Eastport to Deer Island

By Leslie Bowman

One of my favorite summer day trips is taking the Eastport ferry to Deer Island. We walk on, spend some time roaming the beach on the island, and then head back before the last boat departs for the day. The ferry leaves Eastport on the half hour and Deer Island on the hour. It’s $3 per person each way.

This time we (my daughter and I) stopped at Quoddy Bay Lobster for picnic sandwiches, which we packed with our sketchbooks, camera, water, and passports. Deer Island is part of Canada so you must pass through customs both ways. Not a problem, but you have to have a PASSPORT. On the way over I was fortunate enough to travel up top with captain Don Leslie, who I have known as long as he has been captain–30 years.

The ferry is in two parts, the boat and the scow, which is carefully pivoted during the trip in order to allow cars to drive on and off in the same direction.


Don told us that they had been seeing Minke Whales, a mother and calf, on earlier trips that day. We saw porpoise, gulls, guillemots, and cormorants.

On the island we ventured to a favorite spot, sat on the beach, and had our lunch. It was hot in our protected cove, but the water was very cold. The best place for a nap was the moss under some spruce trees. Among the species I saw were various lichens among the moss, goose tongue greens, sea orache, beach peas, crow berry, and rosa rugosa. The sea orache was perfect for harvesting, so I picked some to prepare for dinner that night.


Deer Island Point has a provincial campground and various facilities including a snack bar, so we were able to indulge in some Canadian ice cream and candy. As the tides had been running high (average 18 feet between high and low) there was much to find on the beach. The weather was perfect and the company a delight. Traveling back we got a great view of Eastport’s north end waterfront and reminisced about old times and good friends.

Here are some more photos I took throughout the day: