Articles
Steve Spurling: 92 and still building boats
SOUTHWEST HARBOR — Steve Spurling, who is 92, has been a boat captain and boat builder all his life. He still builds small craft, including Whitehalls and dinghies of his own design, in a shop behind his house. Come spring, he pulls the small boats out onto his front lawn to sell. Spurling grew up
Teen sailing: High spirits, good times
SOUTHWEST HARBOR — On a recent afternoon after school, teenagers swoop around in two-person sailboats on sun-dazzled waters. The Mount Desert Island High School sailing team’s veterans train in Rondar 420s, a new type of racing dinghy. Novices use older Club 420s. The Rondar group circles the coach boat, practicing roll tacks—heeling, rocking to windward,
Peaks Island says ‘I do’ to weddings
PEAKS ISLAND — A gala atmosphere prevails here during the wedding season as the island has become, over the last several years, a popular choice for the growing “destination wedding” trend. Last year, the wedding season—which runs spring to fall—saw at least 75 weddings on this small island. The five top spots for ceremonies and
Islesboro ferry replacement plans in the works
ISLESBORO — The ferry Margaret Chase Smith, which services Islesboro from Lincolnville, is expected to be in service for another decade or so. But a grant from the federal government will allow the state Department of Transportation to begin the design for a new ferry well in advance of the Smith’s retirement. The U.S. Department
All charged up at COA: electric vehicles get a local boost
BAR HARBOR — Drivers may have “range anxiety” when it comes to contemplating the use of electric vehicles (EV). But various forms of pure and hybrid EVs are already in use and greater numbers are expected, as today’s sustainable-energy car, battery and infrastructure initiatives rapidly develop. College of the Atlantic recently took a step toward
A man’s job? Not anymore
Among the 136 coastal towns in Maine, there are six women who hold the position of harbormaster, according to the Maine Harbormasters Association (MHA). The harbormasters include Katherine Pickering, for Belfast, who is also the MHA secretary; Melanee Gilbert, for Bremen; Sarah Cox, for Brooksville and Castine; Lora Mills, for Northport; Abbie Leonard, for Rockport;
Waldo-Hancock Bridge removal is an engineering feat
VERONA ISLAND — The removal of the cable suspension bridge that spans the Penobscot River between Verona Island and Prospect is nearly as much of an engineering feat as its construction 81 years ago. Six years after the sleekly designed Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory opened in 2006, the demolition of the historic Waldo-Hancock Bridge
Remembering Wilfred Bunker: the captain sails on
CRANBERRY ISLES — Wilfred Bunker, a much-loved son of Great Cranberry Island whose entrepreneurial activities provided vital services to other islanders, passed away at the age of 92 on Dec. 29. Wilfred Bunker came from a family that was among the original settlers on both Mount Desert Island and the Cranberry Isles, going back more
Inside the whale: exhibit creates an otherworldly experience
PORTLAND — Fishing-net-like curtains define a 17-foot by 21-foot cubical exhibit space where viewers, serenaded by recorded whale songs, wonderingly touch dozens of individual whale bones suspended in a dense matrix. There’s a sense of being part of an otherworldly experience — not inside a whale, exactly, but inside something timeless and venerable. The bones,
Voters reject plan to reduce mosquitoes on Cranberry Isles
CRANBERRY ISLES — Mosquitoes have been driving residents of the Cranberry Isles crazy for at least a century. But the swarms likely will return this summer, because residents rejected a proposal to address the biting bugs. At their annual town meeting on Saturday, March 16, residents voted down the plan to introduce a bacterium that