Articles
Managing expectations: Working waterfront towns warn newcomers about sounds, sights, smells
Residents of active coastal fishing communities want newcomers—or potential newcomers—to get real. Yes, coastal communities are picturesque, with sweet houses clustered on rocky shores. And yes, the ocean is stunning and the salt air is invigorating and the pace of life is calmer than in the cities. But coastal communities are not Fantasy Island. They
Competitive Sailing Expands in Maine Schools
Hockey, football, baseball, soccer—these are the types of sports that come to mind when you think about competitive high school teams. Even here on the coast of Maine, sailing does not immediately come to mind as being part of the spectrum of high school competitive sports, but it is, and it’s been steadily gaining ground
Learning Life Skills
Every Tuesday and Thursday, students from Deer Isle-Stonington High School can choose to use their free period to attend Real World 101, a program in which community volunteers teach basic skills and share experiences in the areas of food, shelter, transportation, work, money and relationships. Classes offered this semester include making chowder, balancing a checkbook,
Fright Night at Fort Knox
Last December, Leon Seymour, the executive director of the Friends of Fort Knox, lost half of his index figure in an accident. Most of us would find such a loss downright depressing. Seymour sees it as an opportunity. “I think I’m going to be getting a fake finger and making it work for me, you
The Art of Fine Lines
For centuries, boats have lured artists to their canvases just as surely as the sea has lured sailors onto boats. A juried exhibit running through Oct. 23 at the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport pays tribute to the relationship between artists and boats and the artistry of boatbuilding. “The Art of the Boat” features more
Four-Legged Waterfront Workers
It’s not just the two-legged creatures that work the waterfront and journey across the oceans, as a mini-exhibit at Maine Maritime Museum in Bath attests. “Fur, Feathers, & Hooves,” tells the story of the roles animals have played in the maritime industries. Over the centuries, animals have served as companions and many had real jobs
Living Art
As a young artist developing his compositional style, James Fitzgerald saw a lovely sight one day while painting in Gloucester, Mass. in 1923. It was the schooner Elizabeth Howard. The artist, who would become known for his paintings of seagulls and capturing the spirit of everyday life, was so captivated by what he saw that
Spring Bulb Tour to benefit MDI Community Sailing Center
Imagine, then, knowing you will be planting thousands of bulbs. That’s what the six-person crew of Northeast Harbor’s W.P. Stewart Estate–also known as WatersEdge–faces each fall when they plant the bulb garden for the estate’s annual Spring Bulb Tour. “I think that going into it (planting the bulbs in the fall) is really difficult,” says
A new Sea Scout ship sets sail
As ice chunks floated down the Kennebec River and wind gusts rocked soaked bare branches outside the windows of the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, a group of mostly strangers gathered in the museum’s Long Reach Hall on a rainy March afternoon. They gathered to set up a new Sea Scouts ship based at the
Exhibit celebrates Cranberry Islands’ artists
When many people think of Maine’s island artist communities, Monhegan Island is likely to be the first to come to mind. That island’s dramatic landscape has played host to artists such as Rockwell Kent and Jamie Wyeth. But people may not know about the artist communities on Great Cranberry Island and Islesford, which also claim