Wednesday, August 23, 2017
This morning was a morning to sleep in, there was no reason to rush around to leave the island and we were certain no one would be by for a visit. On the overnight, there were a few rumbles of thunder and a fair amount of rain. If this rain keeps up, we are going to have to cut the grass again before we leave in 9 days! The winds ended up reaching gusts to 30 mph and sustained at 20mph through most of the early morning. The sea state was angry with white caps and large swells hitting the western shore. There weren’t even any fishing boats out this morning to pull traps.
As I started to raise the flag, I realized the wind had blown the VHF antenna in a downwards position. I wanted Brian to help fix it because on quiet days we do like to listen to the radio transmissions from around New England. When we got the ladder out and up on the wall, the wind was too strong to safely hold the ladder in place and climb it to correct the antenna position. Oh well, maybe it will get fixed on Friday.
Brian decided to head off to the newly discovered stone wall to continue clearing out the area, it looks like it surrounds the campsite, we shall see as he continues to trail blaze. I started to organize our belongings and pack away things we can start taking off island to make our Sunday departure a little easier for everyone. Once everything was sorted and stowed in black garbage bags to get back to the mainland, I decided to walk the North Trail, originally, I wanted to pick blackberries but then I realized I have never completely measured the distance of this trail, so off I went with a bowl and my MapMyHike app on the phone. I came back with a bowl full of berries and a measurement of 1.03 miles for the entire North Trail. No wonder we were always exhausted after cutting this trail! The final count for trail distances is just about 2 miles!
As we were relaxing listening to the news, 5 men arrived at the top of the hill. Turns out they were the campers we were expecting on Monday. They decided the winds had calmed enough to travel out here and were ready to spend the night. We gave them the trip up the lighthouse and off they went. I am glad we did not turn the 2 kayakers away on Monday night because of the original reservation for this group.
After a long conversation with Ethan this evening, our shortened day off tomorrow would start at 5:45am with him picking us up before sunrise for the trip to Fort Popham. We would then meet up with his 11am ferry along with Brian’s 2 sisters who were coming out for a visit. It would be a scramble to get everything done in a short time, but Cyndy agreed to come out to the island as well to start the tours of the tower as we carried our groceries and laundry up the hill.
The end of a stormy day gave us another sunset to remember and off to an early bedtime to make sure we are awake and caffeinated for the departure bright and early.
