My friend Bud Perry once said to me, “You haven’t learned much until you sink your first boat.” His advice fell on deaf ears; at the time, I didn’t own a boat. My wife Sandi, […]

I flipped off the headlights of my truck on Widgery Wharf and clicked my neck, first to the right, then more forcibly to the left. Another missed ferry. A half-eaten chicken salad sandwich and an […]

Boat Garden Lobsterman Bobby Spear, compact and trim, but pushing 75, came down my walk way the other day and asked whatever happened to the big green fishing boat. What I didn’t know then, was […]

It is New Year’s Eve on Peaks Island. A slushy mixture of ice and seawater churn and grind against the beach. A pale yellow half-moon throws a faint shadow over the schoolyard. Sandi and I […]

Joan’s First Essay, “To Be or Not to Be Wellbutrin” “‘Let’s talk about getting you off the Wellbutrin,” said my nurse practitioner during my annual physical exam. “‘You’ve been on it for, how many years?” […]

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It was January 1986 and I had a rare weekend off from my island medical practice on Casco Bay. Childhood friends: Tux, Rudy, Bruce, George, and Rob arrived on the noon ferry and threw their […]

PEAKS ISLAND — It’s a warm summer day and you decide it’s a “finest kind” of day to take the ferry to Peaks Island. Instead of the Machigonne II, with a capacity of 399 passengers, […]

A Physician & His 4-Year-Old Partner   House calls are a throwback to the time when medicine was more art than science, and not all of my house calls have been resounding successes. On my […]

  Here is a bittersweet story about one of my most favorite people on Peaks Island (written with permission from the Sam and Martha McCain family). Martha passed away at home last night on Peaks […]