Penobscot Bay

Penobscot Bay is the big one — deep, cold, island-strewn water running from Port Clyde and Rockland up to Belfast and Bucksport, with Islesboro, Vinalhaven and North Haven splitting it into an east and a west bay. It is the heart of Maine cruising and the reason the windjammer fleet is based here.

The service picture is unusually good for a bay this far east. Rockland, Rockport, Camden and Belfast between them hold the largest concentration of yards, riggers and boatbuilders anywhere on the Maine coast outside Portland, which is why boats come here for work as much as for cruising.

Plan around three things: tide, fog, and August. The range is large enough that dinghy landings and river approaches want thinking about; fog is a working condition rather than an event from June into July; and every good harbor is full on an August weekend. Rockland's breakwater harbor is the most reliable place to find room at short notice.

Transient moorings are more common than transient slips through much of the bay — the harbors are deep and the traditional arrangement is a mooring and a launch. Call ahead on VHF as you come in rather than assuming a slip.