of the band has been local singer/guitarist Mike Benjamin and Brad Tucker. Tucker usually plays bass, but this year, he brought out a beautiful old hollow body and did a superb version of the Allman Brothers’ hit One Way Out.

Mike brought in Judd Fuller to play bass. Judd tours internationally with Maggie Rose. This year Judd’s wife Dana Radford and Joahanna Cassidy joined Jodie Treloar as singers.

Here is the entire 15-minute highlight video…

The Three Amigos were joined by our good friends Lauren and Jeff, who came over from Dennis in their own boat.

After the show, we followed our Sunday night in OB tradition and had dinner at Mikado.

Edgartown Monday

This was most likely our final visit to Martha’s Vineyard in 2025, so we decided to start with a bike ride through the state forest, followed by lunch at The Atlantic.

I always get lost on the State Forest Bike path and I did it again on Monday. My challenge is getting to the northwest corner from Barnes Road.

Eventually, I found it, but we ended up taking a few wrong turns. I found a new map and hopefully I’ll remember to look at it before my first trip in 2026.

FINALLY – A Bad Meal At The Atlantic

Mrs. Horne takes great pleasure in pointing out that no one gets served as many bad meals as I do,

If you follow this blog, you know that my favorite sandwich in the entire world is the Shawarma Tacos at The Atlantic and that is what I should have ordered on Monday.

But I didn’t!

I decided to branch out and ordered one of the new dishes.

On paper, it sounded like a lighter, protein-rich dish. I started with the pepper. It was an Italian Pepper with a nice char and modest heat. Next came the lamb sausages. They had great flavor, but we’re a little overdone and it was a very small portion.

The bulk of the plate was the Skirt Steak. It was perfectly cooked, but as soon as I took a bite, I was hit by serious hot spice. I ate a piece of the charred toast to stifle the burn. The toast had good flavor, but cold.

I went back in for another bite steak and got slammed by extreme heat – almost like a raw serrano pepper. I guzzled my beer as my forehead broke out in beads of sweat.

I poked around and discovered that the source of the extreme hear was the Red Chimichirri. I know regular Chimichirra isn’t hot. I did some research on the red variant and found some recipes call for a little ground pepper flakes, but nothing like the mucho diablo dish I was served.

I asked the server if anyone else had complained about the heat in this dish. She said “No”.

I enjoy jalapeno, horseradish, and wasbi levels of heat, but this was way beyond that. Perhaps the chef messed up the chimichurri, but I’ll never order it again!

Meanwhile Peter and Mrs. Horne thoroughly enjoyed their meals…

After lunch, we did a little shopping. Peter needed a replace the Black Dog stuffed animal he gave his granddaughter Maddie (her real dog ate it).

Apparently, Black Dog is out of their iconic doggies for the season, so the brown dog will have to do!

I found a treasure trove of great stuffed animals at NRO Kids, including a decent stuffed dog!

We were getting ready to bike home from Edgartown, when I got a text from my friend Harris with a picture of Amazing Grace – he was in Oak Bluffs.

I haven’t seen him in over two years while he was being treated for a very rare illness. He was visiting from Nantucket by boat and leaving soon we we peddled back down Beach Road as fast as we could.

They delayed their departure thirty minutes and we enjoyed a great visit.

I spent the rest of the afternoon soaking up the sun as summer evaporated from OB. Lobsterville closed for the season on Sunday, as did Nancy’s.

It was a little sad watching the workers closing up the picnic tables for the season as we left for dinner.

The Sweet Life – Fine Dining In OB!

I was searching for restaurants that were still open on a late September Monday night and noticed The Sweet Life.

I admit I’ve ignored this restaurant for years, thinking it was a bakery of some sort. I dug a little deeper and realized it was a highly rated farm-to-table fine dining restaurant.

We decided to try it for our final dinner on the island in 2025.

It’s located all the way down Circuit Avenue and really on the edge of downtown.

The main dining room reminded me of a quaint Vermont inn, but there are a couple of auxiliary areas that can make this a very large restaurant.

As I was wandering around snapping photos an adorable woman asked if I wanted to take her photo,

She said “My name is Roma, like the tomato!

I was getting a very good feeling about The Sweet Life.

The Food

Being farm-to-table means a fluid menu. We spoke with the co-owner Erin and she said she strives to update the menu on the website daily.

Here are our menus from Monday night…

I started with a delicious Oregon Pinot.

We all love Paté and so we began with the mousse.

We also ordered the focaccia, not knowing there was some included in the mousse.

That said, in the end we ate all the focaccia and the endive smeared with the mouth-watering mousse.

Every bite was a farm-to-table culinary delight. The flavors were fresh and distinct at the same time.

I suspect we’ll be dining here regularly in the future!

We walked home on a glorious crisp autumn night.

Tuesday – Our Final Day

We were in no rush to leave, so Peter and I decided to go out to breakfast.

We thoroughly loved Linda Jeans breakfasts, but they closed for renovations this season under new management.

Side Note: The new owners of Linda Jewns plan to continue to serve breakfast and lunch, but be a more serious dinner venue.

“As for the nighttime options, Santoro said an eclectic spread of menu items will be available: fish and chips, fried clams, Hawaiian poke bowls, ceviche, and seafood with “Asian-inspried preparation” – The MV Times

Fortunately for Peter and me, there is another breakfast restaurant in Oak Bluffs and we set out to try Biscuits for the first time,

Biscuits serves breakfast and lunch, but breakfast feels like their primary mission!

Virtually any breakfast you can imagine is on the menu. As much as I wanted to try the Linguica Hash & Eggs ($14.25), another item caught my eye.

Mrs. Horne’s parents loved a hearty breakfast and her father Herbey would always order a traditional American breakfast with a side of Biscuits and Gravy.

Biscuits offered “The Herbey” in a single dish and it was only fifty cents more than the traditional American Breakfast that Peter ordered.

Everything tasted great. The potatoes went far beyond typical griddle hash browns and I’ll bet the chicken sausage patties were homemade.

Even the butter was served at room temperature – as it should!

We shoved off from Martha’s Vineyard for the last time in 2025 around 10:30.

The sound was pretty flat, but Buzzards Bay was already brewing up 3’ers when we cleared Woods Hole.

We all agreed that the five-day/four-night cruise was the perfect blend between a vacation and a weekend.

See ya in May OB!

Next Up: Boston