Islesboro to Rockland, the long way

Ending their summer with a bang, a group of island teenagers boarded the schooner SPIRIT OF MASSACHUSETTS on Aug. 14, departing from Islesboro’s Grindle Point for a nine-day trip that would circumnavigate Cape Cod. Students adapted quickly, hardening up to life at sea with a nonstop passage through the night to Gloucester, Massachusetts. The educational

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Island librarians assist each other

Penobscot Bay island libraries were busy this summer. Librarians from the public and school libraries on North Haven, Vinalhaven and Islesboro visited each of the others’ libraries to assist one another with a variety of chores. The need for the workshops arose during one of the PenBay Librarians’ conferences held at the Island Institute in

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Vinalhaven receives digitized maps

On Sept. 10, at the most recent Comprehensive Planning Committee meeting, the Vinalhaven Land Trust presented the Town of Vinalhaven with several maps assembled from a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) database. The full-color maps, commissioned by the Vinalhaven Land Trust and prepared by Gordon Longsworth with help from his students at the College of the

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Chef’s lawyers and fishermen support hook-caught codfish

A somewhat unlikely coalition of traditional Cape Cod fishermen, chefs of fine restaurants, and environmental lawyers has come together to promote codfish – not just any codfish, but specifically Chatham, Massachusetts hook-and-line caught cod. This three-way partnership has recognized that protecting and restoring the marine environment involves more than just rebuilding fish stocks, and also

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Eastport’s new warehouse gets push

The stop-and-start progress toward a new warehouse for the Port of Eastport got a shove Sept. 16 when the Eastport Port Authority’s board of directors, unanimously declaring its commitment to the project, sent a proposal to Federal Marine Terminals for completion of the structure this fall. The action was driven, at least in part, by

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Women on the rocks

This winter, as usual, we’re bound to have a few off season visitors. It’s an odd group that visits the island during those dark months. The island has no features sufficiently redeeming to warrant people from away being here; that is, we’re unwilling to credit them with enough savvy to appreciate those subtle qualities that

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