Working Waterfront

The summer we built ‘The Camp’

Editor's note: Phil Crossman's brother, Dick, has written this remembrance from the boys' childhood on Vinalhaven. It was just a camp built by boys, because that is what we were back in 1959—boys in search of adventure where Brandy Brook empties its copper colored water into Carver’s Pond, an estuary… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Phil Crossman’s Vinalhaven Observations is history and opinion

Phil Crossman has a new book out called Observations: A Maine Island, a Century of Newsletters and the Stories Found Between the Lines. His name and writing will be familiar to readers of The Working Waterfront and Island Journal over the years as well as his popular book, Away Happens… SEE MORE

Looking north from the western shore of Islesboro

Working Waterfront

Yes, it is ‘so much work’

"You make your own bread? That's so much work!" "Look at your garden. That takes a lot of work." "Cooking a meal takes a lot of work." And so it goes. As if making an effort was not entirely worthwhile. As if we each were somehow entitled to ease and… SEE MORE

Island students learnt to play golf croquet.

Working Waterfront

‘Golf croquet’: new sport a good fit for island schools

This past summer at a luncheon for the recipients of a scholarship program administered by the Island Institute, Melissa Amuso, one of the mothers from Islesford, spoke of the lack of recreational activities for the children in their small school system. It was suggested that "golf croquet" might be appropriate… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Great Cranberry resident Phil Whitney traveled the world, dodged danger

As a “small-town boy” growing up in Southwest Harbor, Phil Whitney had dreams of traveling the world. When he entered the U.S. State Department’s Office of Security, he found himself on a career path that would fulfill his dreams many times over. Over 20 years, Whitney’s service in dignitary protection,… SEE MORE

Beal & Bunker's Sea Queen in Northeast Harbor.

Working Waterfront

Island updates: Cranberry boats, Swan’s blood…

As a ten-times a year publication, The Working Waterfront falls somewhere between newspaper and magazine. We have an active web presence, and try to post our stories there in a timely way (WorkingWaterfront.com and our Facebook page) and we send out a weekly email newsletter with stories, photos and… SEE MORE

Beal & Bunker's Sea Queen at the dock in Northeast Harbor.

Working Waterfront

Cranberry Isles to hold Oct. 24 special town meeting on boat issues

Cranberry Isles voters will be asked at a special town meeting on Oct. 24 to authorize selectmen to negotiate with individuals or entities to appropriate or secure ferry transportation service from Northeast Harbor and Southwest Harbor to Great Cranberry Island, Little Cranberry Island, and Sutton Island, with the product of the negotiations… SEE MORE

An unidentified ship with containers stacked high on deck.

Working Waterfront

Thoughts about ‘those in peril on the sea’

Maine is a state made up of small communities. When my parents chose to move from the big city of Baltimore to the small island town we now live in—Islesford—part of their decision came because of the tightly knit bond within a small community. That bond brings all Mainers together;… SEE MORE

The team chalks pictures on the composting towers

Working Waterfront

Island life nurtures the best in team design

For a week during each of the past four summers, a group of college students and their instructors have been channeling the innovative spirit and nature-oriented sensibility of R. Buckminster Fuller in the design pioneer’s own habitat. Throughout his life, Fuller spent summers on Bear Island in Penobscot Bay. The… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Swan’s Island designer explores intersection of art and function

When Christine Dentremont finished the industrial design program at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y., she relocated two days later to Swan’s Island, where she would spend the next few years as a sternman on a lobster boat. Fishing was never going to be her ultimate career move, but she found… SEE MORE