Cruising the Rockbound Coast of Maine

In some ways, Maine is a lot like southern Florida. The coastline is dotted with innumerable islands, the area of the state is vast, with a rich coastal life and wild, almost empty expanses inland. Maine, it turns out, is the only state in the U.S. with a population that is older, on average, than the Sunshine State. And both offer exceptional boating opportunities. You do have to watch out for traps and their buoys, though – stone crab traps in the waters around Marco Island and lobster pots all over the coastal waters of Maine.

There are some differences, too, if one may be permitted to state the obvious. For a cruising boater, a few of these loom large. If you run aground in southwest Florida, you are likely planting your boat into mud or sand. Down east, it’s different – they don’t call it the “rockbound coast” of Maine for nothing. Even with all the lighthouses along the coast, and navigational aids such as GPS and radar, there are rock shelves that jut up, waiting to puncture the hull or mangle the propeller of an unwary skipper.

Tides are another issue, with ten-foot tidal swings routine, and often exceeded, depending on factors such as the phase of the moon, so a channel with plenty of depth at high tide can tear your keel out when the tide goes out. Frequent fogs also drop visibility to near zero, so the “prudent mariner” the charts speak of will build extra time into their itinerary to allow for sitting out the thickest of the pea-soupers. And the water is notoriously cold, even during the summer, welling up from the depths of the open Atlantic Ocean. 

If all of that is enough to discourage you from boating in Penobscot Bay and the islands, rivers and coves between there and Portland harbor, great – that just means one less boat in what are certainly some of the greatest cruising grounds anywhere in the world. 

Boating in Maine is an unrivaled delight, from the crisp, clear air that fills your lungs, to the sparkling waters, the local seafood, and the sight of the Camden Hills and mountains of Maine’s interior that frame the vistas behind the coastline. Shore excursions take you into a succession of picture-postcard seaside towns, looking as if they are waiting to be painted by Andrew Wyeth, Norman Rockwell or Currier & Ives. 

During the (abbreviated) summer, the landscape bursts forth with an abundance of flowers, and hikes through the seaside woods offer a hint of the deep forests of interior Maine. If you are visiting Maine by land, by all means do your best to get out on one of the many excursion boats, windjammers, whale-watching cruises and ferry boats that ply the coast. If you are as lucky as we were to be invited to cruise aboard a well-appointed motor yacht, sit back and enjoy the ride. 

Much of the Maine coastline is deeply incised by rivers that empty the (fresh) water from the Great North Woods, so road travelers must detour far inland to find a bridge. This makes driving from one town to another a circuitous exercise and often means the fastest way, as well as the shortest distance between two points, is to go by water. Not that one need be impatient to reach the next destination – cruising along the waterways, a continuing and ever changing panorama of coastal vistas presents itself, with white-spired churches, secluded clifftop cottages, lobster boats, tucked-away anchorages and rugged seascapes following one after another. 

Heading up the Kennebec River toward Bath, for example, a secluded cove known as The Basin offers protection from winds in any direction, good holding ground, and scenic woodland walks ashore. An amazing proliferation of brightly colored mushrooms and other fungi flourish underneath the ferns and stones along the trail. 

Upstream, the historic city of Bath is home to the Maine Maritime Museum on the site of a shipbuilding ways that once built clipper ships and other tall ships. Even knowledgeable New Englanders will learn new, fascinating lore about the area’s rich nautical history.

These days, the naval construction is carried on just upstream from the museum at Bath Iron Works, where an all-American ship building company produces state-of-the-art warships for the U.S. Navy. Note: if you are anchored in the Kennebec current by the museum and dinghy up into town for some sightseeing and a lobster dinner – highly recommended – do not stray too close to the grim gray vessels tied up at Bath Iron Works or a naval picket boat will caution you to keep your distance. 

The military tradition here extends back to before the birth of the nation. In 1775, a force of 1,100 Revolutionary patriots under Benedict Arnold, when he was still fighting for the American side, journeyed up the Kennebec through the wilderness to attack the British garrison at Quebec, a strategic assault which, if it had succeeded, would likely have greatly shortened the Revolutionary War and perhaps have us remembering Benedict Arnold as a hero rather than a traitor.

Outside Portland Harbor, you can anchor behind Jewell Island, dinghy ashore and hike to the relic of a more recent conflict. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a network of artillery batteries and observation posts on the islands off Portland early in World War II to protect the port and its shipping from the German U-boats that were ravaging the coast, coming in close to the Atlantic ports and sinking scores of merchant ships and their naval escorts. By the time the shore batteries were completed, the submarines had been driven from U.S. waters. 

Back to that lobster dinner. Maine and lobster are inextricably linked, and the state harvests more lobsters than any other – 90 percent of the country’s supply, over 100 million pounds per year. Maine lobstermen are some of the toughest boaters to be found, going out in all kinds of weather conditions to tend their traps. The lobster fishery is considered among the most sustainable, with strict governmental guidelines, each lobster is hand-caught and pulled up in a trap, often from great depths.

Eaten hot or cold, lobsters are everywhere, in elegant restaurants and waterfront “dive seafood” lobster pounds. I remember seeing a lobster roll on the menu at a McDonald’s drive-thru. Maine lobster enthusiasts will tell you the cold-water lobsters, in particular those from Maine, are sweeter and less salty than southern spiny lobsters or lobsters caught elsewhere, and who’s to argue? – although I recall, when I started free diving for lobster in the Florida Keys, being glad that the local crustaceans did not possess the fearsome claws of their northern cousins. 

Penobscot Bay, from Rockland, Rockport and Camden on the west, to Belfast and Castine in the north, and Deer Isle, Stonington and Isle au Haut to the east, surround the islands of Vinalhaven and North Haven, making up the heart of this unrivaled cruising ground. Hurricane Island, the original home of the Outward Bound survival school, is a sentinel on the edge of the Atlantic, with the seawater there noticeably colder than in shallower, more landlocked waters such as Seal Bay off the Fox Island Thoroughfare between Vinalhaven and North Haven, not that the water there is warm by Southwest Florida standards.

Of course, before you can cruise Penobscot Bay, you have to get to Penobscot Bay, and that can be a little challenging. Your options boil down to taking connecting flights and flying into Portland, or flying direct to Boston’s Logan Airport, then taking Amtrak’s “Downeaster” train. This is a scenic ride along the coast north from Boston, but either way, you then need a car – and rentals can be scarce, especially heading back toward the city – or a bus ride. 

But it’s all worth it. Just breathing that air, especially as a break from a Florida summer, and taking in the sights of the Maine coastline, will show that the slogan from the Maine license plates – “Vacationland” – may be appropriate after all.