Working Waterfront

Merritt Carey fights for a waterfront way of life

By Tom Groening She’s sailed around the world with an all-female crew and competed in the America’s Cup with the first all-female team. She earned a law degree, worked for a Canadian seaweed processing firm, and lived for a time in New Zealand. But for Merritt Carey, the small coastal… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Remembering the sedition trial of Scott Nearing

By Jacqueline Weaver Scott Nearing may be best known in coastal Maine as an inspiration in the back to the land movement. He and his wife Helen and their book Living the Good Life are cited by hundreds—if not thousands—who came to Maine in the early 1970s, seeking a more simple, rural… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

An eye that sees an island sharply, wryly

As the Crow Flies By Phil Crossman Review by Tina Cohen A new collection of essays by Vinalhaven’s Phil Crossman features on its cover a bird’s eye view of the island’s Carver’s Harbor, with a bird whose eye is appropriately airborne. That bird is a crow, and not incidentally, the nickname… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Puffin population strong, but now threatened by climate change

By Nancy Griffin It took years of painstaking effort to restore seagoing puffins to a Maine island where they had historically nested but had long ago disappeared, victims of human hunting for their meat and feathers. Now, the results of those years of effort that began in 1973 have reached… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Second-hand stores helping keep older islanders at home

By Susan Q. Stranahan On a Saturday morning in late summer, the Red Studio at Chebeague Island’s Island Commons is crowded. A customer requests dimensions of the oriental rug displayed outside. Grandmother and grandson sort through boxes of used kids' books and games. Teenagers examine vintage jewelry, and there are… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

My summer of trying new things

By Courtney Naliboff At 38, it’s easy to get into a comfortable routine. Work, music, parenting, swimming, gardening, writing—these are all solidly in my comfort zone, and completely enjoyable. Not that they’re always easy or straightforward, but I can confront those challenges without anxiety because they’re well known to me.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Summer on a Maine island creates ‘fomo’

By Barbara Fernald It is 10 a.m. on Aug. 1. The temperature is 78 degrees with 54 percent humidity. A gorgeous summer day on the coast of Maine. No wonder people want to be here. I hear it’s crowded in Acadia and I see that’s true by the many cars… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The man, the rock, and the light

By Donna Miller Damon Located literally halfway between Cape Elizabeth and Cape Small, Halfway Rock not only marks Casco Bay’s midpoint, but also its outer limits. When you hear mariners say they are going fishing “outside,” you know they are headed out beyond “the Rock.” On July 26, as part… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Safety systems worked when ship lost power off Eastport

By Tom Walsh Moving 600-foot ships through a narrow passage known for its raging tides seems like dangerous work. Especially when things go wrong. But Capt. Gerry Morrison of Perry doesn’t think so. Morrison, a port pilot for Eastport, was commended at a recent meeting of the Eastport Port Authority… SEE MORE

A glass creation that suggests algae and phytoplankton by Krisanne Baker

Working Waterfront

How art can make science understandable

By Stephanie Bouchard Ecological artist Krisanne Baker of Waldoboro focuses much of her art work on water, so she spends a lot of time in and around it, but one night a couple of years ago really blew her away. She’d been working in a hot glassblowing studio. When she… SEE MORE