Boating along I-95 in Maine

Hey guys,

We are leaving for Belgrade Lakes, ME this weekend (for a week). My girlfriend's family rents a house on one of the lakes up there and I'm taking my boat with.

Anyways coming from PA we are going to be riding I-95 (or we could ride 295) for quite a while once we are in Maine. I'd like to stop and do maybe a half day of boating somewhere on the coast.. So is there any "must see's", just looking for somewhere cool. We aren't picky... Just looking for some ideas and places.

My boat is a 17" blue finn spectrum. Alluminum fish and ski style with a 70hp evinrude. So we're not looking for any open ocean stuff. We do alot of boating in the cheseapeake, so we are firmiliar with rough water. Can launch at pretty much any ramp and we draft about 2-3 feet.

Thanks in advance,
Austin

Re: Boating along I-95 in Maine

Common, somebody has got to have some ideas. I mean jeeze... for what I pay to use these forums I expect better service

Thanks,
Austin

Re: Boating along I-95 in Maine

Driving up 95 through Mass and New Hampshire there are a ton of places. Take a look at a map... Newberryport, MA, has some neat scenery. Then up the road a ways is Portsmouth, NH, with lots of stuff along the river and out to the lighthouses along the coast. Then about an hour north of there is Portland, Maine. All these places have a lot of history associated with them.

But, with a 17 foot boat, might be a little 'iffy' if the weather isn't "glassy flat".

Google some of the places... have lobster in Kittery or drinks on the deck at Michael's in Newberryport or whatever. It's a neat area up here.

Good luck.

Re: Boating along I-95 in Maine

You can get off I95 in Salisbury MA and go to the state park. I think it is $9 for a day pass. They have a nice boat ramp and lots of parking. You launch in the Merrimack River right at the entrance into the Ocean.

It is a nice ride south along Plum Island or you can go north up long Hampton Beach and all the way to Portsmouth.

If the weather is rough you can head inland on the Merrimack. I have gone inland as far as 10 to 15 miles.

Re: Boating along I-95 in Maine

Once you reach your destination you might consider this. From Belgrade to Gardiner is maybe 20 miles. You can head to Gardiner and there is a public ramp and parking on the Kennebec River. Put in the Kennebec and you can go all the way down through Bath into the Atlantic and cut over to Boothbay Harbor.

You can dock in Boothbay and there is plenty to do there for a few hours before heading back.

If you do this trip make sure to have a GPS or some charts. Once you reach the end of the Kennebec the route over to Boothbay is not obvious and there are definitely a few areas that get shallow at low tide so you need to avoid them. On the good side there are buoys so if you pay attention and stay in the channels you will be fine.

Re: Boating along I-95 in Maine

Thanks for the reply's,

We didn't end up stopping on the way up, however on friday (second to last day) we trailered over to the "Merepoint" launch, which is a very nice ramp and facility, we boated the 20 miles to portland, got some good pics and walked around on "Fort Gorges" for an hour or two. We then found the public dock in the harbor and walked to a little cafe' and had a bite to eat, on our way back we took the scenic route and checked out all the little islands in the bay.

All in all it was a really fun day trip, I think next year we'll make our way to bath and maybe a few other towns/ cities.


Here are a few pics we got, we put in around 5:30am so we got to see the sunrise while on our way to portland.



Austin