Category: Conversations

Conversations: Harbormaster

Though I have been to Cape Porpoise many a morning, coffee cup in hand, to watch the lobster boats come in and to read the paper, I have never seen the Harbormaster on site.  Yesterday I was in luck and went down to introduce myself.  His name is Frank Orr, and he kindly agreed to spend a few moments with me, to tell me about his work. 

What are your primary responsibilities?

There are a lot of things to do, but my main responsibilities are the safety of boaters, and the safety of the waterways, as well as enforcing the boating regulations and laws, like mooring permits.

What qualifies you to do this kind of work?

 I have been on the water my whole life and got training through the Coast Guard. I was working on a crew up in Portland, just boat towing and assisting people in distress– things like that.  One day the boss came down to the wharf and asked around if anyone was looking for work with a Harbormaster.  I said I’ll do it, and he said if I want to know what it’s like go talk to this guy in Freeport, he’s looking for an assistant.  That was 17 years ago. I’ve been doing it ever since.

Are there many recreational boaters here?

We see some of the property owners and summer people, but the commercial guys still have priority. 

Are there any ferries that go out to the small Cape Porpoise Harbor Islands?

A couple of fellas here have charter fishing boats but no ferries or recreational tour boats of that kind.

Harbormaster must be a tough job in the winter. 

Oh yeah, it’s icy, icy. A lotta snow removal. 

How do the lobstermen and other boaters navigate out there in bad weather?

Most use GPS, and the buoys can be picked up on radar from a distance.  They have reflectors and even though it’s a little thing the size of a trashcan, it looks much bigger on radar.  

Do you worry about these guys when they go out?

Yeah, I do.  Even on a clear day there can be a problem, but we also get a lot of fog.  I was here one morning at 8:00 a.m. The fog was so dense and I’m wondering how these fellas found their way back. I looked at the weather map, it said seven miles visibility here in Cape Porpoise. I said to myself I can’t see seven miles.  But they had enough to get back.

What time do they get their start in the morning?

Daybreak usually.  The parking lot is restricted to commercial fishermen starting at 4:00 a.m. and they’re usually they’re back in by 8:00 a.m.   If it’s early in the season a lot of these guys have 8-900 traps.  They’ll go out and set a bunch then the next day they’ll sit.  The next they set more and the day after they’ll sit, then after that they start hauling in the first set and cycle through pulling in a different set until they have pulled in all their gear.

What are the economies of the lobster business these days?

Tough business.  The young guys are concerned with the new federal laws limiting their operation. The laws keep getting tighter and tighter and there’s no extra money.  The price for the lobsters is inconsistent. The fuel is always expensive, so it bait. A lot of these guys just barely pay their bills.

Is it like a fraternity of lobsterman, are they a close group?

 Yeah, they look out for each other, right? It’s kind of a unique harbor, primarily dedicated to commercial fishing. They are like a fraternity.  There is a Maine Lobsterman’s Association that supports the lobstermen and the state’s lobstering heritage.

Standing in Line

Lenny Ackerman

Before we left Kennebunk for camp I promised Patti I would get up early on Saturday and be first in line at the Boulangerie bakery in the village.  Good to my word I was at Provisions market for my newspapers and first coffee at 6:30am and hurried over for the bakery’s opening at 7:00 am. Little did I know that a dozen or more people had the same idea.  Not too bad I guess since I had my New York Times and could read in line.  It would be the last newspaper I would dirty my hands with for a week, since there is no delivery up at camp and the nearest stand is 45 minutes away. The line of people extended into the parking lot and I joined the queue behind a young, friendly-looking couple.  Of course, I struck up a conversation instead of reading the news of the day.  I caught the woman’s eye and asked, “Are you local?”

“Yup” she said.

“Kennebunk?” I asked.

“No, Wells.”  Wells is an adjoining community down Route 1 south.  Her companion was not participating in our chat at all – not caffeinated enough to talk I guess. I was deep into my large coffee and continued:

“Is it always this busy before they open?” I asked.

“Yup,” she said. 

As you can tell I was not making much headway with my small talk, so I upped the cross-examination: “What do you both do in Wells?”

“My husband,” she said, looking up at him, “is a psychologist.” 

Oh well now I knew why he wasn’t answering me.  He didn’t want to have to offer any free advice.  Now that the husband was exposed, he had no choice but to enter the conversation.  He turned toward me.  “What do you do?” he asked, looking me in the eye. 

“I am visiting here,” I said, “but I practice law in East Hampton, New York.”  

That got him interested. 

“You mean the Hamptons that I read about where all the rich people from New York go for the summer?”

“Yes,” I responded.

“And what area do you specialize in?” he asked.

“Land use,” I said. 

He shook his head.  “That’s a waste of time—soon there will be no land to use at the rate the ocean in rising.” 

Well now we were talking.  I explained there is very little land to use in the Hamptons already, rising oceans notwithstanding.  He wanted to know more, so I talked about how the town was late to preserving open space in the 1980s.  By the time they adopted a zoning code, most of the waterfront including the ocean, bay and pond frontage had by then been built upon.  The release valve is variances–my line of work.  The process is a log jam of administrative review, as the climate is very anti-development now.  The majority of the applications are to rebuild on demoed property.  He told me Maine started conservation of wetlands and open space many years before development and because the demand was less than on eastern Long Island, Maine was able to preserve much of its environmentally sensitive open space. 

By the time we discussed the current state of land use and preservation in both states we were at the front of the bakery line.  I left with a loaf of sourdough and some croissants – and that good feeling that comes with having an engaging, impromptu conversation with a stranger.