Ken Spinney is the new principal at North Haven Community School.

Working Waterfront

North Haven principal has small-town Maine background

By Courtney Naliboff North Haven Community School’s new principal, Ken Spinney, brings with him a lifetime of leadership experience and a love of small town life. A lifetime Mainer, Spinney grew up in Bangor and moved to Skowhegan with his mother for high school. “I was highly into athletics. I… SEE MORE

Michael Kerr is a psychiatrist on Islesboro who has written a book about his work on Murray Bowen’s family systems theories.

Working Waterfront

Breaking family ties that bind us to bad behavior

By Tom Groening The image of a patient laying on a psychiatrist’s couch, telling the doctor that his mother never loved him and his father was too demanding, is a familiar one in our popular culture. Another image comes to mind after hearing Islesboro’s Dr. Michael Kerr explain the theories… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Waiting with ‘baited’ breath

Reflections is written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in remote coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. By Dan Debord First, there was the early morning wakeup, lying in bed, wide-awake with anticipation, for an hour until… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Ferry service cuts late boat to and from Vinalhaven

By Tom Groening Citing safety concerns and the need to comply with federal regulations, the Maine State Ferry Service has adopted changes in policy and schedule. One sweeping change across the service—which links Matinicus, Vinalhaven, North Haven, Islesboro, Swan’s Island, and Frenchboro to the mainland—will mean passengers in their cars… SEE MORE

Volunteers pitch in to work on the store building.

Working Waterfront

Lots in store for Isle au Haut’s store

By Molly Siegel It is a clear September day and the sounds of paint scrapers, nail guns, and hammers ring out across the Isle au Haut Thorofare. Volunteers have been working for two days to make much-needed improvements to the community’s Island Store Co-op. With tasks ranging from stripping old… SEE MORE

The setting sun strikes the rocks on the island’s sheer

Working Waterfront

Canada’s Grand Manan Island beckons tourists

KELLI PARK Women harvest dulce on the island’s western shore. KELLI PARK One of Grand Manan’s fishing weirs. STORY and PHOTOS by KELLI PARK There are places that live in our imaginations and seem just beyond our reach. If you’ve been to easternmost Maine and looked across the water, you… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

From the Great Lakes islands: Falling for the falls

By Jim Nies I’m fortunate enough to live (seasonally) in Ontario’s prettiest village, Kagawong, on Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron. I know it’s prettiest because a sign at the top of the hill leading down to the waterfront announced that fact for years. It may seem an outrageous claim—until you… SEE MORE

A man rows to the dock on Islesford in late autumn of 2017.

Working Waterfront

A new approach to the ‘sweet decline’ time

By Barbara Fernald This year, as I anticipated my annual sense of melancholy for first two weeks of September, I realized something was different. I could easily summon an aching loneliness, but it was not ever-present. I had spent the summer finding ways to cope with my grief over several… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Another one from the road, this time with actual camping

By Phil Crossman The reader will recall that we, in our 2003 Eurovan VW Full Camper, had thus far avoided camping altogether for the first five nights of our great “camping” adventure. But on Day Seven we woke up in James Island, S.C. after having sought repose together in the… SEE MORE

Inter-island News

David Shipler prepares to sign copies of his books after speaking at Prospect Harbor’s Dorcas Library on Sept. 9.

Working Waterfront

Free speech more than an idea for Swan’s Island’s David Shipler

By Tom Groening When the New York Times published a “name withheld” op-ed column from a purported senior White House official on Sept. 5, most everyone had an opinion about the newspaper’s decision and what it may have revealed about the Trump administration. David Shipler had an opinion, too. But as a… SEE MORE