Working Waterfront

A paddling partner remembered

A friend, Jack Waterbury, was a former military pilot and had retired to the island a few years earlier. Charming but woefully disorganized and chaotic, he continually misplaced things. Many years ago, when in his 50s, he was my date on a canoeing trip with two other couples on Lobster… SEE MORE

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

Working Waterfront

New ferries on the way for Maine

[caption id="attachment_35572" align="alignnone" width="700"] The Margaret Chase Smith on Islesboro. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING[/caption] 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… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Kim Hamilton named Island Institute president

The Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront, named Kim Hamilton as its president, effective April 1. Hamilton has served as the organization’s interim chief programs officer since September, overseeing the Institute’s climate, economic resilience, and leadership programs and serving on its senior leadership team. The Rockland-based nonprofit’s board of… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Shrinkflation, reformulation, and recipe extinction

Shrinkflation and reformulation are messing with our recipes. This past year, inflation along with supply chain problems sharpened our attention to price increases. Did you notice, though, the few ounces sucked out of a package of your favorite products? Coined around 2009 or so, “shrinkflation” refers to the reduction of… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Childhood by neighborhoods and houses

On Nov. 14, 1948, Mom, Dad—the man she’d married in Massachusetts four years earlier and who’d just been discharged from the army after a grueling couple of years in Germany—four-year-old me, and my two-year-old brother, moved back to her island home on Vinalhaven. We moved into a second story downtown… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Tasty memories from Kirstie’s kitchen

In all likelihood, Kirstie Alley was the only hostess in Dark Harbor who had a container in her kitchen of silicone worms, spiders, centipedes, and creepy crawlers with which she or her cooks could garnish platters of food. We sprinkled them in salads, and they crawled along the edges of… SEE MORE

Grindle Point Lighthouse in the fog. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Holding history: Archiving Islesboro past

Reflections is written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. By Olivia Lenfestey Mostly, my days on Islesboro are filled with the kind of intangible busyness distinctive to life on… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Stormy times on the island home front

Two weeks before Christmas I came home from a weekend spent in Cape Elizabeth with two of our grandchildren. The next day, Bruce started to have a bad sore throat and cough. A number of others on the island were sick with the same symptoms. We heard it was bad… SEE MORE

The counter at Calderwood Hall. PHOTO: COURTESY CALDERWOOD HALL

Working Waterfront

North Haven’s Calderwood Hall evolves

It started with an email with the subject line, “This is a crazy idea.” Fortunately, Liz Lovell, the 38-year-old manager of the North Haven Brewing Company, likes crazy. Lovell and brewers Ben Lovell, her brother, and Jesse Davisson will be leasing and operating the first-floor restaurant space of North Haven’s… SEE MORE

The late Capt. David Allen photographed aboard the Sunbeam at Northeast Harbor.

Working Waterfront

Remembering Capt. David Allen

Starting in 1971, Capt. David Allen made thousands of trips visiting islands along the Maine coast, first aboard the Maine Seacoast Mission’s Sunbeam IV and later the Sunbeam V. David and his wife Betty, who joined him aboard the Sunbeam as the steward in 1978, were the personification of the… SEE MORE