BELFAST

44° 25.58’N 068° 59.70’W

4th ed. Cruising Guide page 238

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Charts: 13309 (inset), 13302

Chart Kit: 20

Penobscot Bay overview chart Belfast Harbor chart WEB CAM

BELFAST is a town where history is being rediscovered. In this northwest corner of Penobscot Bay, grand old buildings are being renovated, and a young artistic and professional class is moving in. A new cycle in the life of the town has begun.
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Belfast was once an important shipbuilding town. Hundreds of schooners slid down the ways here into the Passagassawaukeag River. Forest products were shipped all along the coast, and one historian reports that 10,000 cords of wood were stacked on Belfast’s wharves in 1844. After the discovery of gold in 1848, the first direct voyage from Maine to California was made by the bark Suliote of Belfast.
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It took two great fires, in 1865 and 1873, before Belfast was rebuilt in brick. Splendid blocks of Victorian Gothic and Greek Revival buildings mark the downtown section today, and most are on the National Register of Historic Places.
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In more recent—and more ignominious—history, Belfast was a center for raising and processing chickens. But progress works in mysterious ways. Belfast has since moved out of the chicken business, and into processed potato skins, and now, in this electronic age, the processing of credit cards. When the giant credit-card issuer MBNA moved its headquarters to Belfast, it brought with it hundreds of employees and jobs and an economic boost to the entire western Penobscot Bay area. Their philanthropy has spread from the Belfast waterfront, where they purchased derelict property, raised the buildings, and built a new waterfront park, to generous support of island schools and libraries.
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Belfast is the homeport to the Penobscot Bay Area Pilots and their tugs, who guide large tankers and freighters up the bay to Searsport and up the Penobscot River to Bangor.
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Approaches. Belfast Harbor chart. Technically, the harbor of Belfast is in the Passagassawakeag River, which is more difficult to pronounce than to navigate. Leave the granite monument and red bell “2” at Steels Ledge to starboard, then run up the middle of the channel toward the bridge and nun “6.” The nun is among the moored boats, which extend a long way past the town.
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Anchorages, Moorings. Belfast’s waterfront has seen tremendous growth in recent years, with extensive new docks and floats, a boat ramp, and an ever-expanding mooring field. The city has some guest moorings, or you can tie up at the city landing. The harbormaster has a booth on the wharf. Belfast Boatyard also rents moorings and dockage. It is also possible to anchor near the moorings in 7 to 15 feet at low.
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Getting Ashore. Land at the dinghy floats at the city landing.
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For the Boat. Belfast Boatyard (207-338-5098). Past the city landing and the tugboats on the south shore, Belfast Boatyard has 8 feet alongside the floats at low, with water, pump-outs, and electricity but no fuel. The yard offers storage, repairs, and marine supplies.
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City Landing (Harbormaster Kathy Messier, Ch. 09; 207-338-1142). The Belfast city landing is on the south shore, opposite nun “6.” There are a number of finger floats for small craft, and large boats can come alongside the outer floats and dolphins, with 13 feet of depth at low. Belfast also rents moorings. The harbormaster's attendants are usually in a booth at the city landing, and they can arrange a tie-up or direct you to a mooring. Gas, diesel, water, pump-outs, and electricity to 50 amps are available.
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Much to the surprise—and dismay—of scientists and the town’s harbor commission, cruisers aren’t the only guests who visit the harbor. Inexplicably, Belfast has become the epicenter of an outbreak of the wood-boring teredo worm, usually a denizen of much warmer waters to the south, and they are tunneling through many of Belfast’s new pilings.
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For the Crew. The town provides restrooms, showers, ice, and pay phones at the city landing, and the Chamber of Commerce has a helpful information booth next door. The Weathervane, a combination fish market and restaurant, is also there.
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The Belfast IGA is several blocks up the hill, past stores of all kinds, including the Colburn Shoe Store, the oldest in the nation. A Coin-Op laundromat is on High Street to the left, and a natural-foods store, with wine, is next door.
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To satisfy a hankering for homefries and eggs over easy, stop in at Dudley’s Diner on Main Street. For dinner, Young’s Lobster Pound and Restaurant (338-1160) is in the red building across the harbor, easily reached by dinghy. Or for the best in the area, take a cab (338-2500, 338-2943) to Chez Michel (789-5600) in Lincolnville and eat out on their second-floor deck.
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Waldo County General Hospital (338-2500) is about a mile out Northport Avenue.
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Things to Do. Belfast’s staunch brick buildings make it feel like a miniature city in a train-set layout, a feeling confirmed by its two-steps-and-you’re-there scale. The Belfast City Park on High Street has a playground, tennis courts, a pool, and showers, all for free. The excellent public library has an active concert and lecture series. Or check in at the National Theatre Workshop of the Handicapped on Main Street. Hint: they have a gallery and a bakery. Be sure your kids say hello to Polly Esther, the Giant Elephant, on the roof of the Colonial Theatre. For a great harbor view of the waterfront, take a walk across the former Route 1 bridge, which has been converted to a footbridge at the head of the harbor.
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The Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad runs round-trip scenic excursions from the waterfront to Waldo and Brooks, several miles inland. It was the oldest city-owned railway in the country until 1991, when it was sold to private interests. The B&M Railway is known affectionately here as the “Broken and Mended.”