| FRENCHBORO |
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| Long Island | ||||||||||||||||
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| 44° 07.26’N 068° 21.82’W |
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| Charts: 13313, 13312 | ||||||||||||||||
| Chart Kit: 70, 22 | ||||||||||||||||
| Mount Desert region chart | ||||||||||||||||
| Long Island chart | ||||||||||||||||
| Harbor chart | ||||||||||||||||
FRENCHBORO is remote, very remote, and a wonderful place to visit. Here a few dozen islanders in a lobstering community cling to their century-old way of life with great determination and considerable ingenuity.
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Most of the island is undeveloped and unspoiled. Frenchboro, on Lunt Harbor, is the only community, with a year-round population hovering around 45. Visitors can explore by hiking the well-maintained trails. A few cellar holes are all that remains to tell the story of former settlers.
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In summer, Long Island is not as isolated as it once was. Frenchboro has become a popular destination for boats from all over the Mount Desert Island area, and the succulent lobsters steamed up at Lunt’s Deli attract yacht club cruises that pack the small harbor. It’s also on the itineraries of several day-charter boats. Lunt Harbor is probably busiest on the second Saturday in August, when the islanders hold their annual Lobster Festival. In addition to untold quantities of chicken salad and homemade pies, 500 lobsters or more are boiled in the church, like an offering of thanks, and devoured in the field next door.
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Approaches. Harbor chart. Long Island is easily approached from any direction. Its shores are bold and the outlying dangers well marked. Lunt Harbor may be entered from the west by passing south of green bell “1” and Harbor Island, or from the northeast from red-and-white gong “LI,” passing east of Crow and Harbor Island. Watch out for the occasional ferry that plies this route to and from Bass Harbor.
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The first large stone wharf on the eastern side of the harbor, with a green steel ramp, is the ferry terminal. Southward, the first large wharf on the western side of the harbor is Lunt & Lunt.
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Anchorages, moorings. Lunt & Lunt puts down about 15 large granite-block moorings in 10 feet of water north of their wharf. Pick one up and row in to pay.
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You can also anchor outside the moorings in 25 to 35 feet, although you will be more exposed. Protection inside the harbor is extremely good except for northeasters, which occasionally wreak havoc here.
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Another possibility is to anchor on the 15-foot bar east of Harbor Island. While the inner harbor to the south is dredged to 6 or 7 feet along the western shore, there is no room to anchor.
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Getting ashore. Row in to the dinghy float at Lunt & Lunt.
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For the boat. Lunt & Lunt (Ch. 80; 207-334-2922). Lunt & Lunt has gas, diesel, ice, and water at their wharf, with 3 or 4 feet alongside at low.
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For the crew. Lobsters are available fresh or cooked “Lunt’s Dockside Deli,” which is open for lunch, dinner, and Sunday breakfast. Somehow, everything tastes sweeter here—the lobster, clam rolls, steamers, scallops, and the blueberry pie. The shed behind Lunt’s dock is where Frenchboro Island Seafood used to pack mason jars of lobster delicacies for Bloomingdale’s gourmet market in New York City. If you are cruising in the fall, eat early on Labor Day weekend. David Lunt closes for the season at exactly noon on Saturday so he can put all his workers and their families up at a hotel in the big city—Ellsworth—to celebrate.
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The post office is on the eastern side of the harbor.
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Things to do. Frenchboro is an island of simple pleasures and unspoiled natural beauty. Most of the island was held privately for generations. Recently, however, a 900-acre tract of undeveloped land—more than half the island—was put on the market, threatening major social and economic changes for the small island fishing community. The Maine Coast Heritage Trust, the Island Institute, and the Maine Sea Coast Mission coordinated an emergency fundraising effort, and individual and corporate donors did the rest, raising $3 million to buy the land for conservation in the single biggest conservation effort in Maine history. You can show your thanks by supporting any of these organizations.
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Beautiful trails lead in all directions to the various coves and beaches. For example, walk to the head of the harbor and continue south along the dirt road. Then branch off on a footpath through the woods to Little Beach which you can reach in about 10 or 15 minutes. There you can gather beach peas, look for orchids in the nearby bog, or sit on a driftwood log while you picnic, watching lobsterboats work offshore.
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For a longer walk of about 11&Mac218;2 hours, take the footpath from the ferry landing around Northeast Point to Eastern Beach, past green mosses, pink and green crab carapaces, and bleached skeletons of sea urchins, and then back on the dirt road. If you are feeling energetic, walk from the ferry landing or Eastern Beach to Richs Head and the double-crescent beach at Eastern Cove.
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Walking down the western side of the harbor from Lunt’s, you will pass family graveyards set in the steep slopes between houses. At the head of the harbor is the fire pond, with an extended family of ducks. Several deer may come wandering up for a handout. The deer are loved and protected by the islanders and almost tame. They stand on their hind legs to pick apples off the trees right in town.
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The little building of the Frenchboro Historical Museum is on the hill above the firepond. The Historical Society opens it most afternoons to show their interesting displays of island memorabilia. Across the street is the playground and the school.
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The school has an enrollment of two, but you may see more when you visit. Our last population report counted the two students, two pre-schoolers, and “one resident pregnant.”
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From A Cruising Guide to the Maine Coast