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!
