For visitors who approach even by land the harbor offers a peaceful stop, set as it is at the end of a narrowing point that is thick with cedar-shingled houses, settled rock walls, and fields of green grass, low shrubs, and Christmas trees.
One slow sedan driving down the road sported a bumper sticker: “I love my farmer.’’ A woman passing by another on a sidewalk was heard to say, early on that calm Monday, “Your garden looks wonderful.’’
“Oh,’’ came her friend’s reply, “it is a lot of work.’’
There is, in other words, order all around, especially in the center of Little Compton, the tidy town with all the necessities of New England, including a white steeple, freshly painted, and tilted gravestones left to lean.
Even inside The Commons Lunch, a diner just down the street from C.R. Wilbur’s General Merchandise, the banter of breakfast flows from table to counter and back with gentle ease. One white-haired man turned from his paper and leaned toward an acquaintance: “You got the rest of the day off to go goofin’?’’
If you stay on land, there are plenty of places for that, including Evelyn’s Drive-In, a classic seafood spot on the edge of Nanaquaket Pond in Tiverton, just north on Route 77. Or stop at Sakonnet Vineyards to sample fruity whites and reds blended smoothly. Provenders, they say, makes great sandwiches; so too, The Last Stand. Both are a short drive apart on 77.
But drive south again to the huddled harbor at Sakonnet Point, and put in a kayak. With at least moderate experience paddling in open water, you can quickly learn what a windy day can be on Rhode Island Sound.
A friend and I did just that, sometime around 10 a.m., as a southwest wind kept a flag leaping from a pole at the Sakonnet Point Club. Our plan was to use the harbor only as a point of departure. We would paddle south, out and around the Sakonnet Light (a more perfect perch for a lighthouse it would be hard to create) and along the rocky shoreline that passes Briggs Marsh on its way to Massachusetts.
