Despite strong winds and waves Nov. 25, a crew of Midcoast mariners and Lewiston business owners calculated the odds, and struck out from Rockland with a fiberglass swimming pool in tow. Their destination was North Haven, 18 miles across Penobscot Bay.

Premier Pools and Spas, of Lewiston, had never done business this way before; nor had Fields Dive Service, the Midcoast-based marine company that offers a variety of services.

But, there is a first time for everything, and it worked.

Premier Pools and Spas owners Mike Dubuc and Derek Messenger had been commissioned to install a 16-foot by 38-foot inground swimming pool on North Haven. Nothing out of the ordinary and a regular aspect of their enterprise.

They first contacted a barge transportation service to get the pool from the mainland to North Haven. But the only opening for a barge haul was to be late December, too far into the cold weather to make it feasible for the pool installation.

So, they called Dallas Fields, owner of Fields Dive Service, and discussed hauling the pool to the island through the water.

November winds had been consistently strong, and after researching the weather, an alternate route was chosen. It was a bit longer, but the crew believed it would have a greater chance of success.

Many hours later, they all made it North Haven, where the pool was lifted out of the ocean with a crane, transported to the customer's property and then set into the hole that had already been prepared.

All in a day's work on the water in Maine.