Sea Kayaking in Frenchman Bay

In the morning of our 3rd day at Acadia, we went sea kayaking - a first time for our family as a whole. Justin and I had our first sea kayaking during our Alaska trip 4 years ago.

We usually kayak in a sit-on-top style kayak on lakes. So when we were asked to put on kayak skirts, the rest of the family was surprised and curious. I told them that for "professional" kayaking, kayaker sits in the hull, the skirt, snapped onto the hull opening, will prevent water getting into the hull and the paddler from getting wet. With skirt attached to kayak, it is a bit dangerous if roll over occurs since the kayaker might not be able to free himself.   So the first thing after putting on the skirts, the group of 4 families had a safety lesson, primarily how to free oneself when roll over occurs.

First time in a kayak skirt

A shuttle transported the group to the sand  bar at Bar Harbor for launching. It was a sunny beautiful day. The light breeze over the Frenchman bay made it very pleasant. The 13 tourists with the kayak guide paddle seven tandem kayaks toward the bar island.

paddling toward bar island

As we approached the island, we turned left to paddle along the island shore to see wild life and scenery. The shore of the bar island has a sandy beach.On the way to porcupine island, we passed an unnamed sand with a dozen or sea gulls resting on it, and lot of sea weed surround it.   The shore of porcupine island is more typical of Acadia, rocky, no beach, a lot sea birds flapping around or rest on water or rocks.  On the island, there is an active bald eagle nest, the baby eagle, which was in fact totally black at this stage of its life. Lily and Justin saw the eagle nest and baby eagle with the help of the guide. Nicholas and I were a bit too far away from the guide at the time to hear him.

paddling along the bar island

sea gulls on a unnamed sand bar

Shore of porcupine island

A schooner passed by

 When we returned to the sand bar at Bar Harbor, it disappeared from view already due to high tide. In fact the tide was still rising p. In the 10 - 15 minutes time after we disembarked from the kayaks, the sea level rose a couple more inches.

Lily and I