This three-hour course is for anyone that goes into someone else’s home to do work, repairs, estimates, sales, nursing, or outside the home contractors. How can you be safe? Learn the basics to access the surroundings, stay safe and protect yourself without using a firearm. Part 3 of a 3-part series but can be taken separately.

Master Maine Guide Alice Bean Andrenyak is a Maine native who lives at Mere Point in Brunswick. Owner of Alice's Awesome Adventures and Maine e-Learning, she is an outdoor enthusiast, naturalist, teacher, solo entrepreneur, a Kripalu trained Outdoor Guide, and a great cook. She has been visiting Malaga Island for over 30 years and has seen it change. She also trains future Registered Maine Guides and outdoor enthusiasts in navigation, canoeing, SUP, sea kayaking, snowshoeing, nature studies, and overnighting skills. She is a Kripalu Mindful Outdoor Guide leading Forest Bathing sessions and leads regular sea kayak and hiking tours of Malaga Island.

This is the course that meets Maine’s requirement for people born on or after January 1, 1999 to operate boats inland and coastal waters. Learn boating skills from experienced boaters who patrol midcoast coastal waters from Small Point to Port Clyde.

TOPICS INCLUDE: Introduction to Boating: types of power boats, boating terms, sailboats paddle boats, and engine types. Boating Laws: Boat registration, regulations, hull identification numbers, required safety equipment, Federal boating laws, state boating laws, and reporting accidents. Safety Equipment: life jackets, fire extinguishers, sound-producing devices, visual distress signals, anchors, and other safety equipment. Safe Operation and Navigation: buoys and beacons, aids to navigation, navigation rules, docking, and the dangers of alcohol on the water. Boating Emergencies: hypothermia, boating accidents, man overboard, capsizing, emergency radio calls, carbon monoxide dangers, and weather. Trailering: types of trailers, lights, hitches, towing a trailer. Sports and Boating: water-skiing, hunting and hunting gear, personal watercraft operation, and other boating tips.

New Maine Boating Law: to operate a boat over 25 hp, on inland and coastal waters persons born on or after Jan. 1, 1999 must have taken an in-person Boat America course, pass an exam, have the state’s Boat America card, and be registered in the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife data base. Completing this course satisfies the requirements.

This ongoing workshop offers participants an opportunity to get the creative juices flowing, overcome the internal critic, and let heart and soul flow out onto the page! Just as importantly, it also provides a tight knit, supportive community of fellow writers. The instructorn will present proven writing prompts and techniques to tickle your muse and coax even the most hesitant voice onto the page.

Elizabeth Potter is a teacher and poet residing in Midcoast Maine. Her poems have been widely published in literary journals both locally and nationally. Elizabeth has been leading creative writing workshops for all ages for the past twenty-one years.

Mid Coast Maine has one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world, but within the beauty are hazards that can quickly ruin your day on the water. Geography, tides and weather can combine to make even the most experienced mariner opt to stay ashore. Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 2-5, located in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, offers an introduction to navigation course that can help recreational boaters cruise the area.

The basics of coastal navigation are covered using the chart of the Boothbay area. What we cover applies to all National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) navigation charts. Navigating Mid Coast Maine covers the basics of navigation and trip planning while taking you to the far corners of the local “Cape Small to Pemaquid” #13293 chart. Our experienced instructors have hundreds of hours cruising the waters covered in this course as recreational boaters and on the water conducting Coast Guard Auxiliary patrols. They are certified CG Auxiliary Small Boat Coxswains and Boat Crew members as well as local residents.

Topics include basic navigation using both traditional paper charts and various electronic chart formats, understanding navigational aids, and buoy systems. Problem sets will help you understand the building blocks of course planning including exercises on tides; time, speed, distance; and course layout and labeling. To take the course you need either a printed chart or access to an electronic chart of the Boothbay Harbor area.

Paper Chart and Nav Tools: We recommend charts printed on quality paper so you can draw (and erase) course lines using a pencil and add information easily. The NOAA chart of the area is The Three Rivers Chart (#13293). In addition two charting tools are recommended. The chart and tools may be purchased separately at the start of class. The chart costs $30. Along with a paper chart you should have two navigational tools. One is a divider (compass) cost: $10. The other is a roller plotter or parallel rule cost $35.