Great Duck Island is a notoriously tough place to land a boat. There’s no dock, just a steep, slippery ramp on the island’s exposed south side, which can only be approached in a Zodiac on a day when seas are under four feet. But one afternoon late last September, a pair of students from Bar Harbor’s College of the Atlantic finessed the landing and hauled hundreds of pounds of boat and passengers partway up the ramp—saving us not only from slipping but also from the dreaded “ass slapper,” a ledge where breaking waves tend to soak one’s derriere.