A Day on a Working Lobster Boat

This summer I spent a couple of weeks in Maine, mostly on Mt. Desert Island, which is the home of Acadia National Park. On the first trip I took my son, and on the second I took my friend Bob Stephens. 

On both trips we hiked the islands of the Mt. Desert area, ate seafood, and I bought a painting by an artist named Henry Isaacs. It hangs in my guest room where I am writing this. It captures the blues of Maine’s summer sky, water, and late afternoon mountains.

The most memorable day was with Bob on Beals Island,  a tiny place connected to the main land by a good sized bridge, about an hour and a half north of Bangor.  One of our listeners Pam Libby, of Brewer, Maine invited us to spend the day on a lobster boat with her father Clint Libby and watch him work. Boy did I jump on this! I have only seen a lobsterman work at sea one time in my life, and Bob, being from the south, had never.

Clint has been married to his wife Leona for fifty years, and has been lobstering longer than that.

It was so fascinating to watch him haul the traps up, measure a lobster that might be too small (and throw back), put those rubber bands around the claws and then re-bait the trap and push it back into the water. It sinks to the bottom, and is attached to a small buoy with Clint’s special colors. Only he is allowed to haul that trap

I once asked another lobsterman what was stopping someone from hauling up someone else’s traps and stealing the lobsters. The lobsterman said, “Kinda hard to do with two broken arms.”  Lobster islands are very close-knit communities. Everyone knows everyone else, and watches out for each other.

Clint took us by a small rocky island that was covered with seals sunbathing. As we drew closer to them some slipped into the water, but most just stared at us, as we did them. What a sight.

Later that afternoon Clint and Pam invited Bob and me to Clint’s home overlooking the Beals Island harbor. Pam’s mom Leona made us a lobster feast including fresh island corn, potatoes, and topped it off with homemade blueberry pie!

It was one of the great days of my year, and Bob said it was the highlight of our trip.

I am so lucky to have a listener like Pam, who would go so out of her way to give me a day I will never forget. Beals Island is the real thing. No t-shirt shops, no post cards.  It is an island where people work hard, raise families, and in some lucky cases, stay married for a half-century.

Pam, by the way is a Longaberger Branch Leader, so if you need a basket this Christmas, get in touch with her at www.longaberger.com/pamlibby.

I have included a few pictures of our visit I hope you like.

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