About Us
NANCY HAUSWALD (Owner) has been creating and managing both “land” and “afloat” Exploritas programs since 1996 from her office in Belfast, Maine. Previously, she was the director of seminars for the U.S. Naval Institute at the U.S. Naval Academy, a freelance writer for nautical magazines such as WoodenBoat, Classic Boat, and Yachting, and a freelance editor for McGraw-Hill. With her husband, she lived and cruised full time aboard a classic wooden sailboat for eight years. She graduated from Valparaiso University (Indiana) with a degree in theater, and is a devotee of American musical theater. She is the proud stepmother of five “children” and step-grandmother of 14. Whenever time and money allow, she loves to travel to France, England and Italy.
Jim Millinger is a Maine native who first came to know Portland (Maine) Harbor during his college summers as a captain on passenger vessels of the Casco Bay Lines. After college, service as a naval officer, graduate school, and teaching in universities and college programs on both coasts, he has returned to the Maine coast. In his early retirement, living on Chebeague Island, he skippered powered and sailing passenger vessels out of Yarmouth, Bath, and Bar Harbor. He now lives in Topsham. Jim is a docent and occasional lecturer at the Portland Harbor Museum, an occasional lecturer at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, has led discussion groups on “The Literature of the Sea Voyage” for the Maine Humanities Council, and has just recently completed a nine-year term as a trustee on the board of the Maine Historical Society. In addition to his Ph.D. in history, Jim holds a Master Mariner’s License and a Commercial Pilot’s License in airplanes (land and sea) and gliders. Jim lectures with our Exploritas program – Lighthouses, Lobsters and More: Discovering Portland, Maine.
Fred Stonehouse has authored 30 books on Great Lakes maritime history. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and the Haunted Lakes series are regional best sellers. Wreck Ashore, The U.S. Life-Saving Service on the Great Lakes is the predominant work on this subject. Fred has also been a consultant for both the U.S. National Park Service and Parks Canada, and an “on-air” expert for National Geographic, History Channel and Fox Family. He won the 2006 Association for Great Lakes Maritime History award for historic interpretation in recognition of his many contributions to the field and was named the 2007 Maritime Historian of the Year by the Detroit Maritime Historical Society. Fred teaches Great Lakes maritime history at Northern Michigan University and is an active consultant for numerous Great Lakes-oriented projects. He is also President of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Life-Saving Service Heritage Association. Fred has been the on-board historian (Rochester to Chicago leg) for the Exploritas Adventures Afloat program – Historic Waterways of North America: The Great Lakes, Hudson River and Erie Canal every year since the program’s debut in 2007. For more information, visit frederickstonehouse.com
Megan Pinette is a graduate of the Hartford Art School, University of Hartford, and has lived in Belfast, Maine, since 1984. She and her husband Dennis were part of the wave of young artists, musicians and writers who helped make Belfast the “culturally cool” community it is today. Her interest in Belfast history was sparked while volunteering in her son’s fifth grade social studies class which was studying local history. Since that time, her projects have involved writing a history column for a local newspaper, serving as photography editor for the book The History of Belfast in the 20th Century,” and creating The Museum in the Streets walking tour. She has been President of the Belfast Historical Society & Museum since 2002 and serves as curator of the museum. Megan wears several hats with Coastal Discoveries – she is a frequent lecturer on local history for several of our Exploritas programs that take place in midcoast Maine, and is a group leader for many of the same programs.
BEANIE EINSTEIN (Office Manager) sidled up to Coastal Discoveries in early 2008 as a helpmate to Nancy, using her organizational skills to create and manage new office systems to complement the rapidly growing business. Because of her background in the medical field, including a career as a nurse in Washington, D.C., and, following that, as the owner of a seasonal cottage rental business for 15 years, she brings s sharp focus to her varied duties. Like Nancy, being near or on the water is very important to Beanie. She and her husband, Blair, and Gizmo, their pup, live in the waterfront Victorian village of Bayside (just a few minutes from Belfast), except when they sneak away for a few months each winter to their beloved houseboat in Key West.