As You Wish - Our Adventures: August 31, 2026 Anchoring In Maine's Casco Bay Area

Mon.-Tues. Aug. 31-Sept. 1, 2026 Freeport, ME to Snow Island 20 miles and 2.7 hours

Report on the Whoopie Pie for dessert last night. The thing was huge. We cut it in half and then quarters. Martha and I each ate a quarter. About all we could do. Will save the other half for another nite. It was pretty good. Cake was moist and chocolatey. Filling was a buttercream style. Some of them are marshmallow based which we don't think would be as good. I'm trying to picture a school aged kid getting one of these pies as a "treat" in his lunch bag and eating the whole thing. Talk about a sugar rush!!!

Whoopie Pie - the official state treat of Maine

Buttercream filling on ours - some have a marshmallow creme

No skimping on the buttercream here

Enough about Maine's official state treat - on to cruising details. We like these planned short trip days where there's no hurry to get going. Took our time hoisting the dingy back onboard, had a little breakfast, dropped the mooring ball lines and headed over to the marina dock for a pumpout. Martha at the controls trying her hand at docking with a little more challenge than usual. Wind blowing at the bow but current pushing at the stern. Normally we'd dock into the current but the pumpout fitting is on our port side that needed to go against the dock. Working both the breeze and current while docking was a first for Martha. Wisely took an extra maneuver to safely back away and re-group before making a successful second approach and eased it right into position. Good job Martha!!!

Pumpout dock straight ahead. Spin 180 degrees and lay her up on the port side

Maine's best cruising grounds are broken into 4 sections. Casco Bay starts around Portland and goes east for about 20 miles, The Midcoast with Boothbay in the center and perhaps 15 miles wide, Penobscot Bay about 25 miles across with Rockland and Camden on the western boundary, and Mount Desert Island Region about 25 miles across with Bar Harbor at its center and Acadia National Park completing it to the west. That's as far as we'll go. The coastline continues northeastward but with much less development terminating up the Bay of Fundy with it's crazy 20+' tides.

Tending his lobster pots

Plenty of lobster fishing boats out and about up here

This starts basically a week of anchoring out for us. First stop is Snow Island. Fight the incoming tide as we exit Freeport and make way through the narrow entrance. Then nice cruising southwest winding around and between numerous islands before finally heading out into the ocean. Long period swells creating nice gentle rollers. Make our way around the tip of Harpswell Island and then Bailey Island, before heading north inland and up Quahog Bay. Turn in behind Snow Island to an anchorage we visited during our Down East cruise last year that we had given high marks. Nice protected and picturesque anchorage. Came in at close to full tide with 10' of extra water. Couple of other boats here and a few more joined us for the evening but plenty of room for everyone. Good news is lack of any lobster floats in here since water is so shallow.

Incoming tide and turbulence going out the Freeport channel

Nice private island, house and beach

Sailboat squeezed in between two islands. Braver or dumber than me??

Drone shot of As You Wish resting easy in Snow Island anchorage

Birds eye view of the anchorage as evening falls

Martha doing her best to become a certified drone operator

Surprising to see some serious rock ledges materialize as the tide went out. Read one review where an anchored boat wound up sitting on the rock ledge when the tide went out overnight. Had to wait for the next high tide to remove it. Nothing much to report whenever we're at anchor. These are primarily fairly isolated areas but good for rest, relaxation, recouping, and reading.

Couple of small islands protecting our cove

Same scene as the tide was going out. Good reminder to watch those navigation
charts carefully - never know what lies just a few feet below the surface