FRENCHMAN BAY commemorates Samuel de Champlain, the early French explorer who visited Mount Desert in 1604. It is Maine’s most dramatic bay, dominated by the pink granite of Cadillac Mountain, the highest point on the eastern seaboard. Champlain Mountain rises from the ocean, then Schooner Head, Great Head, and Otter Cliffs. Rolling, wooded Schoodic Peninsula frames the bay to the east.
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The smooth ledges of Egg Rock and its welcoming lighthouse mark the middle of the entrance to Frenchman Bay. A procession of bold and cliffy islands and peninsulas lies to the north—the Porcupines, Ironbound, and Grindstone Neck. There are caves in the seaward cliffs of these islands and narrow passages that are a pleasure to thread under sail—Halibut Hole between Ironbound and Jordan, the slot between Rum Key and Long Porcupine, and the passage west of Sheep Porcupine.
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Only a few good harbors grace the Bay: Bar Harbor, Winter Harbor, and Sorrento, but the sailing couldn’t be finer. Below the Porcupines, the bay is open to the ocean swells. North of the Porcupines, the bay is calmer and the shores less dramatic.
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Much of the natural beauty of Frenchman Bay is protected. Acadia National Park encompasses the mountains of Mount Desert and most of Schoodic Peninsula. The Nature Conservancy preserves Turtle Island in the south, Long Porcupine, and Dram and Preble Island near Sorrento.
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