MITA has announced the 2010 Fall Cleanup schedule!  Five cleanups are scheduled on the following dates:

• September 11th - Downeast
• September 18th - MDI
• October 2nd - Stonington
• October 9th - Muscongus Bay
• October 16th - Casco Bay

See our events calendar for more information!

For the Downeast, Stonington, Muscongus Bay, or Casco Bay cleanups, please e-mail pkenlan@mita.org or use our online signup form.  This fall the MDI cleanup will be coordinated by Friends of Acadia.  Call Terry at 207-288-3340 or e-mail terry@friendsofacadia.org to register or for more information.

If you are unable to make one of our signature cleanup events this fall, please consider a gift to support all of the volunteers through the Stewardship Fund!

Thank you for your support and we hope to see you on the water this fall!

The Maine Island Trail Association is proud to announce today that after 22 years of producing our annual paper Guide to the Maine Island Trail we have launched an online Guide.

The new website, located at guide.mita.org provides coast-wide interactive nautical charts, plus local weather and tide information.  The Guide is only available to current members of the organization and access to islands in the guide is a benefit of membership.

A trial version of the guide is available to nonmembers, with access to ten Maine Island Trail sites.  Membership, which starts at $45, provides password-protected access to all 185 trail sites, boat lunches, pump out facilities, and a wide variety of other member benefits.

To register for any of these programs and get a MITA member discount please contact the Maine Maritime Museum at (207) 443-1316 or visit www.mainemaritimemuseum.org.

Lecture

Curtis Rindlaub Presentation:

 Thursday, May 27 – 7pm

~ By Peg Willauer-Tobey, MITA Member

Kids and tight spaces do not normally get along together. We’ve all experienced the torture of the long car ride to visit relatives. Even being confined to a large two-story house on a rainy day can be challenging. If close quarters inevitably cause kids to start bouncing off the walls, why does anyone ever bother trying to sail the Maine coast with children?

Rocky shores, frigid waters, and thick fog have long served as a barrier to all but the most skilled and adventurous individuals seeking to access Maine’s islands. Thanks to innovations in technology, however, these natural obstacles are no longer as daunting as they once were.