In 1969, The National Geographic Society sent some of its writers and photographers with their families on vacations quite new to each. Dean and Lee Conger and their three boys chose a week on the Maine coast with us on our Friendship sloop, Eastward. She is a 32-foot, wooden, sloop, gaff-rigged, and carrying gaff topsail
Tasmanian trip gives Vinalhaven lobsterman new view of Midcoast fishery
Sam Rosen, age 19, returned stateside late this spring after fishing a strip of ocean south of Australia known as the Tasmanian Roaring Forties. Fifteen-foot swells and typically foul weather characterize this region of the world, and it was there that Rosen worked for two months hauling 75-pound traps full of the southern rock lobster
Port Clyde church bell rings for fish processing
The sun was shining, the waters were calm, the breeze was fair, and the bell of the Port Clyde Baptist Church was ringing out over Port Clyde last week. For those who have been taught that the sound of church bells means a call to church service, a funeral toll, blessing of a marriage, or
Construction of Fox Islands wind project underway
It has been an extraordinary year for the Fox Islands wind project. On July 28 2008, the Fox Islands Electric Cooperative approved the project by a vote of 383 to 5 on July 28. Just 11 months later, over 120 islanders, officials and project workers gathered on June 29 to celebrate the project’s official groundbreaking.
Cranberry Report
Welcome to the summer semester at the College of the Cranberry Isles featuring an East Campus on Islesford and a West Campus on Great Cranberry Island. Like a college, the islands are a crossroads for people from all over the country. Summer classes begin in July and extend through August. New arrivals have the nervous
Carbon emission cutting made easy
A group of Mount Desert residents are making the world’s leaders look like environmental lightweights. While leaders from the world’s leading industrialized nations are hoping to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, the members of the Mt. Desert group ROOTS plans to achieve the same goal in just five years. Don’t laugh; most
Seacoast Maine: Photographs by George Tice
Timeless photos “I think all of my books of place,” George Tice tells me, “all have the atmosphere of that place…it’s one thing you can do with photography-capturing the atmosphere.” In this latest of his books about place, from the fogs of Lubec to the lobster boats off Monhegan, from the grain elevators of Portland
Year-round general store opens on Frenchboro
On an island, a general store is a precious commodity. Beyond a means to stretch out visits to the mainland by providing basic groceries, a store becomes a place to meet and socialize, talk over the events of the day and perhaps get a meal cooked by someone else. This summer, for the first time
Eastport City Council president’s letter on LNG safety generates controversy
The Eastport City Council on July 20 authorized Council President Brian Schuth to send a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rescinding a controversial letter that had been sent to FERC on July 6. The July 6 letter dealt with a proposed LNG facility by Downeast LNG in Robbinston and was sent by
Lobstermen say sinking line “just doesn’t work”
“It’s a very poor plan they’ve come up with here,” said Vinalhaven Co-op manager Carol Hamilton of the new sinking rope for lobstermen. “It’s chafing, they’re parting lines off, losing gear. It’s endless. It’s costing them a lot of money.” Although it’s not a problem to the westward due to gradual depth changes and milder