Given the unrivaled natural beauty of the Mt. Desert Island area, as well as the nearly endless list of things to see and experience during your trip with Sea Venture, there is no shortage of options when it comes to designing your tour.

   Please do not feel that you have to choose a particular trip when booking your tour. In fact, I would suggest that you simply specify the amount of time you would like to reserve and delay choosing a specific trip until the day of your tour. After greeting you at our dock I will be happy to answer any questions you may have. Having discussed your personal preferences, I'll suggest various trip options based upon what I feel you will enjoy most.

   With that in mind here are just a few of the more than thirty trips to choose from:

TRIP #1 - PORCUPINE ISLAND CRUISE Explore the Spruce-clad Islands of Frenchman Bay!

The Porcupine Islands of Frenchman Bay once sheltered 17th Century French warships seeking refuge from the British Navy. Join us for a leisurely cruise through this lovely five-island archipelago and you are likely to see Bald Eagles, Osprey, Harbor Seals, Harbor Porpoise, and Black Guillemots as we glide slowly past surf-laced island shorelines pocketed with pristine coves.

Bring your camera and plenty of film for dramatic shots of 100' sea cliffs soaring steeply up from the sea, Bald Eagles floating upon an afternoon thermal, or local lobstermen hauling their traps!

Trip Length: 1 – 2 ½ Hours — Call for Details

Come explore breathtakingly beautiful backcountry areas of the Acadia Region seldom experienced by 99% of Park visitors! Sign up for this exceptionally popular wildlife cruise and you'll get an up-close look at:

   As you'll discover, Captain Shaw's more than 20 years of local experience as a professional naturalist and Director of the Coastal Maine Bald Eagle Project leaves him extraordinarily well qualified to deliver an abundance of wildlife sightings with minimal impact upon the environment!

Trip Length: 3 – 4 Hours — Call for Details

If you wish to truly see and experience the most beautiful light houses Maine has to offer there is no company more qualified to introduce you to the light houses of Down East Maine than Sea Venture Custom Boat Tours. In fact, I feel confident in saying that no other boat tour company in the State of Maine offers a wider variety of relaxing, informative, and highly affordable lighthouse tours than Sea Venture Custom Boat Tours!

   Whether you are in search of a freshly whitewashed lighthouse tucked away in a sheltered harbor such as that found on tiny Mark Island, or a stark granite tower such as the 119' lighthouse found guarding remote Petit Manan Island off Pigeon Hill Bay, I have just the lighthouse for you! Better yet, while visiting any one of these 12 highly photogenic light houses you will travel along some of the most spectacularly beautiful coastline to be found anywhere in the world while experiencing a side of Down East Maine that few visitors even know exists!

   As the 12 highly picturesque lighthouses found in this area are widely scattered over a very large area, I have put together several lighthouse tour packages for your consideration. While each of these packages typically lasts from 3-6 hours and traverses 20-60 miles, I also offer Trip #L-1, the 14 mile, 2 hour, Egg Rock Light package for those who would prefer something a little less ambitious.

   Picturesque Lighthouses to choose from include:

   As with all my trips, I will be happy to "custom design" a lighthouse tour package for those wishing to explore a particular lighthouse, or combination of area lighthouses. For more information on the many enjoyable lighthouse options to choose from, call (207) 288-3355 or email me at seavent@yahoo.com and I will be glad to provide detailed trip descriptions.

NOTE: In the past, many guests have requested photos and other materials describing area lighthouses in order to make a more informed decision when selecting their tour. Should you desire such information, I will be pleased to ship you a copy of Maine Lighthouses: A Pictorial Guide for $19.95 + $4.95 S&H. This beautifully done lighthouse book by Courtney Thompson contains historical notes on 68 lighthouses found along the Maine Coast, as well as hundreds of lovely full color photos. Road maps to lighthouses reachable by the road are also included. If there is a better book on Maine's lighthouses, I haven't seen it. To order call: (207) 288-3355.

Trip Length: 2 Hour to All Day — Call for Details

Many of the several million people visiting Mount Desert Island each year are drawn here by the fabled scenery of Acadia National Park's spectacular Ocean Drive. And yet most visitors never really capture the breathtaking beauty of this glacier-carved section of coastline on film.

   As I tell my guests, you can't photograph what you are standing on! So come join me for an "on the water" photo exploration of this Jewel in The Crown of Acadia and bring home memorable shots of such legendary landmarks as Schooner Head, Anemone Cave, Great Head, Sand Beach, Thunder Hole, Monument Cove and Otter Cliffs.

   Sign up for this dramatically different view of Acadia National Park today and experience dozens of the park's most photogenic features from a refreshingly new perspective!

Trip Length: 2 ½ - 3 Hours — Call for Details

Before Television, E-Mail, and Cellular Phones folks lived at a slower pace. They took time to "smell the roses."

   Like to try a few hours of life in the slow lane? Well let me "shipwreck" you on one of the many pristine islands dotting the waters of Frenchman Bay where you can sunbathe, swim, beach comb, take photos, or enjoy a leisurely picnic with only the whispering wind and soothing lap of waves on the shore to disturb the tranquil silence!

    Should you wish, I can even supply you with a delicious picnic lunch to enjoy as you let the cares of busy Twenty-first Century life slip from your shoulders. Trip Length: 2 Hours to All Day — Call for Details

I'd be willing to bet that less than 1% of folks born and raised on Mount Desert Island have ever made a complete circumnavigation of her more than 100 miles of spectacular shoreline. And until now, such a voyage was simply not possible for island visitors unless they owned a boat and were skilled at coastal navigation.

   Room simply doesn't allow us to do justice to this full-day excursion. Suffice it to say that when you hop aboard for this cruise you can count upon seeing all manner of interesting wildlife, numerous elegant shore side estates, countless pristine coves and unsettled offshore islands, unspoiled working harbors complete with operating lighthouses and all manner of other sights seldom if ever encountered by visitors to the area.

    Should you wish, I can stop at a dockside restaurant along the way for a delicious lunch, or dinner, or, if you'd prefer, I can supply a custom-made picnic lunch for you to enjoy en route.

   Sign up for this relaxing and educational adventure and you'll bring back photos and memories of America's most beautiful island that will last a lifetime!

Trip Length: 6 – 8 Hours — Call for Details

Lying five miles (and half a century) due east of Mt. Desert Island, this picturesque and relatively unknown 2,000 acre mainland unit of Acadia National Park is located on the rock-ribbed Schoodic Peninsular. Avoid the tiring 100-mile round-trip drive to this unspoiled national treasure by joining me for a refreshing cruise across beautiful Frenchman Bay.

   We'll make our way quietly along a pristine necklace of jewel-like islands, cruise slowly past spectacular 120' granite cliffs soaring dramatically up from the sea, and pause for a look at white-washed island lighthouses erected in the mid 1800s. If we are lucky, we may even spot a Minke Whale or one of the very rare 600-800 lb. Gray Seals found in this area.

Trip Length: 3 Hours — Call for Details

Many visitors to Mount Desert Island enjoy ending the day with a visit to one of the many fine restaurants found in downtown Bar Harbor. Add a little something extra to your night on the town by joining me after dinner for a romantic Sunset or Moonlight cruise through the Porcupine Islands.

   Should you so desire, I would also be happy to transport you by boat to one of several dockside restaurants, drop you off for dinner, and then pick you up for a romantic sunset or moonlight cruise home.

Trip Length: 1 – 2 Hours — Call for details

Known far and wide for their exquisite coastal scenery, the towns of Bar Harbor, Seal Harbor and Northeast Harbor host the fabulous summer homes of some of America's most wealthy and influential families.

   Join me for a boat tour of these areas and you will behold dozens of elegant 50-80 room sequestered estates not visible from the road. Along the way we'll pass within touching distance of some of the most spectacular coastal scenery found within Acadia National Park!

Trip Length: 3 – 4 Hours — Call for Details

If your idea of the perfect wedding includes bridesmaids, ring bearers, a church organ, and vases of flowers on every window sill wide enough to support them, than Weddings by Sea Venture more than likely has nothing to offer you.

   If, on the other hand, you'd rather leave the Pomp & Circumstance behind in favor of a simple ceremony performed by a Sea Captain set amidst some of the most gorgeous coastal scenery to be found anywhere in the world, than you need look no further!

It's as simple as this:

1. Get your Marriage License.
   
   
2. Sign up for one of my more than thirty different cruises and set out on a relaxing and enjoyable search for the "perfect" spot to get married.
   
   
3. As soon as you spot the "perfect" spot (a sequestered cove, a scenic fishing harbor, a two mile section of rugged sea cliffs, a pristine white-washed lighthouse, you name it and I will find it) tell Capt. Shaw to stop.
   
   
4. Present Capt. Shaw with a printed ceremony for him to read or select one from several different ones he has prepared in advance.
   
   
5. Wait until the right moment and say, "I do!"
   
   
6. Kiss the bride!

   All you need to bring is the marriage license and two witnesses. Capt. Shaw will supply all the rest, including a certificate attesting to the fact that you were married by a bona fide sea captain, along with a full color map of the exact spot on the chart where you were married!

Trip Length: 1½ Hours to All Day — Call for Details

From amateur naturalists eager to add a particular species of bird or marine mammal to their life list, to lighthouse aficionados eager to add one or all of the twelve coastal lighthouses found in the area to their growing collection, folks of all ages, backgrounds, and interests have found this "custom" option opens doors they never knew existed.

For Instance:

• A couple from New York who'd visited the island every summer for the past 12 years signed up for a a 7 hour circumnavigation of Mt. Desert Island. When asked for her reaction at trips' end, the wife said, "It was quite literally like seeing the island for the first time! I had no idea."
  
  
• A Michigan family put together a custom wildlife trip and managed to add 15 new bird species to their life list, as well as 8 harbor porpoise, 2 gray seals, and 75-80 harbor seals!
  
  
• A couple from California had us drop them off on a pristine 8-acre island where they spent the morning collecting seashells and swimming in a pristine cove, followed by a picnic lunch and a mid-afternoon nap in the shade of an ancient oak tree.
  
  
• A party of 5 from Ohio had us take them out to a year-round offshore island community where they visited the island museum, bought a few craft items produced by island craftswomen, and spent two enjoyable hours hiking along island pathways after a delicious lunch at the dockside restaurant.
  
  
• Two history buffs from the Midwest joined me for a tour of the area. Along the way we visited the ledge Champlain hit soon after discovering Mount Desert Island, as well the sandy cove where he landed to repair the damage. We also stopped to photograph the site where Jesuit priest Father Baird erected the island's first settlement in 1613, and toured the historic village of Somesville (1762) from the water.
  
  
• A family from London, England combined a photo tour of the most stunningly beautiful coastal features of Acadia National Park with a trip out to Swan's Island to visit an old school mate.
  
  
• A group of three lighthouse buffs joined me for a tour of 5 of the area's oldest and most photogenic lights. Over the course of the 70 mile trip they were able to photograph remote lighthouses seldom visited by the nonboating public, while at the same time encountering a side of Down East Maine seldom experienced even by locals.

   It's no exaggeration to say that available trip options are literally endless, limited only by your imagination! So give me a call, and I'll help you plan the vacation boat trip of a lifetime!

Trip Length: 1 Hour to All Day — Call for details