– By ELIZABETH WEBSTER

Special to the Maine Sunday Telegram

Boaters of all types will delight in visiting the unique islands of Casco Bay this summer.

Thanks to Outside magazine, this area now basks in an even brighter limelight. An article in its current July issue deemed that this recreational waterway, along Maine’s coast, is the best sea-kayaking trail in America.

“Starting in 1987, the Maine Island Trail Association has built and maintained this 375-mile boating and sea kayaking trail. It offers boaters 191 island and coastal sites to visit from the New Hampshire border to Canada,” stated Doug Welch, MITA’s executive director in Portland.

Welch said the group’s 3,700 active members perform voluntary stewardship activities such as trash cleanups.

MITA’s executive director recalled an overnight trip that he took last year with his kids to Jewell Island, which offers no ferry or charter boat service. They explored “The Punch Bowl, which is a really neat little round hole on the ocean side with a nice sand beach,” he said. But Welch considered the trip’s highlight to be climbing the 80-foot observation tower at night.

“You could see all of Casco Bay. It was just an amazing sight to see the city lights from that perspective,” he said.

But you don’t need to be a kayaker to enjoy visiting the nearby Casco Bay islands, which range in size from Great Chebeague, which is five miles long, to one as small as tiny Pumpkin Knob. Casco Bay covers approximately 200 square miles. It stretches 20 miles between Cape Small Point on the east to Cape Elizabeth on the south. Marking the center of the bay’s outer border is the lighthouse at Halfway Rock.

You can decide to be a daytripper by hopping aboard a Casco Bay Lines ferry at the Commercial and Franklin streets. During summer, there are a good number of departures to and from: Peaks Island, Long Island, Chebeague Island, Little Diamond Island, Great Diamond Island, Diamond Cove, Cliff Island and Bailey Island. (774-7871, www.cascobaylines.com)

Welch pointed out that some Casco Bay islands are great for fishing, hunting and swimming and others for shopping, sunbathing and bird watching. “We’re happy to see more eagles in Casco Bay now. This area offers something for everyone.”

For instance, during the 15-minute ferry ride from Portland to Peaks Island, history buffs, intrigued by Civil War through World War II events, will see: Bug Light, Fort Gorges, built in 1858; Spring Point Light; House Island with its Fort Scammel; and Portland Head Light, the nation’s oldest mainland lighthouse.

Other islands house Fort Leavitt on Cushing Island; Bat tery Steele, the largest gun emplacement in Casco Bay during World War II, and the Civil War Museum on Peaks; and Fort McKinley, built in 1900 and manned during WWI and WWII on Great Diamond Island. That property has been renovated and is now called McKinley Estates.

Casco Bay was a staging and anchorage area for the North Atlantic Fleet during WWII. Long Island was an important WWII naval refueling port, and wrecks were sunk there during WWII to keep out enemy submarines. Little Chebeague Island was the site of a WWII training school. In the 1850s, Great Chebeague was a busy shipbuilding center, famous for its stone sloops, used to transport granite.

“It’s wonderful to explore the magical ruin of Civil War forts like Fort Gorges. You definitely get a completely different perspective being inside the fort looking out of those cannon holes,” Welch said.

The ebb and flow of prosperity on the islands mirrored what was happening on the mainland.

“It was with the induction of regular boat service after the Civil War, that tourists started flocking to the summer cottage colonies on the inner harbor islands,” said Earle Shettleworth Jr., director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission and Maine state historian in Augusta. “These islands first included Great Diamond, Little Diamond, Peaks and Cushing and were later joined by Cliff, Long, Little and Great Chebeague Islands.

“While there was interest for recreation on the islands before the Civil War, it hit a much larger scale after the war,” Shettleworth added.

For more than 25 years, Gene Willard has worked full time as a captain on Casco Bay Lines, and since 2003, has also owned and operated The Portland Express Water Taxi. (portlandexpresswatertaxi.com).

He takes a daily photo of the sunrise to prove that all sunrises are indeed different. “I love my jobs, the water, the people that I get to deal with,” he said, happy to oblige my request for insider info on some Casco Bay Islands.

PEAKS ISLAND

Peaks, the fourth largest island in Casco Bay and two miles from Portland, is the only island where it’s easy to transport a car back and forth to the mainland. Peaks is also one of the most populated islands along the Maine coast that is not connected to the mainland by causeway or bridge.

Passengers dock in the Forest City area where there are shops, cafes, restaurants, bike and kayak rentals, a food market and a couple of inns, plus a museum dedicated to umbrella covers (www.umbrellacovermuseum.org).

The 5th Maine Regiment Memorial Hall on Peaks is a memorial to the men and women who sacrificed to preserve the Union during the Civil War. It serves as a museum of Maine Civil War and Peaks Island history and as community cultural center. “Shipyard Brewing owns the brew pub at the Inn on Peaks Island,” said Willard, who calls a day trip to Peaks “a wonderful and refreshing one-day vacation.” (www.innonpeaks.com)

Casco Bay Lines makes three stops on the two Diamond Islands: at Little Diamond; at Great Diamond Island Wharf, near the sandbar between the two islands; and at Diamond Cove on Great Diamond’s northeast end. Except for a single road to Diamond’s Edge Restaurant, the entire north side of Great Diamond Island is a private, members-only community. Check ferry schedules to confirm that you can get back to Portland.

LITTLE DIAMOND ISLAND

Willard says that “Little Diamond is basically a private island association for its 52 resident families and their guests.” However, he notes that from the CBL’s mailboat, sunset and Diamond Pass runs, passengers can view beautiful homes, some designed by Maine’s famous father/son architects. John Calvin Stevens and John Howard Stevens, including the Casino on the wharf at Little Diamond.

GREAT DIAMOND ISLAND

Great Diamond is home to “one of two very exceptional restaurants on Casco Bay, owned by the same family,” Willard said. Called Diamond’s Edge (www.diamondsedge.com) in Diamond Cove, “it’s easy to spot near the number of large yachts and sailboats docked at its marina.” The island is also home to Fort McKinley and McKinley Estates, an exclusive community with an art gallery and store. “The island’s other section is a village that has no public offerings or facilities,” Willard said. He noted that passengers departing at Diamond Cove will see a pretty Moon Garden on an old World War II granite pier.

Willard recommended that those who have time and a desire for a lobster dinner take the narrated Bailey Island Day Cruise that’s 5 hours and 45 minutes long round trip and cruises the full length of Casco Bay. “As the ferry passes House Island, look at the cliffs to see the whole cliff face of Old Man o’ Whitehead and then look to the ocean to see the Indian Head formation,” he suggested.

LONG ISLAND

Long Island residents seceded from Portland in 1993. Its name originated from its shape, which is 3.5 miles long and a half mile wide.

“Long Island certainly boasts some spectacular beaches,” Willard said. The island’s best beach is South Beach, also known as “Singing Sands Beach” because the sand makes a squeaking noise when you walk on it. It’s about a 15-minute walk from the town landing, and there’s a store along the way to pick up food and beverages. “The best panini in Casco Bay can be found at Capt. Perry’s,” Willard said. Don’t feel like walking? Chub’s Taxi (207-766-2574) will take you to South Beach for $7 roundtrip and to Fowler’s Beach for $5.

CHEBEAGUE ISLAND

The locals just call this island, that seceded from Cumberland in July of 2007 and became Maine’s newest town, Chebeague. Visitors might like to check out the bay’s other exceptional restaurant, the 1925 Chebeague Island Inn (www.chebeagueisland.inn.com) and the nearby nine-hole, Scottish links-style, golf course (www.chebeague.org/golfclub) There are two ferry landings on the four-mile-long island. Chebeague Transportation Company in Yarmouth serves the East End at Stone Wharf. This is where the inn with its restaurant and golf course are located. CBL lands at Chandlers Cove State Pier on the west end. Veterans’ Taxi (207-846-8687) operates year-round.

LITTLE CHEBEAGUE ISLAND

The sandbar at low tide between Chebeague and Little Chebeague is well worth exploring. Hermit crabs, small green crabs, soft-shelled and razor clams, blue mussels and sand dollars can be found in the tide pools.

CLIFF ISLAND

Cliff Island, with an estimated population of 60 people on its 350-plus acres is located six miles from Portland. It has public roads but no public facilities or public access to its pretty beaches and coves. Ferry passengers on the mailboat run sometimes get off to grab a drink or something quick to eat at the store and get back on the boat.

Willard noted that “there are quite a few nice homes to rent here.” With few cars on the island, Cliff remains a quiet and restful spot with only the wind, surf and gulls to disturb you. Its one-room schoolhouse is one of the last in Maine. There’s also a post office, community center, church and Pearl’s Seaside Market and Cafe (207-766-2312), located at the end of the CBL’s ferry landing.

MACKWORTH ISLAND

This 100-acre island is a great spot to take children hiking to see the fairy houses and Governor Percival Baxter’s animal cemetery, which honors 14 loyal Irish setters and “Jerry Roan, an able horse and kind friend.”

This island is also home to Gov. Baxter School for the Deaf, off limits to the public. However, there’s a smooth 1-1/4 mile path around the island’s edge, where kids can also explore the intertidal zone. Macworth Island is located off U.S. Route 1 in Falmouth, taking Andrews Avenue and the causeway to the gatehouse and parking lot.

FORT GORGES & HOUSE ISLAND

City-owned Fort Gorges is a former large granite military fortification topped with grass and shrubs. It’s accessible on nice days by small boats, canoes, kayaks and water taxis. Frequent boaters to the site recommend putting boats in at Portland’s East End Beach to visit Fort Gorges.

House Island is privately owned and used for group clambakes upon reservation. It has an interesting history. The government purchased the southwestern half of the island in 1808 and built Fort Scammell in 1809, which was expanded from 1840 to 1870 to include a granite structure and 71 cannons.

The north side of the island was designated a U.S. Immigration Quarantine Station from 1908 until 1936, where immigrants suspected of having diseases were detained. By reservation (207-632-8842), tours of Fort Scammell are offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1 p.m.- 3 p.m.

JEWELL ISLAND

This 221-acre island, about eight miles from East End Beach, makes a wonderful spot to camp. Cocktail Cove is the main harbor and gets its name from the pleasure boaters who moor there in the summer. There are two concrete observation towers, one 80-feet tall and built during World War II; and a 50-foot one, where work began in1934 as part of a spotting system for a long-range gun battery on Cushing Island. Willard explains why Jewell Island is one of his favorite islands: “The Punch Bowl stays full at knee-deep level, and you can see crabs and lobsters crawling around.”

Elizabeth Webster is a freelance writer who lives in Cape Elizabeth.