Category: Keepers Log

It was a week of weather and winter repairs!  I believe I said something about the solar system last week. We figured out why they call it solar, lol. Three days of fog, rain & cloudy skies reduced the efficiency of the system. Fortunately we are able to add generator power to the mix when needed.  Without central heating in the old lightkeepers home, it was about 53 degrees inside, 50 outside this week. The 30 knot wind gusts didn’t help – ha! But we bundled up, just fine, waiting for that sunshine to come out again – and it did 😁. The last few days have been glorious!

These early days of our summer are really all about getting the lawns and trails ready for guests and cleaning & fixing up the house to feel like home. With the nicer weather, our tans are coming along just fine! (or is that the iron in the water??) Definitely getting our exercise and discovering some long unused muscles. Rick’s background as a master auto technician is invaluable here. When you’re living and working in structures that were built in the 1800’s, there’s always something that needs fixin’ or improvising. From yard & maintenance equipment repairs to clogged kitchen pipes, he has so far found a way to get things running smoothly on this amazing island. 

It goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway.  The Seguin Island Light is the crown jewel and reason we’re here. She is the highest light in Maine with a powerful rare first-order Fresnel lens (pronounced fru-NEL). As the 2nd oldest light on the Maine coast, it is an honor to be entrusted with her care, including the task of gently dusting & cleaning each of its 282 glass prisms that have been here since 1857. (Well, maybe not all in one day…). The lens itself stands 9 feet tall and is a fixed light “beehive” design. Her new LED light can be seen 14 miles out to sea and puts out a magical glow around the house at night.  

In 1794, President Washington approved building the first lighthouse on Seguin. The waters here are known to be quite rough, with fast tides coming out of the Kennebec River meeting up with strong winds off the Atlantic. In fact our one day a week to come to shore can be cancelled or postponed because of those same conditions today. 

So the first lighthouse (1795) was a simple wooden structure which lasted only 24 years in the weather here. Its location is marked on the island, not far from the house. The 2nd lighthouse was built from stone but eventually succumbed to the weather by 1857. At that time the existing stone tower was built and this year celebrates its 164th birthday – now that’s endurance!  Of course she’s had some historically accurate touch-ups over time, but haven’t we all!! (I mean, I was a blondie my first 6 years, right?!)

We have become believers in the statement that “Seguin Island is one of the foggiest places in the world”. We’ve been here just 2 weeks and there are days we cannot see the ocean!  Loving the fog signal – 2 blasts every 20 seconds. It’s just loud enough to hear yet not be annoying. (Something we had wondered about!) We’ll share some fog stories another time…

We are getting ready for our 2nd trip to shore courtesy of Cap’n Ethan. He is the best! He grew up on the Kennebec River and when he’s not delivering folks to Seguin, he is hauling lobster pots. Our Maine man, thru & thru. So last week we caught up on laundry, groceries, things for the house & water. Mistake!!! Cuz when you do everything on one trip, that means you have to carry everything up the 1/4 mile hill by yourselves! In this case we were lucky, one of the FOSILS members had worked on the tram and made it available to push up the tracks. Hahahaha – did I say lucky? It took us 7-8 rest breaks to catch our breath and get up the hill – but I guess it was better than 3 – 4 trips up & down on foot. So as you may guess, we won’t be doing everything each week.

We are beginning to have visitors come up to the lighthouse now that Memorial Day has passed and the weather is so beautiful. What a treat to visit with folks and hear the stories of where they live, previous Seguin visits, where they’re heading next. Most are thrilled to get a tour to the top of the light, many for the first time. Its such an impressive piece of history, and the view can’t be beat! : )) We also are seeing that some boats come into the cove and just moor for the night without coming up. Unless its a NNE wind, the cove can be quite protected for a starry overnight stay.

Hope you enjoy the photos – catch ya next week!

After three years of anticipation and obstacles, we have made it to the beginning of our once in a lifetime adventure on Seguin Island!  We are Rick & Jan Gorman, with Lily, a young 35 lb. labradoodle (… you don’t need to know how much we weigh ;))

We are fulltime “nomads” living in a fifth wheel RV, traveling around the US for the last 6 years and are now thrilled to live 3 months in the lightkeeper’s house on the island!  The original plan was to store our RV at Cyndy’s home (executive director of Friends of Seguin Island Light Station – FOSILS) on Friday May 21st and travel out to the island on Saturday morning.  So we got to Cyndy’s, excited and anxious for the next morning.  However spring weather had a different plan – it was Monday before we could set out at 7 am!  You’ve probably experienced a trip where you arrive at the airport totally psyched and the flight is delayed or canceled…sigh… That was us – all packed, food in coolers, laundry done and nowhere to go!!

Though Rick grew up in Alaska and Jan in Michigan, we really are not mariners, so taking a lobster boat with Cap’n Ethan to the Cove, then a dinghy onto the rocky beach was an adventure all its own – especially getting Lily in and out of the dinghy!  Fortunately we were accompanied by members of FOSILS to help us along and help carry our supplies up the hill to the lightkeepers house. Another team thankfully had already brought some supplies up the hill on Friday.  Monday was a blue sky sunny morning and we could not stop smiling – at last we were here!!!!

Monday and Tuesday flew by – very very windy, but sunny.. Cyndy and Michael stayed on the island with us until Friday afternoon to teach us about life on Seguin, as caretakers, lightkeepers, and islanders.  We had decided to share meal responsibilities for the week, but I must admit, Rick & I got the better end of that deal – including our first island fresh lobster meal, including instruction for steaming and eating.

As our little group was the first to arrive after Seguin’s long winter’s sleep, we’ve all been busy this week inspecting for any winter damage, mowing, cleaning, sweeping, raking, weed whacking.  Adjusting to the reality of high iron content in our well water has been an experience.  However it is easy to remember to only drink the water we bring to the island each week, as the water from the sink is a lovely shade of orange, lol. And last but not least, Lily has got to be the happiest 2 yr old pup in the county, with acres of land & beach to explore! 

Friday brought us our very first visitors – 15 students from Seguinland Institute, Georgetown ME.  They are spending a month studying “The Good Life” and we’re honored that a trip to Seguin Island qualified for a piece of that category!  It was an enthusiastic group of college kids with which to share our first tours and stories.

We are looking forward to many encounters with nature this summer.  Coming up the trail on Monday we crossed paths with a very young gosling, who was both surprised and nervous to see us.  The next day the whole family showed itself near the house, took a look around and moved elsewhere on the island. Sooo cute!  And then Wednesday evening, just as the flag came down for the day, a storm rolled across us with dark clouds, strong winds, sideways rain, thunder & lightning!!  Couldn’t have been a more exciting night.  We were glad Cyndy and Michael were still with us for this first storm!!  Plus we enjoyed our nightly games of Gin Rummy with them.  We’ve also discovered some of the great trails on the island, had a full moon shine on us, and have seen a sampling of the amazing sunsets here.

We are feeling blessed to be here with the new solar power installed last summer, allowing us to have reliable electricity.  And even more importantly, it gives Seguin Island Lighthouse the ability to shine her light not just for us but for all mariners traveling the Maine coast.  She’s a beauty!

Will plan on posting once a week thru the summer, pleased to be sharing this awesome opportunity with you all.  Next time we’ll talk more about this historic lighthouse!

Friday, September 1, 2017 – rabbit, rabbit

When I woke up this morning, the wind chill was 46 degrees!  Same as it was when we arrived in May.  How quickly the summer disappears.  Today’s forecast will keep all visitors off the island again, high winds and a good surge coming into the cove is not an easy place to land.  It has settled a lot compared to yesterday, but the winds are predicted to be in the high 20’s with gusts into the 30’s, and it is just cold!

Another put together breakfast today, we had banana pancakes with a few slices of bacon left over.  There goes all my Jiffy Mix, bananas, vanilla and the homemade Nova Scotia maple syrup our friends brought us in June.  Once the dishes were cleaned up, I spent some time vacuuming the guest quarters, putting away the linens we brought back on Wednesday and a little packing of our personal stuff.  At this point we have everything left out in the open, all drawers and closets are empty.  Now I just need a final answer from Ethan when we will be leaving the island.  There is a good weather window on Saturday to leave and the winds pick back up on Sunday with a possibility of rain.  Our vote is to leave Saturday, hopefully earlier in the day because we have a 6-hour drive ahead of us to get to Connecticut, a stopover before arriving in Annapolis on Monday afternoon.  We start work on Tuesday with the Annapolis Boat Show so we really need to get off island in the definite weather opening.

I had one more item on my to-do list which had to be done before I leave but makes me cry every time I go to do it.  I need to paint Phinneus’ grave marker.  Brian has made some improvements to the area we buried him, in fact, as much as Brian complained about him, he has put a lot of effort in making Phin’s resting place a thing of beauty.  I finally got the supplies and headed down to the cove area.  I made it simple – Phinneus, 2001-2017 but it still had me crying the whole time.  I am leaving behind my mamma’s boy and I am having a hard time picturing how the rest of our year is going to be without him.

The rest of the afternoon was for lounging around, a little knitting, reading and napping.  We made one more trip down to the engine room with our bags to make our departure as easy as possible.

Finally, Ethan called at 5pm to work out our departure time.  Because his last week’s business has been limited because of the weather, he has a full schedule on Saturday and is trying to figure out how he can make a trip out to the island with our replacements, Tim & Lynne and get us pack between all his charters.  The final answer appears to be we will be hosting 30 of his clients out here on the island at 1-3:30pm and then once he drops the passengers off at Fort Popham, he will come back to get us around 5-5:30pm.  Not the best solution but I don’t want to wait and hope for a Sunday morning departure. Just means we will be checking into the hotel after 11 Saturday night.

Tonight, Brian is putting together a chicken stir fry with all the last veggies and rice.  It has been good having 3 adults out here for the past few days to eat thru all our left-over provisions, I think our friend, Tom has had enough of the island but he knew the risk of getting stuck out here before he made the trip, hopefully we will all be back to the mainland by tomorrow evening.

I am finishing up my last blog with so many mixed feelings.  This island has been an amazing adventure.  So many friends and stories have been added to our life, the beauty we have been able to share with many had been a daily gift.  As soon as we walked into the cottage we felt at home.  I am happy it is coming to an end but I can’t imagine missing the sunrise while I am at the computer or getting a peak of Mt Washington at sunset.  I hope Sam the Seagull is here next summer to entertain whoever is picked to be the 2018 Keepers, I wonder if they will name him and welcome him in to their daily lives.  Will we be remembered fondly as caretakers and what stories will be told about our stay? Will we get back here to stay and visit Phinneus’ spot?  Will Phinneus be the next addition to the most haunted island on the coast of Maine?

The Flanagan’s want to thank FOSILS for giving us this opportunity to be part of history and we can never repay them for the adventures we were able to experience.  Thanks to all our guests who gave us a chance to see the excitement in their eyes as they come up the Lighthouse Trail the first time. We both loved learning the history of the island, meeting our living history lessons from past keeper’s visits and people who traveled near and far to see our island.  But the best part of the summer was hearing from people who have seen the island for years and they finally made their first visit and have returned many times over the summer.  That is how special Seguin Island is, it just never gets old!

Guests today – 1 (I never added our friend, Tom, to the count)

Guests total – 2508

USCG – this number stayed at 6 and I never got my helicopter landing, the only disappointment all summer!

Thursday, August 31, 2017 – Not fit for man or beast

The sun rose with intensity, in fact it was almost blinding.  The winds that were predicted were not the reality this morning, the winds were light and variable but boy did the sea state change from yesterday.  The swells were starting from the west and even at high tide, there was a lot of noise from the waves crashing along Cobblestone Beach.

I started my morning trying to finish the slide show for the fundraiser on September 9^th, how do you take a file with 10,000 pictures taken since May 19^th and chose the ones to make a representative slide show of our stay on the island this summer? As hard as I tried, the slide show consists of a little over 400 pictures and it will last for about 25 minutes, oh well!  I kept tweaking the content and music to a presentation I was happy with and yes, the emotional part of me became very melancholy watching the memories fade across the laptop.

Brian started his morning with a little bit of weed whacking at the top of the south trail and around the cottage, I am a little bit freaked out about making sure the condition of everything is at its best before we leave.  While he was outside, I swept the tower out and made sure the museum and gift shop are all set.  The last thing I will need to do tomorrow is vacuum both sides of the cottage and pack up any leftover provisions.

Once the morning chores were done, off along the trails with Tom to see the sea conditions.  The wind still did not pick up yet but the swells were impressive.  And when we made it to the cove, we realized there would be no visitors at all today because there is no way a boat could get through the 9 foot waves going directly across the cove entrance. When we got back to the cottage, it was lunch time and a little relaxation. I decided to make banana bread to use up some more of the provisions and the older bananas but the dilemma was I had used almost all the white sugar making jam.  Oh well a little improvising with brown sugar and the bread was in the oven.

I realized Brian was nowhere around and sent out a text trying to figure where he was, turns out he walked to the north point of the island to see the conditions out near Ellingwood Rock and he said it was spectacular.  So off to the north trail for Tom and me.  It really was spectacular, at this point, it was low tide so the crashing waves were intense, it sounded like a dump truck dumping a load of rocks on a hard surface constantly.  The pictures just do not do it justice.

Again, the dinner was a mixture of things from the freezer, spareribs, green beans, peapods and noodles.  Turned out very tasty.

The one thing I have not done all summer is walk down the cove and cobblestone trail at dark to be able to look up at the tower lit up.  Brian agreed to accompany me with flashlights so I can do the last island wish list!  It was gorgeous, I am so glad I did make the trip.

Guests today – 0

Guests total – 2507

USCG – 6

 

Wednesday, August 30, 2017 – our last day off island

This morning will be our last Wednesday scramble of our season on the island.  Ethan is picking us up at 7am and we will have about 3 ½ hours to get everything done to return to the island at 11am before the wind and seas start to pick up for the next few days.  We brought a lot of stuff down to the engine house last night because we were planning on taking most of our things off island this morning so when we leave on Sunday, we should just have to grab some food items, Pickles and a duffle bag.

To add to today’s fun, our friend Tom is driving up from Connecticut this morning to come spend time with us on the island.  The original plan had been to spend one night but I did call him last night to let him know the weather is looking as if Saturday is the first day a boat may be running him back to the mainland.  It was funny listening to his response as a sailor, the winds don’t seem to be that big of a deal.  It was like our response at the beginning of the summer, but now we know to factor in wind direction, wave height and the tides on the Kennebec to figure out how our crossing will turn out.

Brian and I were ready and the best part of today was we did not need to get water from Ethan’s which already saved us about an extra 45 minutes in our morning.  The scramble this morning includes breakfast, laundry, a few groceries and a haircut.  We got a hold of Tom to verify he was on time and back to Fort Popham we went.  As we were travelling back, Ethan gave us an extra 30 minutes to play and I decided it was time for me to finally go sand dollar hunting at Popham Beach.  Tom and Brian played friend catchup while I diligently searched for little sand dollars.  My search found me 5 little dollars, so different from the one 4” ones I find on Cumberland Island and the Bahamas!  One of my sand dollars was about an ½ inch across!

We loaded everything onto the boat and off we went on a very sporty crossing to Seguin, within the first 10 minutes of the boat ride, Tom now understood how all factors need to be considered before taking this boat back and forth.  We also needed to land the dinghy with big swells and high tide with everything we brought back including Tom, it is always and adventure surfing in on top of a swell trying to land safe and dry on the beach. Ethan left us with acknowledging Saturday may be the next day he was going to make it back out to the island and it may be the day we need to make our final departure, Sunday the swells are picking back up again.  Saturday is the only day within the next 5 days with a forecasted sea height less than 2 feet.

We made it to the cottage with the few things we needed to bring back to the island along with Tom, 2 bags of clean linens for the guest quarters and a new box of inventory for the gift shop.  It is always fun showing someone new our little island, it never gets old.  It makes Brian and I realize how lucky we have been to be given the opportunity to live out here as part of our crazy life!

By 4pm, I had decided it was time to start making the jam with all the blackberries I picked.  I reread the recipe and verified I had all ingredients and canning supplies I needed to make this work.  I have never canned before and I am a little nervous about it but I will have an audience of 2 who like to ask millions of questions and offer advice when it may not be needed! As I started to measure out the berries and mash them, we heard voices on the front porch, believe it or not we had visitors!  They arrived in the cove for a short visit and to pick blackberries, we did mention to them about a small craft/hazardous condition warning that was going into effect at 5pm for the next 36 hours and our cove was not a safe place to be in any type of swell.  They agreed to take a quick tour up the tower, pick berries from the North trail and head out.  Brian took them up the tower and Tom and I went back to the kitchen to work on the jam.

The canning process was a lot of fun and we have a lot of jam to show for it.  It was very satisfying hearing the pop of each mason jar top when it was pulled from the boiling water!  Jam for everyone!  And yes, if I knew how easy it was, instead of freezing the extra veggies from the garden I would have canned them for this winter on the boat, live and learn.

Again, it was another quiet evening with a great dinner with an old friend.  I guess we will just have to wait and see what tomorrow will bring.

Guests today – 4

Guests total – 2507

USCG – 6 and that is my final answer, no helicopters for me afterall!

The sun rose with intensity, in fact it was almost blinding.  The winds that were predicted were not the reality this morning, the winds were light and variable but boy did the sea state change from yesterday.  The swells were starting from the west and even at high tide, there was a lot of noise from the waves crashing along Cobblestone Beach.

I started my morning trying to finish the slide show for the fundraiser on September 9^th, how do you take a file with 10,000 pictures taken since May 19^th and chose the ones to make a representative slide show of our stay on the island this summer? As hard as I tried, the slide show consists of a little over 400 pictures and it will last for about 25 minutes, oh well!  I kept tweaking the content and music to a presentation I was happy with and yes, the emotional part of me became very melancholy watching the memories fade across the laptop.

Brian started his morning with a little bit of weed whacking at the top of the south trail and around the cottage, I am a little bit freaked out about making sure the condition of everything is at its best before we leave.  While he was outside, I swept the tower out and made sure the museum and gift shop are all set.  The last thing I will need to do tomorrow is vacuum both sides of the cottage and pack up any leftover provisions.

IMG

Once the morning chores were done, off along the trails with Tom to see the sea conditions.  The wind still did not pick up yet but the swells were impressive.  And when we made it to the cove, we realized there would be no visitors at all today because there is no way a boat could get through the 9 foot waves going directly across the cove entrance. When we got back to the cottage, it was lunch time and a little relaxation. I decided to make banana bread to use up some more of the provisions and the older bananas but the dilemma was I had used almost all the white sugar making jam.  Oh well a little improvising with brown sugar and the bread was in the oven.

IMG

I realized Brian was nowhere around and sent out a text trying to figure where he was, turns out he walked to the north point of the island to see the conditions out near Ellingwood Rock and he said it was spectacular.  So off to the north trail for Tom and me.  It really was spectacular, at this point, it was low tide so the crashing waves were intense, it sounded like a dump truck dumping a load of rocks on a hard surface constantly.  The pictures just do not do it justice.

GALLERY

Again, the dinner was a mixture of things from the freezer, spareribs, green beans, peapods and noodles.  Turned out very tasty.

The one thing I have not done all summer is walk down the cove and cobblestone trail at dark to be able to look up at the tower lit up.  Brian agreed to accompany me with flashlights so I can do the last island wish list!  It was gorgeous, I am so glad I did make the trip.

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

The sunrise is about an hour later than when we first arrived on the island, but I still get to see the slow change of colors every morning, occasionally I am disappointed with my show but this morning was a perfect example of how quickly things can change on the island.  I started seeing the sky painted with beautiful pinks and oranges and my first thought was it is going to be a killer sunrise especially with a professional photographer out and about taking pictures.  But as I continued to write a blog post and drink my coffee, I looked up and 10 minutes later the island was completely fogged in.  I really did not see that happening a few minutes ago.

This morning I went out picking the last of the blackberries I need to make jam before leaving the island, I think that project will wait until the weather hits on Thursday and Friday, but I will mention that a little farther down the blog.  As I was walking back from the North Trail with about 4 cups of berries, I heard Cal out and about already and my shadow was ready to start following me for the day.

Brian and I decided to start with cleaning up Clivus, the composting toilet down near the Cove.  Always a fun job and equally fun having a 5-year-old wanting to help and ask a million questions. But he was fun and quickly figured out how the whole system worked and then spent about 5 minutes explaining it to Brian.  Then Brian took the time to explain the diesel engine and how the tram works to him which Cal obviously understood because as he and I were walking past the campground and the old parts of another diesel engine, Cal explained how most of the parts worked.  In fact, Cal brought a puzzle game with him to the island called (I think) Crankits.  It is a puzzle with cogs or machinery pieces and you need to put the individual pieces together so they work together to move.  Well Cal saw he the old diesel and decided when we got back to the cottage he would put together a puzzle like the diesel engine and he did and it moved perfectly.

As our first visitors came ashore and climbed the tower, I had a beautiful serenade by one of the gentleman, Peter Conway who sang to me “I want to marry a lighthouse keeper” at the top of the tower.  I posted the video on our Friends of Seguin Island Light Station Facebook page if you want to hear him do a great Bing Crosby impersonation!  Thanks so much for this memory!

Now back to the potential weather event happening on Thursday and Friday.  Everything on an island is based around the weather and sea conditions as we have found out all summer long.  NOAA is predicting a wind event starting Wednesday afternoon so Ethan has been keeping us up to date as to whether we would have a day off island this week.  In fact, he suggested we send him with our empty water containers yesterday and he would bring us back water today just in case we were here all week without a break.  He also sent me a message last night when he was in Bath in case we needed any extra provisions, at the time I thought we were all set until I opened the last ½ & ½ this morning.  I need coffee and ½ & ½ daily to survive and everyone else around me happiness is dependent on it as well.  An early morning message asking if he could stop at Percy’s just in case before coming to the island today.  As the morning ferry group started up the hill, I realized my guests were carrying 2 5-gallon water containers and a bottle of ½ & ½ for me, now that is love!

The tours continued, stories were told and a photographer was documenting everything.  We had 2 groups of visitors that had connections to Seguin in their history.  The first group consisted of 3 ladies whose great grandfather was Captain Perez Martin, a ship’s captain from East Boston.  His ship, the Gondola, did a trade route between Nova Scotia and Boston.  On the morning of December 5, 1980, the keepers on Seguin saw the schooner anchored or aground on Seguin Ledge during a winter gale.  Because of the sea conditions, the lifesaving men could not make it to the ship to save the captain who remained with his ship but the crew were lucky enough to escape without injury.  Unfortunately, Captain Martin perished in the waters surrounding the island.

Another family member of a past keeper, Fred Kahrl (1966-67) came for a visit with his wife.  I had met his sister and family earlier this summer.  Allin and his wife, Meridith, were able to climb the tower and take many pictures to add to Fred’s experience on the island.

At 1:30pm, I quickly headed down to the beach to say goodbye to my overnight guests and to get one more hug from Cal before they headed back on the ferry.  I can’t wait to see the pictures Michele took and I hope she got my good side in all the photos!  You can follow the pictures also on her website, michelestapleton.com.

The rest of the afternoon gave us a chance to clean up the cottages, change bed linens and start figuring out our provisions for the next 5 days.  We are hopefully leaving the island on Sunday for the end of our stay here and we need to make sure our food will last until Sunday just in case we are truly on island until then.  We should be good but pasta may be the main staple in most of the meals!  The biggest concern will be clean laundry but I think we will be good!

 

 

Finally, at 6pm, Ethan gave us the go ahead for a short trip ashore tomorrow morning, so Brian and I gathered a lot of our belongings and carried them down to the engine house for the early morning dinghy trip.  This way, we can get most everything we own off island tomorrow and on Sunday we will only need to pack a duffle with clothing and scoop Pickles up.

Guests today – 35

Guests total – 2503

USCG – 6