These scenes could easily be from any year in this decade. Things don't change much on Maine islands, especially Long Island located about 7 NM off Mt Dessert Island, part of Acadia National Park (back ground in photo below).
The most important info for cruisers is; what is the mooring situation and is the lobster shack open?
There are now several outer harbor moorings available for rent. We've been coming here for so many years we like to stay in the inner harbor. We couldn't find a vacant rental mooring so took an old mooring with no pennant. We were able to get a line on it and with the benign forecast ahead, it was good enough.
At the tide change, Frenchboro inner harbor is chock full, and everybody is swingin'.
Lunts Dockside lobster shack was open. We reserved a couple lobsters for dinner and headed off on familiar dusty island roads.
There's always snacks available along the way in Frenchboro. Bright red raspberries, purple blackberries and wild blueberries grow along the road that girdles the long harbor. One or two species are always in season when we visit.
The lush berries grow particularly well amongst the graveyards that dot the landscape around the harbor. There are many more headstones on Frenchboro than year round residents, many more.
No new houses, the ones that have been unfinished for more than a decade are still unfinished.
I notice a dock looks renewed and alongside, a couple docks have fallen into the water since our last visit.
I sort of keep score - people wise - on some of these islands. As to which way Frenchboro is going? I still detect no movement either way in 2 decades.
The natural world looks healthy on the island. These are dry arid islands off the coast. Thistle flourishes naturally without the gardeners that are pulling this same plant out of the ground on mainland, a world away, 7 miles to the North.
There are miles of public hiking trails on Frenchboro. We take a hike to visit Little Beach. I can't recall meeting anyone on this hike, yet.
It's tempting to walk barefoot.
Frenchboro's south coast goes toe to toe with the Atlantic. It's the first land to meet this often roaring ocean through here. You hear the ocean pulsing long before you see it, even on calm days. The seas distant rumble greets you from inside the deep woods. Then you see it:
I would like to visit Little Beach in a huge storm. But you don't have to be there. Just use your imagination and look at the stones along this dynamic coast.
Dinner on the docks was great. A new guy was running the shack. I don't expect him to be there next year,...but he might be.
We offered to pay for our mooring without a pendant. They need the money and gladly accepted it. BTW; they forgot our reservation so dinner was later than we expected. No problem, we enjoyed the sunset.
Oh yeah, then they ran out of gas and had to go get another tank. Whatever,...
The next morning a large ferry from Bass Harbor delivered more than 300 people to a lobster fest at the church. This seemed like a good time to leave.
I can't imagine Frenchboro with 300 people on it.
The most important info for cruisers is; what is the mooring situation and is the lobster shack open?
There are now several outer harbor moorings available for rent. We've been coming here for so many years we like to stay in the inner harbor. We couldn't find a vacant rental mooring so took an old mooring with no pennant. We were able to get a line on it and with the benign forecast ahead, it was good enough.
At the tide change, Frenchboro inner harbor is chock full, and everybody is swingin'.
Lunts Dockside lobster shack was open. We reserved a couple lobsters for dinner and headed off on familiar dusty island roads.
There's always snacks available along the way in Frenchboro. Bright red raspberries, purple blackberries and wild blueberries grow along the road that girdles the long harbor. One or two species are always in season when we visit.
The lush berries grow particularly well amongst the graveyards that dot the landscape around the harbor. There are many more headstones on Frenchboro than year round residents, many more.
No new houses, the ones that have been unfinished for more than a decade are still unfinished.
I notice a dock looks renewed and alongside, a couple docks have fallen into the water since our last visit.
I sort of keep score - people wise - on some of these islands. As to which way Frenchboro is going? I still detect no movement either way in 2 decades.
The natural world looks healthy on the island. These are dry arid islands off the coast. Thistle flourishes naturally without the gardeners that are pulling this same plant out of the ground on mainland, a world away, 7 miles to the North.
There are miles of public hiking trails on Frenchboro. We take a hike to visit Little Beach. I can't recall meeting anyone on this hike, yet.
It's tempting to walk barefoot.
Frenchboro's south coast goes toe to toe with the Atlantic. It's the first land to meet this often roaring ocean through here. You hear the ocean pulsing long before you see it, even on calm days. The seas distant rumble greets you from inside the deep woods. Then you see it:
I would like to visit Little Beach in a huge storm. But you don't have to be there. Just use your imagination and look at the stones along this dynamic coast.
Dinner on the docks was great. A new guy was running the shack. I don't expect him to be there next year,...but he might be.
We offered to pay for our mooring without a pendant. They need the money and gladly accepted it. BTW; they forgot our reservation so dinner was later than we expected. No problem, we enjoyed the sunset.
Oh yeah, then they ran out of gas and had to go get another tank. Whatever,...
The next morning a large ferry from Bass Harbor delivered more than 300 people to a lobster fest at the church. This seemed like a good time to leave.
I can't imagine Frenchboro with 300 people on it.