May 27, 2017 – Opening Day
Our day started out as a gloomy overcast day, my thought was no visitors today. But it was our official opening day and we were ready to great anyone who joined us. The new US flag was raised along with the Sequin Island Flag, and the tower and museum were open and waiting.
I took a hike down to the Cove to check on the dinghy after an astronomical high tide late last night. When I got there, the dinghy had been pushed about 20 feet farther up the beach and the Cove was full of seaweed, logs and other floating debris. If we had arrived into the Cove this morning on our sailboat, we probably would not have tried coming ashore it was such a mess. My habit when down at the Cove is to walk the Cove Trail around to Cobblestone Beach and check on all the life just waiting to hatch, it is becoming my favorite spot on the island. It also gave me a few minutes to treasure hunt for sea glass. I was lucky this morning and found 2 large pieces of blue glass, still waiting to find a piece of red. All nests were still egg bound, no hatchlings yet. I realized while walking the trails, we haven’t cut these trails since last Sunday, and they were in a definite need of sprucing up.
Pulled the old push mover from the Engine House and I have named her the Green Hornet. The old mower sounds like a very tired soul but it pushes through anything. After 2 hours of cutting, the Cove, half of the Lighthouse Trail and the campsite are beautiful once again. Brian’s goal this morning was to weed whack around the perimeter of the yard and to try to clean up around all the boulders and if time permitted to move on to the Cobblestone and South Trail. It started to warm up and dry out a little by noon which gave us a perfect work day to get things done.
I spent an hour raking the clumps of grass around the house, my hands were blistered and my back was exhausted. At this point, I decided to get Old Bessie (the riding mower) out and make another go around with her. My plan had been to be finished by 3p and give myself the afternoon to sit and relax. After all of that raking beforehand, when I finished cutting there seemed to be twice as many clumps of grass as before, a little disheartening.
At this point, the sun was shining, skies bright blue and the island was just waiting to have her picture taken. I got the real camera out, instead of my phone and started documenting how beautiful this gem is. There were sailboats sailing around the island, the lobster boats were out, and the MS Independence cruise ship went by the south point of the island. I will not get tired of taking pictures of this rock out in the bay.
Suddenly, one of the sailboats turned into the cove, I was so excited, we were going to have guests. Ran up the Lighthouse Trail to make sure everything was open and ready for them, I panicked trying to remember all the facts for the tour, lights were on and doors open. I was ready, but after 45 minutes still no one came up the hill. Oh well, maybe next time. As I started to think about dinner, my first official guests arrived. They were Jon & Cricket Seidman from Milton, MA and they are weekenders near Georgetown. They try to visit the island every opening day. Also, along for the visit were their son and 2 family friends. New pins were added to the maps in the museum, Lima, Peru and Tulsa, OK.
They were the perfect group for my first tour, engaging and funny and encouraged me as I relayed what I have learned about Seguin over the past few weeks. As we ended our visit, they promised to come and spend a few more days here over the summer.
As our day was winding down, we decided to watch the sunset from the tower. It was warmer up their than on the sunset bench, temps were dropping into the 40’s. The tower may be the go to place for sunsets from now on, WOW! The privilege of being able to do this at our will is the best gift anyone could give the Flanagan’s. Thank you to the Friends of Seguin Island Light for saving this beauty for us to enjoy.
Winds from the NW at 5-10mph
Overcast in the morning and spectacular sunshine in the afternoon
High Temp was 55 degrees
Guest today – 5
Season total – 11
