Approaches
Scituate is easy to enter and well protected in everything but a severe easterly. Breakwaters at the mouth flank a dredged channel into the mooring basin. A major dredging project over the winter of 2002-2003 specified controlling depths of 12 feet in the outer channel, 10 feet in the inner channel, and 8 to 10 feet in the mooring areas.
The narrow opening may not be immediately obvious among the hills, dunes and trees of the shoreline, but the white lighthouse tower on Cedar Point is a good daymark.
At night, you'll have to look hard for the R&W Mo(A) just east of the channel entrance, and the red light at the end of the breakwater. Both are very difficult to identify with any confidence among the other lights on shore, especially when approaching from the east.
Because the channel itself is marked only by unlit nuns and cans, it's helpful to run an accurate course in from the R&W, maybe even checking the bearing back to the flashing buoy a couple of times, until you can pick up the first nun and can with a flashlight on the bow.
Anchorages
All the deep water in Scituate Harbor is dredged and used for moorings -- anchoring is neither permitted nor practical.
Moorings
There are some 650 boats moored in Scituate, so the law of averages suggests there's nearly always a mooring available. Arriving in the afternoon, you can usually hail any of the launches for directions; they are all on VHF 09. The different launches in the harbor each have access to different sets of moorings; you may need to try more than one. Over the years, we've gotten moorings from all of them.
'Scituate Harbor Launch' runs E-Z Rider and Cedar Point, both long-standing fixtures of the Scituate waterfront. They run out of the town's Cole Parkway Marina, most convenient to the shops and restaurants in town.
The club launches run from their respective clubhouses, just north of town. Scituate Harbor YC offers a classic clubhouse with dining room. The Satuit Boat Club is informal and outgoing, with just a simple DIY kitchen and a deck. The handwritten thank-you notes that the SBC has been sending to transient mooring customers in recent years is an uncommon and appreciated gesture.
In Scituate the Harbormaster does not manage transient moorings, except when all the launches are shut down for the off-season. It's also worth noting that big-boat and small-boat moorings can be mixed together throughout the harbor. If you pick up a mooring without some local direction, you won't be sure what you've got.
Slips
Scituate Harbor Marina, in the center of the waterfront, is a full-service marina with transient dockage. The town-owned Cole Parkway Marina, supervised by the Harbormaster, has 3 or 4 slips frequently available for visitors. Expect them both to be full on summer weekends unless you've reserved ahead of time.
