Fill your eyes with bioluminescence during a dazzling night tour hosted by Castine Kayak Adventures.

By Liam Higgins

Photo by Adam Woodworth

An eager fleet of kayaks prepares to take to the sea. A cool breeze graces the ocean’s surface, and the stars emerge from behind the fading purple sky. It’s the perfect night. The fleet, docked at Castine Kayak Adventures, 17 Sea Street, pushes off under total darkness, coasting on a layer of liquid light.

A “ganglecluster” is what you call a group of kayakers. Tonight, each craves extraordinary beauty. Specks just beneath the surface of the waves illuminate in every direction. As paddle blades disturb the water’s surface, a swirling galaxies of stimulated algae twist into a brief existence, collapsing soon after into the trailing wake.

Castine Kayak Adventures has been offering guided tours on the bay for the past 22 years. Owner Karen Francoeur is still just as excited each time she comes out here. “Every night for me is unbelievably magical. With every stroke of my paddle, as the bioluminescence streams along my bow wake, I deeply breathe in all the beauty around me in the darkness with the stars, planets and Milky Way above me and the glowing bioluminescence enveloping me. At times I can feel the energy coursing through every cell in my body!  I feel honored. Let that be my epitaph: ‘She shared the bioluminescence with everyone!’” n