Articles
Steel schooner takes shape in Sprucehead
Backyard boatbuilding projects are common enough, but a 70-foot steel schooner? That’s what retired teacher Adrian Hooydonk is welding together beside his small, coveside house in Sprucehead. At this stage the vessel is a jungle of steel frames, deck I-beams and the growing number of steel plates, from keel up, which define the hull. He
Franklin firm produces chips, other organic foods
Back in 1971, as their Downeast neighbors hung out laundry, Shep and Linette Erhart were hanging out seaweed to dry. Crazy? Not at all. It was the start of their Maine Coast Sea Vegetables business, now a fixture in quiet town of Franklin. The couple — she’s from Connecticut, he’s a college English major from
Ocean racer kept log for Maine marine lab
Solo ocean sailor Bruce Schwab is not a Mainer, but he made some Maine connections before racing nonstop around the world earlier this year. Schwab collaborated with the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in West Boothbay Harbor, recording oceanographic information and maintaining an online journal as he sailed some of the world’s more remote seas.
CORWITH CRAMER rescues Haitians at sea
When the CORWITH CRAMER rescued 49 desperate Haitians last month from a dismasted open boat in the Caribbean, the rescuers got a lot of press. The 134-foot brigantine, operated by Sea Education Association of Woods Hole, sighted the overloaded wooden vessel March 9, 45 miles north of Jamaica, the island where the fleeing Haitians hoped
Coast Guard: scalloper lost at sea was over-rigged
A Maine fishing boat that sank with all hands 50 miles southeast of Nantucket was top-heavy, the Coast Guard said in its final report on the tragedy. The official investigation of the Oct. 10, 2003, disappearance of the 46-foot wooden vessel CANDY B. II fell short of definitively concluding that adding two paravanes (booms) left
Sea Struck
Gardiner, Maine: Tilbury House, Publishers, 2004 384 pages, plus photos $30 Three scions go to sea and write about it Sometimes, browsing through the past, you make a breathtaking connection with the present. In my case, it’s a vivid historical parallel with the tsunami that wracked the people and places of the Indian Ocean, Dec.
Judge hears motion to block locked-gate lawsuit
A judge heard arguments last month on whether to block a suit against the gating of Martinsville Beach in St. George. Officials at the Rockland courthouse said Superior Court Judge Donald Marden could take weeks or months to decide on what’s called a motion for summary judgment, brought by defendants in the case. If he
Around Cape Horn
Around Cape Horn By Charles G. Davis Edited by Captain Neal Parker Camden, Maine: Down East Books, $15 Captain Annabel By Neal Evan Parker Illustrated by Emily Harris Camden, Maine: Down East Books, $16 The hard knocks school of seafaring If you ever get the kind of sea fever that makes you want to sign
Small world: Mainer meets ex-Mainer on Irish isle
Taking a sail around County Cork, on Ireland’s green and steep-cliffed southwest coast, reveals similarities to the Maine coast: the rockweed, seals, lichens and mackerel are the same; the lobster traps, trawlers, salmon pens and mussel farms are familiar enough. But who would’ve thought that on the Isle of Sherkin, pop. 130, would be found
Jam-Up – Big plans for small cove affect ferries, windjammers and an island community
A small cove in Rockland harbor has made waves between windjammers and state and private ferries. But an agreement allowing mixed use appears to have calmed the waters for now. On Sept. 20, the Lermond’s Cove committee thrashed out a compromise that will allow for a rebuilt state ferry pier with enough room for Matinicus