Working Waterfront

A rescue at sea

Last March, Avrum and Michelle and their newly acquired catamaran, the Write Now, found themselves driven to seek shelter from a windstorm in a remote cove on the Abaco archipelago. While trying to turn hard upwind as increasingly threatening winds pushed their bow toward shore, the steering failed, unresponsive. An… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Island provides an antidote for anxiety

Man, oh, man, am I glad to see the end of April. It’s my least favorite month on the island, but this time around the fourth month really kicked me hard in my spirit. What a challenge. It was rainy and cold and just plain dreary. It seems we never… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

I don’t know what to write about

I don’t know what to write about. I’ve sat down to write my column several times this week and have wandered outside instead. But the deadline looms, so write I must. Some of the things I’ve considered spending time and column inches on feel too big: • How it feels,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Estela and the pears

Sometime close to Christmas 2024, Estela Rodriguez packed a dozen truly wonderful pears in a carefully padded box which were ordered as a Christmas gift sent to me from Harry and David’s in Medford, Oregon by my dear friend Nan. The pears flew (I assume) across the continent to an… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Island quarry swimming as art

This book includes a quick nod to quarry history, with pictures of some quarrying era artifacts illustrating the once-industrial setting, when rock was removed to be used primarily as building material. SEE MORE

“Pine Trees, Monhegan Island, Maine,” by William Trost Richards (ca. 1902), oil on panel.

Working Waterfront

‘Monhegan Wildlands’ traces natural, artistic history

The exhibition delves into the island's evolving ecology, history, and artistic representation through various thematic lenses. The exhibition spans 12,000 years, highlighting the significance of Monhegan to the Wabanaki's fishing culture and showcasing the ancient Cathedral Woods that have inspired artists. SEE MORE

The Fifth Maine gathers for a reunion in 1912. PHOTO: COURTESY FIFTH MAINE MUSEUM

Working Waterfront

Where Civil War veterans once gathered, their service is preserved

The artifacts are varied and evocative. There is a piece of hardtack, a food staple for soldiers; relics from the battle at Gettysburg; hand-colored “lantern slides,” which were projected onto screens; and shackles that had been used on a slave. SEE MORE

A view of the shore of Peaks Island. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Smart housing: focus on density and character

The state faces a decision—how can we maintain the character of non-urban life while encouraging the building necessary to house the working- and middle-class people struggling to find consistent housing? SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A home for all

I had the opportunity recently to join a 20th anniversary celebration of North Haven Sustainable Housing (NHSH), one of the leading models of housing solutions along the coast. Since 2005, NHSH has demonstrated that the people who make island communities thrive can, in fact, have beautiful homes that are affordable… SEE MORE

The approach the ferry service takes to the Fox Islands Thorofare. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Coast Guard in the fog over buoys

In an apparent effort to demonstrate that it takes the Trump administration’s war on “fraud, waste, and abuse” seriously, the U.S. Coast Guard plans to discontinue—remove—more than 150 buoys and other aids to navigation, such as fixed “daybeacons,” from Maine’s coastal waters. The Coast Guard’s stated rationale for the planned… SEE MORE