Cranberry Islands off Mount Desert Island, ME

[Todd D]

Every season we make several of trips over to the Cranberry Islands. Until this year those visits have been facilitated by the free "Town Guest" moorings at both Little and Great Cranberry Islands. Yesterday we made our second visit of the season to Little Cranberry Island (Islesford) to find that the "Town Guest" moorings have new pickup buoys labelled with "$35/night - pay at town dock". When I saw that I immediately dropped the mooring and we decided to check out Great Cranberry Island where there are two more "Town Guest" moorings. The moorings at Great Cranberry Island are still free but they are among the most rolly moorings you will find anywhere since they are exposed to wakes from every boat that through the Western Way or to either of the Cranberry Islands.

Note that there are no services at Little Cranberry Island (Islesford) other than a very crowded, small dinghy dock. There is a rest room, BUT it is not a town facility since it is on the private dock. Great Cranberry Island has a much nicer town dock with plenty of dinghy space. Great Cranberry is also a nicer island to walk on since there are fewer mosquitos.

 

[chuckwayne]

Thanks for the heads up, Todd

 

[PaulK]

We moored at Little Cranberry and really enjoyed it. There's a lot more to see & do on Little Cranberry: a restaurant, stores & shops, a museum and a nice library. Great Cranberry is bigger, but other than the General Store it seems to be mostly private homes with the occasional tennis court. If you don't like paying for a mooring, try anchoring.

 

[Todd D]

Anchoring isn't that good at Little Cranberry. There is lots of kelp on the bottom that makes it hard to get a good set. You didn't go very far on Great Cranberry. The island has several walking trails that go out to the beach and there is a nice museum and restaurant in the middle of the island. What bothered me was the sudden change from free to $35/night. If I want to pay that much for a mooring I would go to Northeast Harbor where the protection is MUCH better, the facilities are great and there are many times more things to do than on Little Cranberry.

 

[All U Get]

A little bit of Maine slowly drifting away. I'm glad we saw most of it when it wasn't $.

All U Get

 

[TomY]

Anchoring isn't that good at Little Cranberry. There is lots of kelp on the bottom that makes it hard to get a good set. You didn't go very far on Great Cranberry. The island has several walking trails that go out to the beach and there is a nice museum and restaurant in the middle of the island. What bothered me was the sudden change from free to $35/night. If I want to pay that much for a mooring I would go to Northeast Harbor where the protection is MUCH better, the facilities are great and there are many times more things to do than on Little Cranberry.

Hi Todd, good to see you sailing the other day. We had a great visit and overnight in Southwest.

I agree, while those moorings are handy to visit the island, charging for them is silly. They'll lose visitors that would go to the restaurant, little store and shops. They'll go elsewhere. Any idea why they changed policy?

We have anchored off Little Cranberry and you're right about the kelp! We watched two boats try to anchor in there, and fail after a couple attempts. We on the other hand got a good set with our CQR.

Looking at the other two boats, they had Mantus(Rocna?) type plows. The flukes looked too broad to get through the weeds into the mud, and just dragged.

We spent a couple nights on the hook with some fair winds. When I pulled the CQR up, sure enough there was a big ring of kelp around the stock. But the stock and plow blades were packed with good Maine mud.