VINALHAVEN — “Let’s go to Vinalhaven!”  Well, heck, yes. The breeze, if you could call it that, was light and out of the north on July 30, and the seas were to remain fairly calm. A perfect day to point a little Whaler out of Rockport Harbor and make hay for one of Penobscot Bay’s largest islands for an afternoon visit.

Vinalhaven is that mix of just enough offshore to keep mainlanders from flooding the island, but close enough to get a cup of Rock City coffee there and catch up with folks you normally talk with over the phone.

In Downstreet Market just up from the public landing, the summer people and locals were swarming in, hungry. They wanted crab and lobster sandwiches, quiche, coffee and lemonade. They wanted to check email and Facebook, play chess, read the local news and chat.

Down Main Street at the Vinalhaven Fire Station, firefighters were returning with trucks and equipment after doing basic pump training at Booth’s Quarry with Maine Fire Institute teacher Rick Johnson, who was on the island for the weekend.

Vinalhaven’s Fire Department and EMS are strong model organizations of how first responders in remote areas work efficiently with what resources they have. The firefighters, EMTs and other local volunteers have to rely on each other (and North Haven) when the going gets tough, and they train constantly. If there’s a fire on nearby islands, like Matinicus, it is likely that Vinalhaven firefighters will show up quickly on a lobster boat for mutual aid.

Speaking of which, Carver’s Harbor is filled to the brim with fishing vessels, and on a Sunday, they are almost all at rest on their moorings, taking a break from the intense summer lobstering schedule. 

Their names — Stormy Gale, Scarlett E. Avery, Dorothy Ann — belie the customs of generations of coastal Mainers. The boats are named after girlfriends and wives, or the elements, or just their owner’s unique philosophical view on life, like the Ramble On.

Carver’s Harbor is a working waterfront, and the town of Vinalhaven is likewise a scruffy, creative and hard-working community. There’s a few stores geared to tourists, but the town is more a microcosm of Maine life.

There’s a food market, a thriving library, a well kept bandstand square, a few restaurants, good coffee, and a yoga place near the bar.

There’s boats and handsome stands of smooth granite, tall spruce and green fields, small houses and an industrious spirit.

At the public landing, a testament to how the island takes care of its own rests up a sign near the Tidewater Motel. That’s where the bottle redemption center fills with cans and bottles. It is clean and organized, and what is earned there supports Vinalhaven's eldercare facility, Meals on Wheels, Medical alert phones and wheel chair van.

“Vinalhaven is really special,” said Merry (spelled like Christmas, she noted), picking the spent blooms from the lily stalks at Wyvern Coombs Square.

Merry volunteers her time tending some of the gardens in town. She lives on Vinalhaven six months of the year. The other six months, she heads to Springfield, Mass.

Up the street, the island’s Civil War monument illustrates how Vinalhaven participated heavily in the Great Rebellion. Here are the names of the young and middle-age men who gave their lives in the mid-1800s to a war in more southerly latitudes.

Lieut. Isaac Murch, 38
Lieut. L. Carver, 26
Stephen Colburn, 34
Christopher Shirley, 49
George Hall, 45
Eben Calderwood, 40
Eben Roberts, 39
Robert Brewster, 43
Samuel Gavett, 39
Franklin Webber, 28
George Coombs, 21
Orin Conway, 29
James Sanbourn, 17
Samuel West, 16
Isiah Coombs, 23
Freeman Brown, 23
Manford Tobin, 21
Alexander Young 19
Flavious Mills, 19
Francis Crockett, 21

Threading the channel to and from Carver’s Harbor from West Penobscot Bay, by the ledges and bells, the motor boats and ferries move carefully. But when they get to the Reach, they sent throttles wide open.

It is High Summer in Maine, and no better time to go visiting your friends on the islands, those living further out in the Gulf of Maine.

Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657