The Penobscot Bay islands are the background and destinations for the Stephen Taber.

While on board, passengers see the coves, bays, and smaller islands that make up Maine’s largest lake. The vessel, built at Bath Iron Works in 1914, offers three different tours from June to October, ranging from three to eight hours: a cruise to Sugar Island, a cruise to Mount Kineo, and a cruise to the top of the lake. The steamboat Katahdin, or the Kate, is the largest remaining relic of the time in Moosehead Lake’s history when steamboats were the primary mode of transportation for visitors to the lake’s resorts and various industries. First Chance’s 87-foot-long Nick’s Chance travels to summer feeding grounds of finbacks, humpbacks, minkes, blue whales, and the endangered North Atlantic right whale. Several species of whales migrate through the Gulf of Maine each summer, and First Chance Whale Watch offers a four-and-a-half-hour tour to see them, along with views of the Kennebunks by water. The bird haven is covered in large granite boulders, which provide nesting habitat for approximately 1,000 pairs of puffins. During the 12-mile boat trip from Boothbay Harbor, passengers may see blue herons, seals, and whales before reaching the seven-acre treeless island in outer Muscongus Bay. Eastern Egg Rock, the world’s first restored Atlantic Puffin colony, is one of the many coastal attractions visited by Cap’n Fish’s Cruises.

Maine puffin tours