old color photo of dock with cable spools

Island Journal

The DIY Approach That Linked Isle au Haut to the Grid

Parker Waite moved to Isle au Haut in 1976 “to get off the grid.” Though the phrase may have had as much figurative as literal meaning for him then, today he sees the irony in what occupied much of his time in the years that followed. Waite was the nuts-and-bolts guy who established the electric cable linking the island with the electric grid. These days, the island is moving toward achieving a measure of independence from that cable, but it’s still operating, having exceeded its life expectancy by a couple of decades. Before the cable, the island relied on four diesel-fueled generators. The success of that underwater cable is very much tied to the work Waite, now 73, did before the mainland switch could be thrown in 1983. SEE MORE

Communities

Island Journal

Smiles, Hugs, and Hospitality

A confession: I never learned to hula hoop. Not enough to keep it from hitting the floor, anyway. It’s a late November afternoon and quiet on Islesford—also known as Little Cranberry, one of the five that make up the town of Cranberry Isles—and I’m about to get my first official hula hooping lesson from Anna Fernald. There are two things you need to hula hoop successfully, Anna says. A good beat and lots of space. After putting on her slippers, she pulls chairs to the edge of the living room and puts on a Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris album of duets. She cranks the volume so you can hear it in any room in the house. “OK,” she says, picking up one of her three colorfully striped hoops. “You’re counting on your body to hold it up, but you want to have the hoop cling to you and do the work.” SEE MORE

Island Journal

Making It Here: The Island Educator

The first time Monhegan Island’s teacher, Mandy Metrano, laid eyes on the island she now calls home, she was not impressed. In 1995, as an 18-year-old high school student on a visit to see her boyfriend, a summer resident, she saw Monhegan as “all ocean and dirt roads and nothing happening. The only evidence of nightlife was a bunch of kids playing Hacky Sack under the island’s only street light,” she remembers. A year later, her boyfriend had lined up a summer job waiting tables at Monhegan House, but Metrano had planned to spend her own summer break traveling to India with a friend. When the trip fell through, her boyfriend, Jon, suggested she work with him on Monhegan instead. This time, the island stole her heart the day she arrived. “We took the early boat and even when we got close, we couldn’t see the island because it was so foggy. We could hear the foghorn, though, and as we approached the dock in the fog I heard bagpipes. It was magical.” SEE MORE

Island Journal

Vinalhaven’s Investment

For an island community that’s a 75-minute ferry ride away from the mainland, Vinalhaven has been fortunate to have had two very successful long-term town managers, says Emily Lane, a current member of the island town’s board of selectmen. Sue Lessard served from 1993 to 2000, and then Marjorie Stratton… SEE MORE

musicians performing on a sidewalk with young kids playing in the background

Island Journal

Trading Sardines For Lupines

The sardine—a generic name for several types of herring—is the icon of Eastport, which likes to call itself “the easternmost city in the USA.” Eastport encompasses five islands, the largest being Moose Island. With a population of only about 1,300 people, Eastport still remembers its heritage every New Year’s Eve… SEE MORE

Communities

Island Journal

Race day in Casco Bay

I’m squatting in the small cockpit of an outboard-powered sailboat racing across Casco Bay. Lightning bolts are striking the mainland and islands to our west. I look up at the aluminum mast, then at the woman at the wheel. She’s wearing a wide grin and a purple feather boa. Everything… SEE MORE

Island Journal

Not Aging, But Thriving In Place

Victoria Smith was born on Chebeague Island on January 6, 1925, surrounded by her family in the neat frame home now occupied by her son and his wife. When she married an islander, they moved next door. Today, Smith’s granddaughter, grandson-in-law, and two great-grandsons have a home nearby. Three years… SEE MORE

Communities

Island Journal

Babies on Board

I recently attended a three-year-old boy’s birthday party on North Haven, where I live. His family’s sloping lawn was overgrown with kids. One-year-olds rolled on the grass while toddlers bounced on trampolines. Slightly more sure-footed preschoolers bombed downhill on tiny bikes or climbed the tepee poles. For those concerned about… SEE MORE

Communities

person walking trail along rocky coastline

Island Journal

Acadia’s Offshore Island

For generations, Kendra Chubbuck’s family has called the dark spruce forests, cobble beaches, and rocky cliffs of Isle au Haut home. Chubbuck, who moved to the offshore island full-time about four years ago, used to live in a little red house on the shore that was built in the 1930s… SEE MORE

crowd standing in front of building at community center opening ceremony

Island Journal

MBNA and the Midcoast Miracle

MBNA. Four letters that actually stood for nothing, yet oh-so-much, in the mid-1990s through 2005. The Delaware-based credit-card lender, spun off from Maryland Bank, National Association—hence the name—dominated the Midcoast landscape for those years. From 50 jobs in Camden in 1993 to 4,500 statewide by the early 2000s, its growth… SEE MORE

Communities