On a recent sunny Friday, Steve Johnson steered his skiff up the mouth of the Westport River, just down the coast from New Bedford. As terns wheeled overhead, fantasies of exotic summer destinations fell away. Who needs Bali when you’ve got a houseboat tied up in an estuary off Rhode Island Sound, and a mess of just-dug clams for lunch?
From May to October, Mr. Johnson, the chef and owner of Rendezvous, an unpretentious, solidly excellent restaurant in Cambridge, Mass., keeps a tiny 1971 Sea Rover houseboat named Blue Sky moored here. One night a week after dinner service at Rendezvous, he races down to the skiff and motors out under the stars to his saltwater home.
There, for a day at least, life and food become simple. He connects with the fishermen and farmers who feed his restaurant, and his cooking becomes elemental, centered on the ingredients that he is literally awash in.
The houseboat itself, which he bought 10 years ago, is no longer mobile. The former engine housing is now a sleeping area and the rest of the cabin is not much bigger than a chest freezer. The whole craft looks like a slightly expanded blue-and-white bath toy.
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Photo by Jodi Hilton for The New York Times
