Portland, Peaks Island and Beyond

Landfall in Maine was on Peaks Island, one of the many islands immediately in the vicinity of Portland harbor and served by an extensive ferry system between Portland and the islands.  Since anchoring in Portland is nearly impossible we decided that we’d be better off anchoring at Peaks Island and taking a ferry into Portland for a day to see the city.

Anchoring at Peaks is easy; getting ashore without a little “civil disobedience” – not so much.

Many boating destinations have town or city docks where they allow transient boaters to tie up dinghies.  In some cases some marinas have also wisely made dinghy docks available to transient boaters that aren’t actually renting a slip or mooring from them.  I say “Wisely” because visiting boaters frequently end up buying ice, supplies, fuel, etc. at the marina – and if the marina has adjacent restaurants and businesses within an easy walk they benefit as well.  A friendly reception for ALL boaters leaves you with a good impression of the port, and a penchant for patronizing the places associated with it.

Not so on Peaks, unfortunately.  When we visited the Peaks Island Marina (apparently the only marina on the island) we were told in no uncertain terms that we could not use their dinghy dock.  However they would allow us to tie up our dinghy for the bargain price of $10/hour – which if you aren’t used to marinas is ludicrous for a 10′ rubber boat; we don’t really take up much space and can be tucked out of the way.  At the $2.50/foot they charge for dockage I could have put my dinghy in a slip for the night for less.  Needless to say, Peaks Island Marina did not then, nor never will, receive a nickel of my money or a positive recommendation from me.

The town docks, not much better.  One was an “Emergency Dock” with a “Five Minute Limit” and “No Unattended Vessels.”  The other was a “30 Minute Limit” with the same “No Unattended Vessels” stricture.  So let me get this straight…if I want to pull up in my dinghy to go into town with the family and drop $100+ on dinner, I need to 1) leave someone in the boat and 2) get back from dinner in 30 minutes or less.  Given there is no MacDonald’s on the island this didn’t seem practical.

With our original plan (and reason to come to Peaks Island) to take a ferry in for the day to Portland, the idea of doing this in 30 minutes or less OR paying $10/hour to the bandits at Peaks Island Marina needed to take some drastic action to come off.  Hence the civil disobedience.  We tried very hard to find a figure of authority on the island to ask about the dinghy parking; as a part of Portland they are under the jurisdiction of the City and the City’s Harbor Master.  Hmm…no one on site apparently.  No one on land we talked to even had a clue about what the actual person in authority of the waterfront was.

So…if there’s no one to ask about the waterfront…there’s no one to check on the waterfront either.  So as long as we weren’t too egregious about it we could flout the rules a bit, which we did by tying up to the unused back side of the Emergency Dock, where no boat larger than dinghy could fit anyway.

To it’s credit Peaks is a lovely island, with a couple of nice looking restaurants and shops, and a decent grocery store for provisioning.  We just didn’t feel particularly wanted there so we didn’t stick around.

Portland is just a cool little city.  There are some great restaurants and shops and some fun things to do.  It’s a good place to walk around with a bustling waterfront and some decent marinas.

Some of the highlights/lowlights/meh-lights included:

• Walking around down town
• Walking out to Deer 
• Lunch at the White Cap Cafe
• Hamilton Marine!  The second (vying for first) best store in the universe!
• Rain and Damp
• Portland Yacht Services; we uncharacteristically sprang for a night at a mooring, figuring for about $12 more than taking the ferry from Peaks we could walk in to town from a mooring, do some laundry and get a pumpout and some water.  What a nice group of people there though.
• Walking to Whole Foods and schlepping all the groceries back by hand because we didn’t have the wit to check a bus schedule, bring any shopping bags, our cart, or any backpacks.  We’ve got to get better at logistics!
• The ferry ride was pretty cool.
• Seals, Ospreys and all sorts of birds even though we were near the city