Working Waterfront

Swan’s Island designer explores intersection of art and function

When Christine Dentremont finished the industrial design program at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y., she relocated two days later to Swan’s Island, where she would spend the next few years as a sternman on a lobster boat. Fishing was never going to be her ultimate career move, but she found… 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

Boxed in, and I liked it that way

I’ve always loved little spaces I could make my own. When I was a kid, maybe 13 or so, I lived for a while in a box a refrigerator had come in. I laid it on its side in the upstairs hall and filled it with all the belongings I’d… 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

A WWOOFer at a farm in Connecticut poses with the bok choy she grew.

Working Waterfront

The world came to me this summer, via WWOOFers

A weeder’s dream vacation is going to a Maine island and staying in someone’s house, getting three squares a day, and all the fresh air you can breathe in exchange for weeding, mulching, planting, thinning, building compost piles, watering and weeding some more. This summer, I discovered that there are… 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

Working Waterfront

Eight simple rules…

Editor's note: One of the best programs the Island Institute (publisher of The Working Waterfront) ever created is its cadre of Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on islands through the Institute and AmeriCorps. At the annual fellows luncheon in July, each fellow offered comments about… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

How Chebeague Island crossed the digital divide

Islanders provide for themselves and Chebeague Island is no exception. Over the years, we Chebeaguers have built our own library, recreation center, museum, daycare center and affordable housing; created an assisted living facility; and even provided our own ferry service. Plus, we became our own town, seceding from Cumberland. So it should… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

How many lightbulbs does it take?

When your community's electric rates are among the highest in the nation, it pays to consider ways to cut consumption. Work done on Monhegan Island, with help from the Island Institute (publisher of The Working Waterfront), was both simple and effective, and could reduce the island's collective annual electric bill… SEE MORE