Passengers board a Casco Bay Lines ferry in Portland. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

From here to there: why transportation matters

The people who live on Maine’s 15 unbridged, year-round islands are inspiring and a model of resilience. Despite the many logistical and resource-based challenges they experience from living separated from the mainland, they find solutions through cooperation and pure genius. Perhaps no other topic highlights this better than island transportation. At Island Institute, it’s impossible… Read more » SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Maine islands are the frontier

For those of you who track island life, you’ll likely know there are 15 year-round, unbridged islands along the Maine coast. Distinguished by their differences more than their commonalities, these islands span the coast from Cliff Island, the smallest of the Casco Bay islands, to Matinicus, the most distant island located 20 miles off the… Read more » SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Island Reader’s offerings reflect passion for place

Every year since 2006 the Maine Seacoast Mission has published The Island Reader, a wide-ranging anthology of poetry, prose, and artwork by residents of Maine’s unbridged islands. And every year the literary/artistic smorgasbord reminds us that islands are special places that people call home. The 2023 edition, no. 17, gets right to the point with… Read more » SEE MORE

Maine Seacoast Mission’s Sunbeam docked in Northeast Harbor with the Planet Pan steel drum band.

Working Waterfront

Sunbeam heads south

At the end of July, Maine Seacoast Mission’s flagship vessel, the 74-foot Sunbeam, will host two open houses in the Falmouth-Portland and Boothbay Harbor regions. Both events are open to the public. Visitors can tour the boat and learn about the Mission’s continued commitment to Maine’s outer islands and the Downeast region. The first open… Read more » SEE MORE

Event

SHANE CHARLES: WAITING FOR THE SUN TO RISE

May 10 - 12, 2023 - As the culminating public component of his 2022-23 Center for Maine Contemporary Art (CMCA) Artist Residency, Maine-based artist Shane Charles will present his public art projection, Waiting for the Sun to Rise, on the facade of The Island Institute and Archipelago storefront in downtown Rockland for a period of three hours beginning at sunset on May… Read more » SEE MORE

The Machigonne II on its way to Peaks Island. FILE PHOTO: MICHELE STAPLETON

Working Waterfront

New ferries on the way for Maine

New ferries, the vital link between Maine islands and the mainland, are in the pipeline. In recent months, construction has started on ferries to serve Peaks Island in Casco Bay and Matinicus off Penobsot Bay, and funding has been earmarked for a vessel to serve Islesboro and for a second boat for Casco Bay. Here… Read more » SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A well-deserved poetic tribute

Wedmore brings these women alive with vivid descriptions of their experiences and their emotional underpinning. SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Island autumn and birds on the wing

The birds aren’t the only thing migrating these days. From shallower water the lobster traps start to either come ashore or get moved out to deeper water... SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

How to determine the degrees of ‘Away’

Away happens and it comes in many forms as does the process of making an accurate determination of whether one is from here, from here only to a degree, or from elsewhere. The means-testing that has emerged is quite sophisticated and, when applied carefully, reveals relative nativeness with uncanny accuracy. I was born in Massachusetts… Read more » SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Ferry service studied, users surveyed

Maine plans to spend $1.8 billion on its state roads and bridges over the next three years, and so the Maine State Ferry Service’s annual operating budget of $12.5 million might be seen as a pittance. But for people living on the six islands served by the state ferry, that spending is of great interest.… Read more » SEE MORE