About Island Cruises
Island Cruises hosts a morning lunch cruise and an afternoon nature cruise daily from mid-June to mid-September. Certified Captain Kim Strauss operates our 40-foot boat, R.L. Gott, which comfortably seats 49 passengers with covered and open seating available.
Captain Strauss arrived in Maine at the age of 2 months in 1949, traveling out to Gotts Island on the mail boat. He has sailed on and around Blue Hill Bay ever since and knows the offshore Islands intimately, living on Gotts Island in the summer, and Bass Harbor winters. In 2001, Captain Strauss and a local fiberglass man built the current R.L. Gott. The boat is named after Russel Lorenzo Gott who, along with his father Berl, ran the mail boat to Gotts Island for a combined 82 years. Russ also taught Captain Strauss how to run a boat, starting with a milk crate to stand on aboard the mail boat Margaret Caroline.
Russell Lorenzo Gott lived on Gotts Island, and taught Captain Strauss how to run a boat.
Island Cruises has an excellent trip planned for you. From the dock at Little Island Marine in Bass Harbor, Maine (located on Mount Desert Island near Acadia National Park), he'll take you past the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse to the islands beyond. Learn not only the fascinating history of the islands, but also the business and politics of Maine fishermen. The captain ends each cruise by hauling aboard a lobster trap or two.