Working Waterfront

My love affair with hot water

We go back a long way, hot water and I. It has been passionately hot, torrid in fact, water up to my belly button, floating bubbles in the tub, splashing all around my fists and caressing my wrists in a dishpan, gushing from the faucet when I turn it on.… SEE MORE

A summer scene on Great Cranberry Island.

Working Waterfront

April’s hope supplants March’s misery

Year-round residents of the Cranberry Isles have just made it through a rough end of winter to face the fickle brown month of April. In February, the ice-rain-ice weather had yards looking like skating rinks. March had its own kind of nastiness with endless wet snow and high winds causing… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

An island is a cruise ship

As I write this on April 2, spring is teasing its way to North Haven. A few brave bulbs have bloomed, pussy willows are in full force, and the sun has encouraged a few afternoon walks. Today the sun through a haze of clouds looks suspiciously snow-like, although temperatures are… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

North Haven Community School seeks magnet students for unique high school experience

Maine’s smallest K-12 public school, located on a Penobscot Bay island, is seeking high school magnet students for the 2018-2019 school year. North Haven Community School, which has a total enrollment of approximately 65 students K-12, hosted two magnet students during the 2017-2018 school year, and hopes to add more.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Long Island builds on-island wellness clinic

Amy Tierney didn’t plan on making health a focus of her volunteer work on her native Long Island, but she was dealt a responsibility she couldn’t—and wouldn’t—ignore. Her father, a mechanic at Johnson’s Boat Yard on the Casco Bay island, was suffering with lung cancer, and she became his caretaker.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Monhegan Museum wins $1 million Wyeth Foundation grant

The Monhegan Museum of Art & History has received a $1 million challenge grant from the Wyeth Foundation. The museum has up to three years to match this gift, the largest in the museum’s history. The grant will support the museum’s campaign to raise $4 million toward an endowment,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Vinalhaven faces addiction with compassion

Vinalhaven has always had a substance abuse problem and, historically, I guess we were OK with it, but now we’ve got a crisis and we’re not. Addiction is a disease; it is not a moral failing. There is no room for argument. While the initial exposure might have been a… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The ‘Eat More Vegetables’ project

Unless you have been living in a cave somewhere, you surely know by now that we all need to eat more vegetables, fruits, beans, and grains—and especially vegetables, and potatoes don’t count. As it happens, I grow quite a few vegetables every year, and summertime usually features a fair… SEE MORE

The Island Institute's press conference on the Cranberry Isles getting a USDA grant.

Working Waterfront

Cranberry Isles wins $1.3 million for internet upgrade

The Cranberry Isles learned this month it has won a $1.3 million USDA grant to pay for the construction of its broadband network. The work is complete on Islesford (Little Cranberry Island), one of three islands in the five-island Hancock municipality that will have access to the network. At a… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

How we support the island’s gay, lesbian,and trans teens

A few years ago, in the service of our podcast “12 Knots,” my husband and I had a chance to sit down with lesbian, gay, and transgender islanders and have a conversation. The five people we interviewed grew up on the island, came out as lesbian, gay, or transgender in… SEE MORE