The Fox Island Wind turbines, located on Vinalhaven, appear closer to the shore than they actually are in this image, shot with a telephoto lens. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Island wind power succeeded on cost

Fifteen years after its spinning blades began generating electricity, the Fox Islands Wind project succeeded in saving islanders money. In fact, customers on the islands it serves—Vinalhaven and North Haven—have paid less for electricity than their mainland counterparts in the first decade of operation. But challenges loom, including the aging… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The great storms brought great reckoning

Lots of us, I learned conversing a day later with friends, woke up around 4:30 on the morning of the great storm, hearing the wind slam around our houses, feeling our sound old homes vibrate with its ferocity. Wind-whipped electrical wires attached to the house adjacent to my bedroom added… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Human loss and devastating damage

On Jan. 5, five days before a storm would wreak havoc along the Maine coast, the town of Cranberry Isles suffered the unexpected death of one of its citizens. Cory Alley collapsed in his skiff on the way out to his mooring. As his wife, Cari, and their youngest son… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Vinalhaven’s watery dilemma is not new

On Feb. 9, 1895, 130 years before this January's devastating storm, the Secretary of War submitted to Congress a plan for constructing a breakwater from Lane’s Island—connected to Vinalhaven by a bridge—to Green Ledge to the west, a distance of more than a quarter mile. The plan was submitted in… SEE MORE

A Maine State Ferry Service boat near the Rockland terminal. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Ferry service proposes higher fares

The Maine State Ferry Service is proposing a 18.3% hike in ferry passenger and vehicle fares, citing inflation’s impact on wages, fuel, and vessel repairs. A fare hike was adopted in 2019, finalized only after significant opposition from residents of some the islands that faced especially high fare adjustments. The… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

What will we do with the water?

The ocean is knocking at our door. Since the torrential, monsoon-like rain in October, the island has been battered by four additional significant storms. In January, a devastating combination of wind and tide laid waste to Brown’s Boatyard, and took out boathouses, fish houses, docks, and piers. The next storm… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Offshore wind threatens centuries of fishing

The New England electric grid—ISO New England—has a website that includes a display featuring two pie charts that show where our electricity is coming from, updated in real time. Right now, “renewables” are at 7% of our total energy mix. Wind is 28% of that 7%, solar is 10% of… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Newfoundland, Maine share maritime past

Today’s Newfoundland seems prosperous in comparison to Maine. There are no mobile homes and every house, every shed, and even every doghouse is clad in vinyl siding. SEE MORE

A man walks away from the storm-damaged Rockland waterfront on Jan. 9. PHOTO: JACK SULLIVAN

Working Waterfront

Waterfront access jeopardized by storms

The challenges of maintaining working waterfront access was the topic of a discussion at the Maine Fishermen’s Forum on March 2, scheduled well before the January storms that pummeled the Maine coast. And that was appropriate, given the shrinking footprint the marine economy faces. But a panel discussion on the… SEE MORE

The cottage on Long Island in Casco Bay. PHOTO: CANDICE DALE

Working Waterfront

Ode to an island cottage

On Long Island in Casco Bay, a summer cottage sits back from the road across from the conservation area and white sands of Fowler’s Beach. The full branches of pines and maples hide much of Hussey Sound from view off the high porch in the summer months. As autumn arrives,… SEE MORE