| WARREN ISLAND |
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| Penobscot Bay | ||||||||||||||||
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| 44° 16.54’N 068° 56.53’W |
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| Charts: 13309, 13302 | ||||||||||||||||
| Chart Kit: 20B, 66, 20 | ||||||||||||||||
| Harbor chart |
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| Penobscot Bay overview chart |
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SPRUCE and Warren Island lie due north of Seven Hundred Acre Island and are almost connected to it. An unspoiled cove lies between them, well protected from the prevailing southwesterlies but open to the north.
Seventy-six-acre Warren Island is a state park, “Given for the benefit and enjoyment of visitors to coastal Maine” by the Town of Islesboro in 1959. The state maintains several moorings in the cove and a landing float on the east side of the island. Spruce-needle trails meander from there through the woods past various rustic campsites, west to a view of the Camden Hills, and south to a shale beach overlooking Cradle Cove. For information about the park, call 596-2253 or visit the park website.
COPYRIGHT 2006 DIAMOND PASS PUBLISHING
Approaches. Approaching from east or west, head southward down the middle of the slot between Warren and Spruce Islands.
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Anchorages, moorings. Harbor chart. The state-maintained moorings are about dead center in the cove in a north-south line with red floats marked “Warren Isl S. P.” They are available on a first-come, first-served basis. There is also room to anchor in the middle of the slot, in 9 to 12 feet of water at low, but do not go much past the pier on Warren Island, where it starts to shoal rapidly. The bottom is mud that holds well.
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Getting ashore. Row to the state pier.
For the crew. There are a number of campsites, fireplaces, picnic tables, privies, and shelters. Well water is available inland, but it’s for the crew, not the boat. You will need to pump it by hand.
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Things to do. Woodsy trails lead around and through the island. If it is sunny and the tide is up, the beach at the south end is a tempting place for a dip.
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As you explore, you can still see the 100 by 100-foot foundation of one of the most expensive rustic cottages ever built in New England. The dream cabin of William Folwell from Philadelphia was named “Mon Reve” or “My Dream” and contained 22 bedrooms and a living room 60 feet by 30 feet. But a dream it was. Folwell died before its completion, and his descendants used it only occasionally in the years that followed. Seldom occupied, it became a magnet for local picnics and parties, and the grand structure burned in 1919.
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From your mooring on a busy weekend, you can watch the parade of boats passing through the northern entrance to Gilkey Harbor—magnificent yachts, windjammers, modest cruisers, and ferries. If your tender is seaworthy, you can venture across to explore Grindel Point.
From A Cruising Guide to the Maine Coast