Tuesday
August 30, 2016
The weather today was much nicer than it was yesterday, especially in the afternoon when the wind kicked up. Early in the morning, it was cool with a light breeze, some increasing clouds, and calm seas.
We were back to our usual fruit, yogurt, and granola for breakfast. Good for us Patty says. She’s right… After breakfast, we packed a little more stuff to take off-island – we’re each going through clothes, toiletries, etc. to see what we need to keep until the very end and what can go off island the last two trips we have before our final departure. We keep coming up with a few more things to go. Somewhere in there, Patty also swept and dusted the museum too.
Mid-morning, our first visitors, Moses & Laura came up from their own sailboat. They’re from Portland and moored at Damariscove last night as they headed north from Jewell Island. As we were chatting, I realized they were in the small sailboat we saw circle the cove yesterday before heading back out. They also saw the smaller motorboat leaving and the bigger boat moored that I saw when they circled. Unlike the folks in the bigger motorboat, they could tell right away it wasn’t a protected place to wait out the wind and moved on to Damariscove which would be more protected with the direction the wind was blowing. Moses and Laura both work at a restaurant in Portland named Hot Suppa that he owns – he suggested we check out their website and saw it was voted one of the best southern restaurants outside the south. The fare sound delicious and we’ll definitely plan to stop there on our way south in October.
Ethan’s ferry was in late morning and we had a little more than a dozen visitors come ashore. Among them was a couple from New Hampshire celebrating their 28th anniversary. The husband was the only person to stay aboard the Leeward to fish but Ethan brought him back a little early so he was able to also come up and see the museum and tour the tower before everyone left. We also had a couple of women who live locally, in the Five Islands area, who had never visited Seguin. One of them received the trip as a gift from her kids because she told them she always wanted to see the lighthouse close-up. She also knew all about Capt. Jimbo and the crew he’s been bringing out for the past few years to get locals who’ve never visited to come out. That may have inspired her too.
Another visitor on her own was working on an article for a magazine about the signal bell here on Seguin that returned to the island last fall. She was thrilled to see it and we encouraged her to get in touch with Ken, our F.O.S.I.L.S. historian, to get any info he has about the provenance of the bell. Another couple from Utah that Patty mostly chatted with were interested in the fact that we live in western North Carolina because they’re interested in bluegrass music. When she told them we had some guests pickin’ on the porch the other day, they were disappointed to have missed that.
A couple who splits their time between from Rhode Island & Florida brought a painting of Seguin that he painted and was donating to the museum. The piece Raymond Prosser, a Historical Maritime Artist, brought us was well done and also nicely matted and framed for hanging in the museum.
Towards the end of the time the ferry group had on Seguin, father and son kayakers came up the hill. They had paddled over from Reid State Park and planned to paddle to Popham next before heading back to Reid. While they were here, the wind and surf started picking up and I think they decided it was their best bet to just go straight back to Reid which I thought was the right call too. That’s a long enough paddle, probably three miles or maybe more, and white caps were starting to show on the water in that direction.
We took a break for lunch of miscellaneous leftovers. I had a small amount of rice pasta with chicken francese and then a bowl of tortilla soup. Patty made herself a salad with garden greens, beets, potatoes, and all the other usual salad stuff followed by a small bowl of tortilla soup.
Later in the afternoon, two pairs of father and son came in on a smaller sailboat on their way from Chebeague where they live to Damariscove. By the time they arrived, the swells had really picked up in size and they said it had been a rocking sail so far. When Patty asked them what type of boat they had, one of them said it was “a small sloop, you know the kind you’ll see smashed up on the rocks later.” Before they left, one of them bought a membership in F.O.S.I.L.S. which is always much appreciated. We watched them motor out of the cove from the top of the hill and then sail more than halfway to Damariscove before we stopped watching – I’m pretty sure they didn’t smash on any rocks today.
One final couple came up the hill as our last visitors of the day. They were in a large, familiar looking catamaran that we saw sail in when we were down the hill earlier today. When they came up the hill, they also looked familiar and they told us they had stopped here in July on their way sailing north. They said this was the only place they stopped at twice on their trip this summer and I jokingly said “it must have been because of the fantastic caretakers on Seguin” to which they replied “that had a lot to do with it.” I guess I was fishing pretty hard for a compliment but it was still nice to hear them say that.
They went off the hike the North Trail but didn’t want to go up in the tower. While they were hiking, I went down the hill again to clip the Lighthouse Trail and saw that the waves of the rising tide were licking the stern of their dinghy and it wouldn’t be long with our 14’ tide today before it was floating (away maybe). They did have an anchor higher up the beach but I pulled down one of the long ropes we have tied around a big tree trunk (our goin’ to town bus stop log) and looped it around their anchor. At least if the tide comes up too far, the dinghy will be tied off and not float away.
Later, for dinner, we had homemade pizza that Patty made. Actually the crust came from Portland Pie Company dough but Patty baked that first with the olive oil from goat cheese the Mustache Mama’s gave us brushed on. After baking that for about ten minutes or so, she added red sauce, sliced tomatoes, goat cheese, onion, pepperoni, and parmesan cheese. Oh yeah, it was good!
We texted and talked on the phone with Ethan several times about our off-island day tomorrow. Go or no go? The swells have been big today and the forecast for tomorrow doesn’t look good. The final call was no go tomorrow with a tentative go for Thursday, pickup in the cove at 5:30am, returning on the 11am ferry. Yowza, that’ll be an early one.
Visitors – 25
Favorite Moment(s) – compliment given to us by repeat visitors, getting texts from Terri & John at the Springsteen concert
Sunrise – 5:51am
Sunset – 7:09pm
#Seguinisland #seguinislandlight #seguinislandlighthouse #maine #LifeOnTheRock
