Arrive in Boston and transfer to the National Geographic Sea Lion

Overnight, National Geographic Sea Lion has sailed out of Boston Harbor and arrived at the tip of Cape Cod: Provincetown. Choose to tour the many galleries in town, featuring the thriving community of local artists, or opt to explore the Cape Cod National Seashore further south. Learn about the history of the Cape when on a visit to the Wellfleet & Eastham communities, where we'll tour the Three Sisters Lighthouses and the beautifully restored Atwood-Higgins house. Construction on the house was completed in 1730, making it likely the oldest house on the Cape. George Higgins donated the house and the many outbuildings on the property to the National Park Service in 1961. And of course, as we continue our tour of the National Seashore, we are always on the lookout for wildlife. The Cape is home to 450 species of amphibians, reptiles, fish, birds, and mammals.

As we make our way north towards the New Hampshire/Maine border, we sail through some of the world’s richest cetacean waters with the possibility at this time of year of watching finback, minke, and pilot whales. With luck, we may encounter seabirds including Leach’s storm petrels and Manx or great shearwaters. This afternoon, National Geographic Sea Lion arrives at Isles of Shoals—a photographer’s dream and the place where 19th Century New England poet Celia Thaxter lived and worked. We will visit the Isle of Shoals Marine Lab, where the staff will show us around the island and speak about the success of their breeding colonies of Common, Roseate, and Arctic Terns.

Meaning “out-to-sea island” in the Algonquian language, Monhegan is a special place, rich with history, as the island often fell in dispute between warring European countries. At times it was completely abandoned, but at other times, the island was utilized as a British fishing camp and later an artist’s colony beginning in the late 19th century. Today, watched over by the Monhegan Island Lighthouse, this remote outpost has a full-time population of about 70 residents. After our Monhegan morning, National Geographic Sea Lion makes its way to Eastern Egg Rock. Setting precedents and establishing protocols for seabird colony restoration, Eastern Egg Rock was the first project of its kind, beginning in 1973. The seven-acre treeless island saw the last nesting of Atlantic puffins in 1885, and after an extensive restoration project there are now 172 nesting pairs on the island. It is truly an environmental success story.

Labyrinthine Penobscot Bay beckons adventurers, and today we heed the call, exploring the many coves and islets by Zodiac and, conditions permitting, by paddleboard or kayak. These coves are home to numerous interesting invertebrate species, including mussels, barnacles, sea urchins, and sea anemones.

Spend the day winding in and out of the many islands that bedeck the Maine coastline. We will put kayaks and paddleboards in the water, explore the ins and outs of the shoreline by Zodiac, and enjoy the lure of the rugged island vistas. This afternoon we will meet up with a local lobsterman and learn about his way of life. In the evening, we enjoy a traditional Maine lobster boil on the beach.

A day of exploration awaits us as our adventure continues up the coast to the Schoodick Peninsula, located in Acadia National Park. Today, traversing this less-traveled point of land will bring us into beautiful spruce forests and along rocky inlets fed by small creeks. The day is wide open here, and we go where our whim takes us.

This morning, National Geographic Sea Lion arrives in Portland where we disembark.