As a “small-town boy” growing up in Southwest Harbor, Phil Whitney had dreams of traveling the world. When he entered the U.S. State Department’s Office of Security, he found himself on a career path that would fulfill his dreams many times over.

On Oct. 24, voters will be asked at a special town meeting to authorize selectmen to negotiate with individuals or entities to provide ferry service from Northeast Harbor and Southwest Harbor to Great Cranberry Island, Little Cranberry Island and Sutton Island. If negotiations are successful, a final town vote would follow.

Cranberry Isles voters will decide at a special town meeting on Oct. 24 whether to authorize selectmen to negotiate with "individuals or entities to appropriate or secure ferry transportation service from Northeast Harbor and Southwest Harbor to Great Cranberry Island, Little Cranberry Island, and Sutton Island,

Despite the desperate situation, we train for just such things. No matter how bad a situation at sea becomes, hope for survival always remains strong.

When Christine Dentremont finished the industrial design program at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y., she relocated two days later to Swan’s Island, where she would spend the next few years as a sternman on a lobster boat.

For a week during each of the past four summers, a group of college students and their instructors have been channeling the innovative spirit and nature-oriented sensibility of R. Buckminster Fuller in the design pioneer’s own habitat.

By this time, I and others have usually made our way through the odd feeling that comes at the end of August. Overtired from working days and staying out later than usual at night, we have scrambled for every last chance to see friends before saying those parting words, “Have a good winter!”

They worked, smart phones at their sides, talked with each other incessantly, laughing. I loved it.

He is awed by the humbling power of nature, whether a rip-roaring gale tearing shingles off roofs or the miracle that earth doesn’t spin out into the abyss…