Walking into Captain Woody's is like walking into your favorite pub back home. The atmosphere is relaxed, informal. Around the bar hang the totems of the island oasis. You'll see old-fashioned advertisements for beer, fishing tackle and bait signs, a nautical map of Port Royal Sound. Above the door hangs an ancient wooden oar, the weather-beaten condition of which suggests long use on a wooden fishing skiff. Mounted behind the bar is a gun-metal gray barracuda with teeth that look like ten-penny nails. His fixed eye stares down at you with cool menace, but the golf ball nestled in his mouth makes him seem less threatening.

The menu is basic: Seafood, Landfood and Platters. Captain Woody's specializes in shrimp, clams and oysters, which you can get freshly shucked, raw or steamed. Beer comes in three forms: draft, bottle and a bucket of six. We recommend that you and a good friend or two order the bucket and a mass of oysters and then retire to the patio, which overlooks Palmetto Bay Marina and Broad Creek. The marina is quiet near the end of the day, and you can hear the wind though the marshgrass at the edge of the water. Crack open a beer, pry open an oyster and begin to tell tall tales about the big fish you nearly reeled in. Watch the sun become orange and crimson as it descends over the mainland, casting glittering lights across the water.

At Captain Woody's, the chances are that you'll be joined by other friends with the same idea, and pretty soon you'll all be outdoing each other with new and more outrageous stories while the sun sets and your laughter fills the place.