Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Camden  June 18

I visited Pemaquid Point Lighthouse about 6:15 a.m. It was lovely being the only person there. Waves exploded onto the striated rocks below the beacon. A lone lobster boat chugged past.

I headed back up the finger and stopped for coffee at Hanna’s General Store, circa 1912, in New Harbor to warm up a bit. The front page of a newspaper announced that the government is selling two Maine lighthouses: Halfway Rock Light Station, 2 miles east of Portland Head Light; and Boon Island Light Station, 6 miles off York. The sale is sometime in July via the Internet.

While I was downing the coffee a man asked about my journey and described his epic bike ride through Denmark when he was 45. He was accompanied by his son and a client, he said.

Fifteen minutes later I was standing on the docks of a lobster company in New Harbor watching a workmen lower barrels of herring to an awaiting lobster boat, the Trina Gail, which was getting ready to go out and set a line of pots. The coffee-drinking man called out to me from the next pier, “Hey, Mike, I couldn’t miss you and that bike of yours.” He introduced himself as Rolf Maersk Moller. He knew my name because I’ve written it on the front of the safety triangle that I wear on my lower back.

He came over to where I was and we talked about the differences between Florida and Maine lobster traps. Maine traps are rectangular and made of plastic-coated wire. Florida traps, while being rectangular, are built out of plasticized wooden slats. The slats are spaced so that under-sized lobsters

At one point I asked if he was connected with Maersk Lines since he was wearing a Maersk baseball cap. He nodded affirmatively. Maersk Line is the largest containership operator and supply vessel operator in the world. It was founded by Peter Maersk Moller, a Danish ship captain in 1904. Maersk’s first cargo was a shipment of Ford auto parts.

We continued to talk about lobstering and life while Moller, who lives in nearby Bristol, waited for a friend to pick him up in his boat. They were going to Camden to have some repairs done on the vessel.

Shortly after leaving New Harbor I was stopped by a woman standing by her car on the side of the road. “Could you please stop?” she asked as I rolled up. She introduced herself as Vicky Flatt of Phoenix, AZ, who was visiting a friend in New Harbor.

She asked about the ride and why I am doing it. Thirty years ago she had a friend who died of ALS. “It’s just so unfair and terrible,” she said. We talked about the tragedy of the body malfunctioning but the mind staying alert and aware.

After taking down information about the blog and how to donate, Flatt became the first stranger in more than 2,500 miles to offer me “water, a shower back at the house, a meal. I want to do something to help you on your way.”

The fact that she stopped and made the offer lifted my spirits and will, I’m sure, bring a smile to my face in the days to come. Thank you very much, Ms. Flatt.

“Handmade hand woodworking tools” the sign stated just outside of Warren. That required a look-see.

Lie-Nielsen Toolworks began in 1981 as an effort to make top-quality hand tools available again from a U.S. maker, explained Rebecca, the showroom salesperson. 

They make over 100 types of planes, saws, spokeshaves, chisels, floats, hand routers and more. These are almost museum-quality tools that are meant to last for generations. The metals are of the highest quality and the handles of cherry, hornbeam, curly maple and the like. The cost of each tool reflects the quality and craftsmanship that is in each handmade tool. A smoothing plane costs $325, a hand saw $225. These are tools for the professional or most avid woodworker.

“We’ve found that the best quality is right here in Maine,” said Rebecca. “We source our metal castings from New England foundries, our wood from Maine sawyers, and make almost everything else the old-fashioned right out back there in the shop.”   www.lie-nielsen.com

“Oh yes, we know Thomas (Lie-Nielsen) well,” said Victoria, the Center’s marketing manager and gallery director. “He was on our board of directors until last year.”

The board of the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport is composed of some of the finest furniture makers in the country. The Center is a year-round, non-profit woodworking school using instructors from around the world. There are weekend, one- and two-week courses, twelve-week intensive courses and nine-month comprehensive courses.  The programs are for novice, intermediate, and advanced woodworkers.

Executive director Peter Korn, who founded the Center in 1993, walked by as Victoria and I talked in the gallery exhibiting the works of some of the instructors. She introduced us and explained what I was doing. Before I could pelt him with questions he was firing them at me: “You started where?” “When?” “You rode all the way?” and so it continued until he excused himself and I couldn’t slip in one question about his impressive accomplishment.  www.woodschool.org

Another curiosity snoop of the day was at Fireside Pottery in Warren. Inside two women were ruining their hands, as they have for decades, working in clay. “At the end of the season our hands are dry and cracked,” said Nancy Button, Fireside’s owner, said laughing.

Along with Laurie Lundy, the two make mostly slab pottery versus using a wheel.

Button developed her pottery passion from her mother. She moved to Maine in 1972 and homesteaded, built her own home with wood and stone from the land. A studio and kiln soon followed. A move to mid-coast Maine in 1983 opened the door to work in porcelain and the ocean “...brought fluidity to my work,” she said.

While she has a line of good-selling items that she makes again and again, excitement in that repetitive process comes in the firing. Depending on where she places a piece in the kiln, the glaze will react differently. In other words, two objects coated with the same glaze will come out the same. “One higher in the kiln will have more uniformity of color compared to one lower which will have a more varied but intense color,” she said.  www.firesidepottery.com

To understand why I'm riding and raising money, please go to the first post--April 26.
To make a donation to the ALSA, please go to: http://web.alsa.org/goto/deirdresride

2 comments:

  1. Hi Mike- In the process of looking for an image for an issue of my newspaper featuring lobster, I came across your photo of a lobster boat heading out in New Harbor. Would you consider selling me one-time rights to reproduce this on my newspaper cover? I pay $150 for cover images. My newspaper, published in Kennebunk, is called The Tourist News.
    You can check out an online version: www.touristnewsonline.com
    Thank you.
    Judith Hansen, publisher touristnews@roadrunner.com

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