Piscataqua River

The Piscataqua divides Maine from New Hampshire and is one of the fastest navigable rivers in the United States. Current through the narrows regularly runs at several knots, and the practical consequence is that arrivals, departures and dockings are planned around slack water rather than around the clock.

The marinas on the Maine side sit at Kittery and Eliot, upriver of the worst of it, with Portsmouth's waterfront opposite. It is a working river — commercial traffic, a naval shipyard, tugs — and small boats stay out of the channel.

In return it is deep, ice-free far later than the lakes, and one of the few places in this directory where the season is genuinely long.