The white whale docked in Portland in late September. While it wasn’t Moby Dick — rather, it was Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s Explorer of the Seas – the event marked the coming of the mega ship era in Maine. Onlookers marveled as the cumbersome 15-passenger-deck ever-so-delicately docked. “The ship had an unusual arrival,” notes Jeff
Filling the Pockets, Reading the Bottom Lobstering couple hauls 200 traps a day
Watching a champion lobsterman haul his traps is like watching the Olympics: the perfection of craft. There’s not one unnecessary move. Every movement counts because any unnecessary one wastes time. To many, Leroy Bridges is the thinking man’s lobsterman. He’s thinking all the time. One winter day, he said, “Being on land is boring.” You
The Cranberry Report: More Wind, Less Daylight
After a surplus of gorgeous weather in September and October, November has a different kind of beauty. The angle of the sun is noticeably lower, infusing afternoon light with the glow of brushed pewter. It is the kind of sky that gives bare trees a crisp outline and predicts approaching snow and colder weather. Next
Fellows, community members thank each other
On Aug. 9, Island Fellows, their advisers and supporters of the Island Fellows Program gathered at the Belfast Boathouse to celebrate the work of 2007 Island Fellows, and thank community members who have made the program successful. “When Siobhan showed up [on Swan’s Island] she took my vision and made it work,” said adviser Candi
Reinventing ItselfSimultaneously, the Black Point Inn updates – and returns to 1921
The newly reconstituted Black Point Inn opened last summer a hodgepodge assemblage of its former self. Its rose garden has been replaced by a heated swimming pool with a gorgeous ocean view, blank trellises adorning the adjacent patio signaling a future filled with roses yet to come. What happened to the venerable old Black Point
And for the over-indulgent? Home Runners!
If the spotlight on the re-invented Black Point Inn now shines mainly on the dining experience, accompanying the menu is an impressive wine list. Norine Kotts, food and beverage director, encourages diners to indulge with great gusto. Like any seasoned connoisseur, she believes that fine wine should be sipped and savored — by the bottle,
When Collaborative Efforts Come Together
When the outside door of the Victorian-era Engine House on Main Street in Vinalhaven is open, it is an invitation to enter. You climb a steep and narrow wooden staircase, creaking underfoot, to the second floor, where you come into a high-ceiling workroom filled with light. The windows all around it invite perusing the world
Art and Gender on Monhegan
When Monhegan Island’s renowned artistic heritage is invoked, it is more often than not an all-male roster of painters that is trotted out: Kent, Bellows, Hopper, Winter, Tam, Wyeth, et al. “On Island: Women Artists of Monhegan,” on view at the University of New England Art Gallery in Portland (through Sept. 23), goes a long
The Last Voyage of Columbus
Little, Brown and Company, 2005 267 pages, paperback, $14.95 The High Voyage Five hundred years after the death of Christopher Columbus, one would think little new material is available. Martin Dugard, however, has given us a fresh look at “the Admiral’s” fourth and most extensive voyage. In his notes at the end of The Last
Sippewisset: Or, Life on a Salt Marsh
Chelsea Green, 2006 Home on the Marsh Tim Traver, a science writer, attempts the near-impossible with this first book. Consider the word “dumbstruck” and what it means: something hits us so hard that we are unable to find adequate words to describe it. Does this lead to an eventual effusion in an attempt at articulation?