Houses clustered on the hillside in Stonington.

Working Waterfront

A home away from home… for a week, anyway

The Blue Hill peninsula, Deer Isle and Stonington don’t draw the millions who visit the region’s neighbor to the east, Mount Desert Island, each year. And that might be exactly why this quieter region is seeing a growing market for vacation rentals. “We have a working waterfront, which is the… SEE MORE

Phyllis Sommer poses at her Searsport shop

Working Waterfront

Antique business evolving in Maine, elsewhere

Maybe you’ve noticed something missing in Maine’s coastal communities: the Mom-and-Pop antiques shops that seemed to be everywhere a decade or two ago. You’re not imagining things, but the disappearance of these shops doesn’t necessarily portend bad news for the antiques market that draws tourists and dollars into coastal communities.… SEE MORE

A waterfront house for sale in Stonington is not likely to be in the affordable range.

Working Waterfront

Generational clash part of Maine’s housing challenge

Aging baby boomers and millennials in their late 20s and early 30s have one thing in common: they're both looking to buy the same sort of houses. That was one takeaway from MaineHousing's annual conference on affordable housing in Bangor on Oct. 13. Boomers—born between 1946 and 1964—are looking to… 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

Working Waterfront

Women wanted for Virginia work day Nov. 8

BATH — Women are invited to join a group of other volunteers at Maine’s First Ship’s waterfront boatshed on Sunday, Nov. 8, for the second annual Women’s Shipbuilding Day. Maine’s First Ship is building Virginia, a reconstruction of the first ship built by English colonists in 1607 at the mouth… 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

Working Waterfront

Bemused by an island

Reflections on Martha’s Vineyard William A. Caldwell, Edited by Tom Dunlop Vineyard Stories 2015, paperback, $19.95 After retiring to Martha’s Vineyard in 1972, William A. Caldwell wrote a weekly column for the Vineyard Gazette called “Reflections of That Man Friday,” now skillfully edited into a book by islander Tom Dunlop.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

My cup runneth over—island summer abundance’s many forms

I have mixed feelings about summer. For some on North Haven, as in any community whose economy centers around fishing and tourism, summer is a time of 12-hour or longer work days, of hustling to seize every extra opportunity for income before the quiet of the cold seasons. I love… SEE MORE

A schooner sails past the tanks in South Portland on a late May Saturday.

Working Waterfront

New mailboat in the works for Isle au Haut

There's one more day of summer showing on the calendar as this column is being written, but the signs of autumn are everywhere on the coast of Maine. Along with the crisp, cool air that moved into place last weekend, we've been seeing the median age of sidewalk strollers in… SEE MORE

The Islesford Dock restaurant as seen from the water.

Working Waterfront

Change in the air inspires… chocolate cake

By mid-September, island life has usually slowed down a bit from the frenzied social pace of July and August. The third week of classes at the Ashley Bryan School is underway with 17 students this year. Nine are from Islesford and eight commute daily from Great Cranberry. The ferry schedules have… SEE MORE