Maine Island Communities
A variety of buoys, chains, and other gear hang on the shingled outer wall of a fish house on Vinalhaven Island in 1955. Photo: Penobscot Marine Museum
At docks and ferry terminals, island residents stack supplies for the trip home. Depending on the type of boat, there will be furniture, appliances, lumber and other construction materials, and boxes and bags containing groceries and household necessities. Those living on one of Maine’s 15 year-round unbridged islands stock up when they make trips to the mainland because even the regular ferry service schedule can be disrupted by bad weather and rough sea conditions. For some islanders, that means the one or two ferry trips scheduled in a month can be cancelled at a moment’s notice.
While it is easy to romanticize living on an island in Maine – the stunning ocean views, the dazzle of stars at night, the slower pace of life, no vehicular traffic and noise – island living also means having an intimate relationship with buoy reports, keeping NOAA’s weather radio on in the background, and making Olympian efforts to coordinate everyday errands and doctor’s and veterinary appointments off-island.
With year-round populations ranging from less than 50 to less than 1,500 and only a couple of places where everyone goes to, the details of residents’ lives are also known to each other. And if they don’t hear the latest at the post office or at the dock waiting for the ferry, there’s always ship-to-shore or boat-to-boat conversations over the VHF, which many islanders turn on first thing in the morning and turn off last thing at night.
Whether an island is less than two miles from the mainland or more than 20, the lives of residents are intertwined; the sea shapes a way of life unlike anywhere else in Maine.
