Working Waterfront

Human loss and devastating damage

On Jan. 5, five days before a storm would wreak havoc along the Maine coast, the town of Cranberry Isles suffered the unexpected death of one of its citizens. Cory Alley collapsed in his skiff on the way out to his mooring. As his wife, Cari, and their youngest son… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Vinalhaven’s watery dilemma is not new

On Feb. 9, 1895, 130 years before this January's devastating storm, the Secretary of War submitted to Congress a plan for constructing a breakwater from Lane’s Island—connected to Vinalhaven by a bridge—to Green Ledge to the west, a distance of more than a quarter mile. The plan was submitted in… SEE MORE

A Maine State Ferry Service boat near the Rockland terminal. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Ferry service proposes higher fares

The Maine State Ferry Service is proposing a 18.3% hike in ferry passenger and vehicle fares, citing inflation’s impact on wages, fuel, and vessel repairs. A fare hike was adopted in 2019, finalized only after significant opposition from residents of some the islands that faced especially high fare adjustments. The… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

What will we do with the water?

The ocean is knocking at our door. Since the torrential, monsoon-like rain in October, the island has been battered by four additional significant storms. In January, a devastating combination of wind and tide laid waste to Brown’s Boatyard, and took out boathouses, fish houses, docks, and piers. The next storm… SEE MORE

Islesboro's Grindle Point Lighthouse was underwater during the Jan. 10 storm.

Working Waterfront

Maine’s lighthouses face troubling recovery

Back-to-back storms slammed into the coast of Maine on Jan. 10 and Jan. 13, breaking state records for the highest tides since 1978 and delivering extensive damage along the entire coastline. Though final tallies are not in, statewide damages to public infrastructure —things like piers, roads, and bridges—are estimated at… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Islesboro’s Olivia Britton serving on UMaine board

“The decisions that happen at the board level, even though they are sometimes complicated and a little bit confusing, affect our everyday lives,” Britton said SEE MORE

The cottage on Long Island in Casco Bay. PHOTO: CANDICE DALE

Working Waterfront

Ode to an island cottage

On Long Island in Casco Bay, a summer cottage sits back from the road across from the conservation area and white sands of Fowler’s Beach. The full branches of pines and maples hide much of Hussey Sound from view off the high porch in the summer months. As autumn arrives,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

On the record with… Cliff Island’s Bonnie Rideout

Bonnie Rideout’s house on Cliff Island is on a small bluff jutting to the south, ringed by steep shale cliffs descending into the ocean. The house was used in the filming of The Whales of August in 1987. Rideout gave me a quick tour of the old house, showing me… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Goodbye ‘Pandalus borealis’

Many years ago, my family and I began to spend summers on Vinalhaven. Over the years, first we were summer people, then longer term visitors, and now fortunately homeowners; much has changed. Not the island so much, although it has. But the oceanic world surrounding us. First to go were… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A card for you

Among our many interesting island traditions is one that’s wonderfully functional. Before one of our favorite institutions, The Paper Store, closed, whenever an islander died, or someone with an island connection—a seasonal resident for example or even the mainland relative of one or the other—a little basket appeared on the… SEE MORE