To the editor:
Truly the real estate situation in coastal Maine is deplorable, pernicious. Whereas not too long ago millionaires were content to buy and sell each other’s waterfront mansions, today kitchen table yuppie entrepreneurs as well as huge investment corporations are buying every little cabin and saltbox, every little cove and point, and most significantly for mariners, every little docksite and ramp. Communities are being dismembered, economies are being eliminated, a way of life is being lost.
But isn’t that the way of it? Do we mourn the departed communities of aboriginal hunters who were displaced by pale skinned boaters? Do we mourn the erstwhile communities of stonecutters, farmers and shipbuilders who were supplanted by rusticators? And who will mourn the passing of this present onslaught of developers, tourists and trinket gippers? Not the Earth. Not the sea.
As long as there is ocean and land there will be shore. As long as there are boats there will be mariners. Which ones can land here is the open question. Just last week I had someone call the police when I came too near shore in my boat. The way things are going on shore, mariners may just have to learn to keep to the sea.
Captain Yosarian
Schooner ANNIE MCGEE
Bass Harbor