Thursday, August 13, 2009
Maine's shipbuilding and seafaring renown have long been cultivated by Maine Maritime Academy. But the Castine school years ago diversified its programs to also prepare students who might seek work in land-based power plants.
"We saw many of our marine engineers coming ashore and transferring their skills to land-based power plants and industrial power projects," said Janice Zenter, school spokeswoman. She sees that as a natural jump for those trained as mariners.
"When people are seafarers they tend to be resourceful and know how to do it all," Zenter said.
Cianchette, who worked at sea on oil tankers for nearly five years, also sees a tie-in between working on ships and on the windmills.
"You've got to really want to be here," said Cianchette. "It's very similar to being at sea. It's isolated. There's limited interaction with other people."
The closest any house comes to a turbine is a mile and a half, said Cianchette. The only close neighbors are the deer, moose, bears, coyotes and other denizens of the heavily forested area.
"It's the nature of the beast," said Cianchette. "It needs to be in an area where there aren't a lot of people."
After working at sea for nearly five years, Cianchette, 47, had stints at a naval shipyard, in a wood-burning power plant, a construction company and in a machine shop, but says his move to the wind farm was the one he was waiting for. It's a job, he said, in which he becomes part of the solution to a big challenge: achieving energy independence.
Cianchette gazed at the landscape far below while standing in the open air, atop the generator housing of Windmill No. 2. Inspectors must climb out a hatch to the top of the housing and, with safety harnesses attached, check weather-monitoring instruments that help keep the windmills running smoothly.