Where Are We? - Friends of Seguin Island Light Station

Sunday
August 14, 2016

Neither of us knew where we were when we woke up at the downtown Bath Hampton Inn this morning. After three months of waking up to the early sunrise and view of Seguin and the ocean beyond from our bedroom in the Keeper’s Quarters, it was a shock to wake up in a different place.

We had breakfast at the hotel and then changed into our bathing suits and took a soak in the hotel hot tub and swam in the pool. It was a nice relaxing morning while it lasted but then we packed up to head back to our summertime island home. After a brief stop at Cyndy’s to get water and chat with her for a few minutes, we got to the dock a

little before 11 for our ride on the ferry back to the island. The ferry was almost full with 25 passengers in addition to the two of us and we enjoyed the slow ride over, talking with first-mate (or whatever his job is called) Brook in the stern of the Leeward.

As part of Ethan’s regular instructions to his passengers, he introduced us and asked everyone to give us a half-hour or so to get up the hill and unlock everything before visiting the museum, gift-shop, and tower. He added his assurance that folks could get an extra-long tour if they helped us carry our stuff up the

Sailboat leaving Seguin with visitors that stopped in to see us.

hill. After Brook took the first load of passengers ashore in the Leeward’s dinghy, we loaded up Hinckley with our stuff (it was tied to a mooring in the cove) and rowed ashore. The oarlock pin came out again, a recurring issue, which made our progress slow as we had to go in stern first, but when we hit the beach, several visitors were there to help us unload and carry things off the beach for us. It was nice to have their help because although we didn’t have much in the way of clothing after just a night off-island, we did have a bin and big bag of gift-shop merchandise and two water jugs.

Within twenty minutes or so, we were up top with everything unlocked and ready to host our visitors. Two people stayed aboard the Leeward to fish but the other twenty-three came up including a large extended family here as part of the matriarch’s 80th birthday celebration. The whole family was vacationing together in Maine where she used to live and the highlight of the week was the trip to Seguin which was one of her birthday presents. This group took advantage of everything Seguin has to offer – some bought items from the giftshop, others hiked trails, most toured the tower, and all seemed to have a wonderful time, especially the birthday gal who couldn’t have been friendlier.

After most of the ferry group headed back towards the Cove, I took the big pile of towels and rags we used to stop the water from coming into the museum during the storm Tuesday night and later to cleanup and hung them on the line. There were so many, they filled almost the full length of both clotheslines outside the kitchen.

Another couple came up shortly after Ethan’s group left and we thought we recognized them from earlier in the season. They said they had come before when we were “newly minted keepers” in their words. We were having a pre-lunch appetizer snack on the porch when they arrived and when Patty stood up to greet them, they insisted we finish our snack and went off the hike a trail. They snuck back down the hill at some point because we never saw them leave and didn’t have a chance to chat with them again. It must have been when we were inside having tuna sandwiches made from some tuna steaks we had left from dinner on Tuesday for lunch.

A foursome arrived mid-afternoon including two young men and their father from Amsterdam along with a friend who lives in the area. The two younger guys had a 5pm Frisbee game scheduled in Harpswell or somewhere not too far away but still they didn’t have a lot of time and their visit was brief. We did go up in the tower and then Patty and I talked to them about Holland which we visited several years ago.

Later a group of six stopped on their way home from the lobster boat races (or as Patty calls them, the “lobster races”) northeast of Seguin. They had swum (swam, swimmed?) in from their boat and were all barefoot and in bathing suits. After signing the guestbook, I took them up in the tower for a tour – I think most had been here before but some had not but they wanted the abbreviated spiel which is what we did and then went straight up to the catwalk.

The last group we had was late in the afternoon when the wind was picking up and big cloud banks were building to our north and west. About half of the eight in the group went up in the tower and we lingered up there for a long time before Patty radioed me and said “the wives want their husbands down here NOW!” The weather was looking sketchy and there was concern about the rest of their trip south past Cape Small and on to their destination. One of the women told Patty she thought the guys were being a little too casual about the weather. They all went down the hill and we later saw their sailboat pass Seguin to our east, heading south. The boat was big and beautiful and we were able to get some nice pictures of it with our good camera and telephoto lens.

It was quiet after the last group left – I worked on the blog while Patty cleaned the Guest Quarters for visitors we have coming in tomorrow night. We sat on the porch afterwards and watched boats heading in every direction. It looked like storms had developed to the north and west but over Seguin it was clear and pleasant still. Patty spied one large sailboat passing and with binoculars she could see uniformed staff aboard waiting on a few passengers. Luxurious.

After a beautiful sunset, Patty made pork chops (from the freezer, left from her sister Chris’ visit) for dinner along with sautéed beets and beet greens from the garden. After the sun had set and we’d finished dinner, the winds died down and the temperature seemed to go up noticeably. I had been wearing a hoodie since late afternoon and suddenly it was warm and humid. I didn’t notice a wind shift but it must have changed to a land breeze bringing heat and humidity from the mainland.