In the tides of time, this stretch of sand backed by salt marsh on the bay side of the Cape looms large: It is the site, on a December day in 1620, where Miles Standish, William Bradford, John Carver, and others, including three sailors of the Mayflower Company, met members of the Nauset tribe. Historic accounts speak of flying arrows and muskets fired into the darkness, hints of the centuries of settlement that followed. Today the beach, managed by the town of Eastham, is nothing if not tranquil, a perfect place to get your feet wet on a warming morning and settle into the rhythms of tidal life.