Working Waterfront

Bike lanes and a bumpy transition

The driver had strayed too close to the curb and caught her wheel on the sharp edge, it seemed. Not terribly surprising, as the street had recently been narrowed to make way for what’s quickly becoming the third rail of local politics in my area—bike lanes. SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Reflections on divides, as island summer wanes

The birds in our front yard take turns at the two feeders—a yellow finch, a chick-a-dee, a cardinal, sometimes a blue bird. I watch the elegant dance of two whirling hummingbirds who return each day to suck the sugar water hanging off a feeder on the front porch column. We… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Reflecting on a ‘great business’ and job

I met Bob Woodward in 2012. Colby College gave him the Elijah Parish Lovejoy award for his life’s work in journalism and I was covering it for the Bangor Daily News that weekend. When I think of who inspired my career choice, George Reeve and Bob Woodward come to mind. SEE MORE

“Richard Stanley, Wooden Boatbuilder” by Lou Stanley (2025), oil on mounted linen panel, 22 x 28 in. COURTESY: ARTIST AND THE GALLERY AT SOMES SOUND

Working Waterfront

Stanley paints a Stanley

Lou Stanley remembers the day she came across Richard Stanley. Richard was in his father Ralph Stanley’s boatyard in Tremont, working on Westwind, a 40-foot Friendship sloop built in 1902 by Charles Morse. It was late fall, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, “the full sun’s warmth,” she writes, “just barely keeping ahead of the chill in the air.” SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A lesson in island living

Everything is harder when you live in a remote, rural town. Especially on an island. Especially in summer. When George Gershwin wrote about the easy livin’ of summertime, he wasn’t on a Maine island. Your houseguest’s forgotten prescription? The missing ingredient in the recipe you are making? (It was on… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Mills highlights housing wins

The lack of affordable housing impacts much of the state’s economy, and much of the economy impacts housing. That was one of the conundrums emerging from the Maine Affordable Housing Conference on Sept. 9 in Bangor. When housing options are few or too expensive, the workforce—which is already facing generational… SEE MORE

Ben Dinsmore, the new general manager and CEO of Casco Bay Lines.

Working Waterfront

Casco Bay Lines names new GM

Casco Bay Island Transit District, also known as Casco Bay Lines, announces the appointment of Ben Dinsmore as its next general manager and chief executive officer. A seasoned maritime professional with over 25 years of global experience, Dinsmore brings deep operational expertise, strategic leadership, and a personal understanding of Maine’s island communities. SEE MORE

From left, David Wyman, Donald Small, Steve Brookman, and Walt Murphy pose with their 1/16th scale model of the privateer Defence.

Working Waterfront

Remembering the ill-fated Defence

Wyman remembers the students working at making the sonar able to identify objects to the side rather than just downward. Passing over the location where the fisherman snagged his net, an unusual shape was identified. SEE MORE

This packing table is a featured original artifact that is part of Penobscot Marine Museum’s Sardineland exhibit.

Working Waterfront

Marine museum celebrates the humble sardine

The Penobscot Marine Museum invites the community to SardineFest 2025—a free, all-day celebration of Maine’s rich sardine industry history—on Saturday, Oct. 4, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m in downtown Searsport. SardineFest has been generously sponsored by Hamilton Marine. SEE MORE

Boats gather off Frenchboro to memorialize and remember the late David Lunt. PHOTO: PETER RALSTON

Working Waterfront

An island patriarch is laid to rest

Dean Lunt, David’s youngest son, presided over the solemn event, with spiritual comfort provided by the Maine Seacoast Mission pastor who arrived on the Sunbeam. Following the committal in the small cemetery that the Lunt family had donated to the town, guests boarded a solemn procession of lobster boats... SEE MORE