Month: August 2022

Sunday, July 31st – Wow, the last day of July! Down to check out the Cove…. Holy cow the barn swallows are everywhere! They fly around like top gun pilots!  Jim and Jill were the first up the trail.  We spent some time chatting with them and then we exchanged our info with them.  Just in case we should cross paths again – stranger things have happened!

Next up was Joshua.  He used to run a charter service to Seguin.  His wife Jacquelyn and little Ruth, their daughter, accompanied him!  She was so cute and very excited to be on the island! As we chatted with them, he shared they have a garden and always have too much produce. They would love to share some of their harvest with us!  We exchanged contact information and suggested I text him on the day we are going ashore. He’ll let us know what is currently in abundance!  How great would that be?  Fresh organic produce! I’ll definitely share that part of our shore day!  Unfortunately, I gave them the tour and forgot to take a picture, but will take one when we get our produce.

Next up, Ethan, yes our lobsterman that brings us in, his wife Lindsay, Larson, Griffin and a young friend.  I gave them a kid-level tour and they all seemed to enjoy it.

Then we had a mom Sharon and her two daughters, Arabeth and Arrilyn (I hope I spelled their names correctly).  They loved their tour and two of them bought our ‘Vintage’ sweatshirts (the red ones). The one in the middle chose a hoodie FOSILS sweatshirt.  Here they are with their purchases – all were very excited.

Our next group was a family from Methuen, MA.  First time and loved the tour.  Everyone participated by asking questions and inquiring about the lens.

Another nice couple, Scott and Leah, came up the hill.  We showed them the museum and they spent some time in there while I finished up my tour.  Steve chatted with them and gave them a tour.  They are another couple with whom we connected, so we exchanged contact information.  They have a very cool Down-easter type of boat.

Had a little break in the action, so Steve and I weeded the garden a little bit.  The zucchini and yellow squash are coming in along with the herb’s rosemary, oregano and basil!  We have lots of tomatoes now, but none are ripe yet! Not sure we’ll one will get ripe enough to eat before we leave!

Next to arrive was Diane & Dave (my sister and brother-in-law) and their dog Angus.  They sailed over from Southport and plan on spending the night in the Cove.  We are very excited to see them and have them visit us here on Seguin.  Even though they have been in Southport for many years, this was their first time on Seguin!  Like many others they have sailed past it several times.

They are also on a new boat and were very excited to share it with us.  We brought them ashore along with their dog Angus and had dinner together.   Dinner consisted of some appetizers, steak tips and salmon and roasted vegetables – delicious, plus some pecan pie and brownies for dessert.  We walked them back down to the Cove.  This was the first time we walked the main trail at night!  Yikes – we had flashlights but boy it was still very dark!  There were a few stars out, but no moon.  Diane has been anxious to come out here to see the night sky as it is a location with no real light pollution.  Since the lighthouse is currently not working (due to the solar panels taking a severe hit over the winter) Seguin offers an amazing spot for star gazing!  Steve rowed them out but unfortunately no bioluminescence tonight.

Don’t forget Rabbit, Rabbit – it’s the last day of the month!

Monday, August 1st – We walked down to the Cove to row out and pick up Diane & Dave as they are spending most of the day with us.  Weather a little cloudy, some spots of sun.  Diane did say that in the middle of the night she woke up and could see out the hatch. The clouds had disappeared and the sky was loaded with stars!  It is an amazing sight.

In my quest to look down and observe, I found a periwinkle making his way across the beach in the Cove.  Not sure how long it has taken him to get this far, but it’s kind of cool to see his trail!  We had breakfast on the porch with smoked salmon, pesto, avocado, cream cheese + my homemade bread.  Three kids from Popham came up.  They chatted a bit and shared they have never been here.  Their dad’s boat was off catching some bait fish so they came ashore to look around.  Didn’t really have time for a tour.

Today the roofing crew will arrive to begin the process of providing the main house with a new roof.   First all the workers, their tools, food, camping gear, etc. will be brought ashore to stage the jobsite.  It’s a crew of 6 people.   Big picture – spend this week removing the old roof, spend next week installing the new one! 

The next group up was Winn, Lori, Mark and Michelle.  Diane and Dave know Winn as he is the owner of the Boothbay Harbor Brewery and Campground on Rte 27.  I gave all of them a tour including Diane and Dave.  Around 11:30 the sky cleared up and we could kind of see Monhegan, an island east of us, which is 22 miles away.

Another group 4 plus Grandma walked up.  Very excited to be here and some have been here before.  Steve chatted with them and they were going to walk around a bit and check out a few trails. Everyone is always excited to be here, it doesn’t matter whether they were here last week, last year, twenty years ago or this is their first time.  Seguin has a reputation of being an island of all things beautiful and puts them in one spot!

Around 2:00, it was time for Diane and Dave to head back to the boat and sail back to Southport.  Steve brought them out in the dinghy and we watched as they pulled away from the mooring to begin their journey back home.

Next to come up the trail were Michael and Michelle from S/V Ibis.  We notice they were on the mooring next to Diane & Dave.  Instantly, we could tell there were a very friendly couple.  We talked with them quite a long time, gave them a tour and chatted about a couple of books.  They were interested in the book I am reading, “A Short Bright Flash – Augustin Fresnel and the Birth of the Modern Lighthouse” by Theresa Levitt.  Since my tour speaks in some detail about Augustin Fresnel, Michael shared the author and name of two other books I might enjoy reading – “Longitude – the True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solve the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time,” by Dava Sobel and a book call “Cod – A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World“ by Mark Kurlansky.  Both sounded very interesting.  They were staying the night, so we knew we’d talk to them again. They also mentioned they had a water maker on their boat and if we needed some more drinking water they are happy to “make” some!

We had a group of 9 show up, then another group of two guys and then the Grandma of the group of 4 came back with her family, but they had run out of time for a tour. Maybe next time!

Well last up was a couple Jorge & Fran from S/V Skalliwag. Within a couple of minutes of starting the conversation, it turns out he used to work for Dominion at North Anna (a power station in Virginia)!  How random is that!  We knew several people in common and in fact he made a post to his Facebook page sharing who the lightkeepers were on Seguin Island he was visiting in Maine.  It never ceases to amaze me where and when your circle overlaps another and there is something in common.  Jorge recently retired and they are sailing full time. Thought I took a pic of their setup, but it’s not in my photos. Their vessel was clearly set up for long distance sailing.

It was getting to be late in the afternoon, so we headed down to the Cove to see if there are any new boats which may translate to the need for a tour.  No new boats, so we took our dinghy and rowed out to Ibis.  We chatted with Michael and Michelle for some time.  We learned they spend some portion of the winter in West Palm, FL, not far from Ft Pierce, Florida, which is where we are going this winter. They offered to take us sailing if our timing should work out.  How fun would that be!  Of course, we exchanged information and hope to meet up with them. We did bring out a jug to fill with water but totally forgot that sinks are small on a boat and we couldn’t get the jug under the faucet!  We were able to fill it using their shower that was on the back of the boat. Drinking water is a precious resource on Seguin!

Back up to the house to prep dinner.  Tonight, we are having chicken meatballs, homemade red sauce loaded with veggies over chickpea pasta.  Always a good hearty meal!

Tuesday, August 2nd – Pretty foggy this morning which translates to a great roofing day – no sun!  I made some Oatmeal Zucchini bread for the group and an extra pot of coffee.  Always feed the crew!  This is the front of the house showing the pile of used shingles so far. They pull them off and just throw onto the tarps. We walk around and sometimes help out by putting those that land on the lawn back on the tarp.

I gathered some herbs to bring out to Ibis as we noticed they hadn’t left yet and I wanted to reciprocate their water gift!  I then headed down to the Whistle House to do a few things on the internet like bus tix for Colin, where are we staying the few days after we leave here and a trip in late September to South Dakota.  It’s always something with this internet stuff, today you can’t seem to step away from life, even for a few days!

Weather cleared up around noon so that was a good thing.  Tried my sourdough starter again but it didn’t rise enough to make bread today. However but I’m always up for making crackers.  Most times I like the crackers better than the bread!  Next guest was Penny and Kent Goetjen from Charleston, SC.  Penny is an author that writes mystery novels.  Steve gave them a tour.  She has written several novels and Steve has ordered one of them to read! The picture is of Penny and Kent. She was very interested in the ghost stories and other goings on at the lighthouse.

What is really interesting is the next couple Russell and Nicolette were also from Charleston, SC.  No, they didn’t know each other, but that stills seems a little coincidental! Russell and Nicolette were so enamored with Seguin and the tour, they asked what kind of wine we like, red or white. Of course, Steve said red!  Humm, what could that mean?  Actually, later in the afternoon Russell came back ashore, ran up the trail and dropped off a bottle of wine with a little note – “Thanks for the wonderful tour, sorry we were out of red!”  How nice of him to row back in and drop it off!  The pic is of them sailing away in the late afternoon as they had to be at their next stop later that evening.

I have a unique question for all the crafters…. Below is a series of pictures of an item we have in the gift shop.  Someone made it, but none of us can figure out what it is for?  Any thoughts?  Comment on this blog post with your thoughts!!!

We went down to the Cove and hung out till about sunset.  Looks like a dinghy is headed in.  We headed up ourselves and met Chuck and Randy.  We all chatted a bit, but all agreed a tour in the morning would be best!

Tonight, dinner was Tofu Curry, which is an amazing dish we make loaded with vegetables in a wonderful curry sauce that includes peanut butter (no pic ☹). However, we had a beautiful picture of the grounds as the sun was approaching sunset.

Wednesday, August 3rd – I awoke around 5 but was too lazy to take a picture.  There were a lot of clouds which were lit up, but you couldn’t actually see the sun.  Ok back to bed for a little bit.  The picture to the left is looking at Cobblestone Beach from the South Trail entrance vista! WOW what a beautiful day we have.  Stopped by the Cove and looks like we have three boats.  One is Randy and Chuck’s boat, one is AJ, the roofing guys boat but not sure who is on the third boat. 

Later on, we took another walk down to the Cove and actually walked a little bit on the beach.  Steve was heading out to our lobster car to get some more crabs.  Me, I’m still in search of the smallest claw.  I have had a couple of other pictures, but this one looks the smallest.  Guess I need to put them all in a row.  I’m using my finger for scale so later on I can tell which is the tiniest! Also checked the Clivus and on the way back up took a jug of water and a scrub brush to clean several signs that had bird droppings on them!

Around 10, we saw a group come up and it turns out it was MITA (Maine Island Trail Association).  A group from their organization volunteers once a season to come by and help us attack some of the bigger clearing / weed whacking challenges.  A couple of them headed up under the tram, like they walked up the entire tram around the trestles and cleared the growth away from the wood.  HOLY COW!  They did an awesome job.  Since most other areas are very dry and the grass / weeds have not grown much, we gave them a couple other areas to clean up, like the edging.  So they edged the sidewalk, around the main house, and weed wacked the area by the cradles that held the diesel tanks which store diesel fuel for the fog Diaphones.  Another group of MITA workers went down to the area where the Coast Guard cleaned up the scrap metal pile near the Whistle House and cleared all the grass that had grown up and around the pile.  This allowed them to clear around what was once a foundation for another building here on Seguin.  The group was amazing!  They still had more time so then they helped fill helicopter bags of old shingles and condense some of the lesser filled bags.  They were all like energizer bunnies!  Thanks to Chris Wall and his team of workers!  Here are a bunch of pictures I took of them working and the areas they cleared!

Just before lunchtime, Randy and Chuck came up for a tour.  Steve offered to gave them a tour.  Nice guys and they plan on coming back here in a couple of weeks I think with their wives.

Next group was John and Cindy (local folks) that brought two friends, Terry and Des who are from England.  A delightful group.  I gave them a tour which was well received. Then we had Brenda and Brian from North Reading, MA, then Linda and Jim from Phippsburg and another group of 4.  The picture above on the right is the group of 4 in the Tower with Steve.

After all those tours, I sat on the front porch and cleaned crabs.  Not sure yet what I’m going to do with the crab, maybe crab bisque this time.  Did I already make that?  Well for dinner we had swordfish and a zucchini stir fry – scrumptious!

Last is of course, sunset.  This was taken at 8:00 pm.  Yes, I know, it’s another one of Mount Washington!

Thursday, Aug 4th – Another beautiful day on Seguin.  Here’s my Cove picture, three boats and looks like we are on our way to low tide.  Moon is only 43% so the tides are not very dramatic. Today is shore day and we had a beautiful ride in, a few waves, a little fog and scenery that showed Maines true beauty. I tried to get a picture of Seguin as we were about half way back, but I couldn’t actually see what I was taking because of the sun/fog.  Seguin is just on the left edge of the picture in the middle below.

We had another group of volunteers come in today from IDEXX (IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. is an American multinational corporation engaged in the development, manufacture, and distribution of products and services for the companion animal veterinary, livestock and poultry, water testing, and dairy markets. They are located in Westbrook, ME).  Their task was also to help load old shingles into the helicopter bags. Looks like the helicopter won’t be coming tomorrow, maybe Monday, stay tuned as that will be an exciting blog entry for sure!

Usual stuff for us in town, so I’m not going to bore you with a repeat of what we do every week!  Except one new thing, we had lunch at The Fountain.  It’s the place where Leeli and I had ice cream last week.  We decided to try their lunch!  We both had panini’s and guess who we ran into – Cyndy!  She was in ordering her lunch!  How fun to run into someone we know in town!

After lunch we began our trip back towards the dock but we had one more stop to make.  Last night we received a text from Garden Joshua and Jacquelyn to tell us to stop by on our way back to Popham.  Jacquelyn will harvest from their garden some yummy vegetables.  WOW, what a treat we had!  They live on Cranberry Point. Beautiful view from their front yard, here are some pictures of Jacquelyn, our bag of goodies and Steve and Jacquelyn!  Little Ruth was taking a nap so maybe we’ll see her next time!

The ride back was sunny and warm.  Here’s the men on the boat checking out what appears to be a whale on the west side of Wood Island.  Unfortunately, it was a dead humpback.  I’m not including the picture as every time I see it, I’m very sad.  It takes so much for nature to create one of the beautiful creatures…. (Update: it’s my understanding they didn’t need to bring it in as mother nature took care of it with the tides).

As we approached the Cove, there was a beautiful blue schooner coming in.  All hands-on deck tiding up the ship.  Also, there was a group heading in as well as our group assembling on the beach to come out to swap places.

Here is Jeff and his crew from the schooner.  I don’t know the name of the program but it is designed to help build leadership and teamwork skills.  As they came up, we noticed another schooner lowering her sails and heading toward the Cove.  They are not sailing together but are from the same program.  It was already 5:00 but how could I resist them, so I gave them a tour.  Great group of very polite kids that enjoyed the tour and had lots of questions.

Ok, not too bad, actually ate dinner around 7:30!  Tonight, was salmon with peach chutney and fresh basil, a cucumber/tomato/Kalamata olives/feta fresh salad, along with blistered shishito peppers! After dinner, got a text from Dave wondering if we could see the lightning show to our west.  We ran outside to see it see – it was amazing.  Tried to catch a pic or two with an actual lightning flash – but no luck.  Even the video was mediocre but it was spectacular in real time.

Friday, Aug 5th – Day 5 of the roof project.  Good day to roof as it is cloudy and warm. Today, they are putting on the GRACE weather shield /underlayment. The flag was not moving at all, that never happens. Brooke from the second schooner came up early for a tour.  She said the rest of group was not embracing the opportunity.  So, I gave her a tour, she knew the rest of the group would regret not having participated.

I went up into the tower to take a few photos of some items I keep meaning to capture on film.  While up there, I checked the rubber door seal on the door that leads to the outside as Steve noticed it was loose in a few spots.  Steve and I grabbed some nails to reattach where we could.  Some places the wood has rotted out. Let’s see what I have for pictures.  First, I took some of the stairs.  Here are two pictures, the left one is from the deck at 28 steps looking down and the second picture was from the 38-step deck looking all the way down.  These stairs were designed and built by Ira Winn of Portland.  He was well known for his iron work.  They were built there and assembled here.  Unfortunately, about 10 years after the install, the facility in Portland had a fire and all his designs were lost in the blaze.  So, it’s likely these stairs are “limited edition.”

Next two pictures are some whipping that was done by Hank Lipain.  He was in the Coast Guard in the 1970’s.  He served on Seguin 1976-1977. He loved to do this type of work and was very good at it.  Some of his co-workers tried to convince him it was a waste of time.  They also told him that when they were re-assigned, the next “coasties” would likely rip it so he would have wasted all that time.  He continued to do his work as it was a great way to pass the time.  Last summer, Hank came to visit Seguin for the first time since he left here in the 70’s.  He was in his early 70’s.  He came up the last 10 stairs and saw that all his hard work was still there and in great shape.  He was very touched that it was still there! How great is that!  The design on the top railing in the left pictures is called “coxcomb.” He indicated that he would like to return next summer with his grandkids to show them it’s still here.  I’ve got my fingers crossed.

Here is a pic of the schooner Brooke was on heading back to Portland.

Next couple of tours were for Deb and Tom from PA on S/V New Life. They live in the country in PA, very down to earth and genuine people.  You can just tell when you meet some people that they are sincere, caring individuals.  I gave Deb a tour and boy did we connect.  My tour with her was a little bit longer than normal, but we had so much to share with each other and she shared some tender moments in her life.  I was there to give her a big hug.  Seemed like she needed it.  (I have a pic Steve took the them – it’s in Saturday’s write up).  Then Greg & Jennifer from Cundy’s Harbor on Harpswell. We loved their colorful shirts. That’s them->

Then a group of 6 men came up the trail.  I gave them a tour.  All were very interested in learning about Seguin.  You can just tell by their body language, questions and if they’re paying attention, they were just a fun group.  They were on a Grand Banks (again my favorite trawler).  Dave the captain is missing from the pic as he needed to run back to the boat that’s why one of the guys is holding up 6 fingers so I would remember it was a group of 6!

Things slowed a little bit and there was absolutely no wind.  Lots of fly’s today, they are little, biting and annoying. We learned from a guest that this is typical when we have a North or Northeast wind as it brings them out from the mainland.  They really like legs that have had salt water on them!  Then a really large yacht went by, so I had to grab a photo of it. You can tell it was big by the size of their “dinghy.”

As we were wrapping up, a previous guest came up, his name is Kim.  He is the person we called the “whale whisperer.” He had some time to kill before he was meeting up with someone so he thought it would be more fun to stay here than in a marina.  We are glad he returned.

I had cleaned some crab legs the other day and had enough meat and decided to make crab quiche this time. It’s a heart stopper for sure!  Made with local eggs brought to us by a visit from our lobsterman Ethan and his family and lots of Swiss cheese. I made one up and will freeze it for some breakfast later on.  Probably when our friend Betty comes to visit next week.  It’s good to have things made and ready!

Then I prepped for dinner by taking some more of our garden fresh jackpot from Jacquelyn!  This dish had spinach, garlic, ginger, onions, peppers, yellow squash and we sliced up the stems from the spinach. 

As we were getting ready to eat a crazy cool thundercloud formed over Phippsburg / Cape Small area.  I took a picture of it and then thought it would look really cool through the door of the Tower which leads out to the catwalk!  So here is that picture.  I tried a panorama perspective, but I have yet to master this function on my phone!!  I may put it in the blog anyway to see how it looks. (that’s it down below – not bad!)

The next photo was as I looked towards the North (towards Popham, up the Kennebec), you could see the fog rolling out and surround the small islands between us and shore.

Since I was in the tower, I figured it would be a good time to take a couple of photos of the roof progress, the gift shop side (to the left), then our kitchen side.  Can’t wait to see what the new shingles look like.

I walked around the front of the house to capture the roof from that perspective as well. I didn’t want the front roof to feel left out! And of course, the dinner photo.  That’s BBQ chicken for our protein.

Saturday, Aug 6th – Well today is an absolutely gorgeous day!  Wind slowly out of the East. Today’s breakfast is the crab quiche!  It was really good!  I’m sure my cholesterol was going up as I was eating it. Roofing crew is not working today.  We continue to walk around though and pick up pieces of shingles and nails.  Just looking out for our visitors and making sure they all wear some type of shoes, especially the little ones.

First group up today was Noah, Miro and Renee.  Noah brings out some friends every so often and each time he participates in the tour and is very complimentary! 

Deb and Tom from S/V New Life came back up this morning. She gave me a bag of apples to thank me for yesterday.  She asked if we had any knowledge on the engraving on the rock part way up the main trail. We asked, “what engraving, what rock?” We had never noticed the rock. It’s tucked back a little and usually in the shadows. It says “J. Gould 1859.” We are not sure who he/she is but have a text in to our historian, Chris to see what he has to say. We found a J. Gould that was master of a boat “Nancy” where he and the first keeper John Polereczky engaged in cod fishery in 1798.  However, the years don’t line up.  I had to give some other folks a tour and felt bad I didn’t actually get to say goodbye to Deb. She’s an amazing woman.

Our next group Glen, Linda, Peter and Karen shared their experiences with Hopetown Bermuda Lighthouse which is also 1^st Order Fresnel lens that still burns kerosene.  They shared their observations of the start-up process that is used at the lighthouse today.  It’s quite involved and takes a fair amount of time.  Anyway, Glen and Karen are siblings and also related to Carney, who runs our Seguin Instagram page! Lots of people today.  Another group of 6 plus 3 dogs out of Boothbay.  Next was Niko and Mary.  Sifting through all my pics but don’t see one of group of 6 or Niko and Mary!

Next was a Bob and Lori and their daughter Aidee.  Very warm and friendly.  Loved the tour and we chatted with them for some time.  Then Aidee and Steve started talking about offshore wind as Aidee had a job interview in the next day or so with Central Maine Power in the offshore wind area.  That was pretty fun!

Next was a group of three + 1 little person.  Here they are in the Tower with Steve for a tour.  Do you notice that in all the pics, everyone is smiling?  They all love Seguin and learning about her history! Didn’t get a pic of the next group, but it was 15 from Southport, Towns End Rd.  I even know where that is! They were all having a blast, have been coming for years and this year they now have 3 generations present!  It’s great to see folks that are committed to their families and the continuation of their traditions.  This was the first year all three generations made it to Seguin! We had a grandfather that has been coming here for 30 years with his son Driscoll and two grandchildren Hadley and Declan.  Fun group, but forgot the pic!

Then there was Lindsay and Jason + their pug dog.  I took them on a tour while the dog waited patiently at the bottom.  Younger couple but very engaged in the tour. 

I forget who was in the power boat, but here they are leaving.  Steve then remembered there was a race out of Portland that was going on all weekend up to Seguin, and around the can on the south side of Seguin.  I ran out to the concrete deck south of the Fog Signal building (aka Whistle House) and there they are.  All had made the turn around the can except one.  I think one of them initiated the fog signal, so I kept running out in between blasts to try and get a pic 😊

Here is sunset for Saturday night, the close of this week’s blog.  Be well, be present and show kindness each day!

Love sunsets? Make sure you come back to read the next blog. The sunset photos we took on Aug 13th, next Saturday are UNBELIEVABLE!!!

Sunday, July 24th – Good morning! Can’t believe we are starting the last week of July.  I have said to Steve a few times, I don’t want to hear – “Well we only have “x” number of weeks left or “x” number of trips ashore.”  I’m not ready – so I put my fingers in my ears and say “watermelon, watermelon, watermelon.”  Then he catches on.  It’s just too soon to start any kind of countdown. I know it’s coming, faster than I want.

Sometimes I do so well in taking pictures of people, things or views and other times – well I just forget!  Today is one of those days. I have two pictures today.  One is of a leaf hanging down from what must be a spider web.  It was on the main trail.  It was pretty weird to walk down the trail and see a leaf at eye level, just hanging there!

The next picture is of a lens cap we found yesterday under the picnic table.  It could have been there for weeks!  We haven’t really been mowing as much because so much of the grass is dying.  So, here’s that picture.  I measured it and it’s about 2 inches in diameter.  Did you leave it on a visit here?

Let’s see what my notes have to say.  Might be a good day for a history lesson too!  Our overnight guests, Molly and her two grandchildren are leaving today.  She said they all had a wonderful time and everyone left a note in our guest book, even the kids.  She was also kind enough to sing praises to Cyndy about us.  Again, that’s just how we roll!  Today’s weather was pretty windy and it lasted most of the day.   Our engagement couple Ben & Lauren popped back up again to say thank you for all the pics we took, then it was time for them to head on their way. Don, Pam and Mike came up again, this time for a tour.  They enjoyed a private tour even though we had 17 guests today!  A couple of them had been here before.

So, it appears next up on the list is info on the current lighthouse which I commonly refer to as the Tower.   The pictures below are from the museum and show some structural drawings of the cross section view of the Tower as well as the house structure. Crazy to think they went out to bid for projects like this back in the 1850’s.

Here are some facts:

• In 1853 they decided to make Seguin a First Order Station.  That means it would use a 1^st order Fresnel lens, which is approximately 6 feet in diameter and a little over 9 feet tall.
• In 1855 they allocated $35,000 to build both the tower and the house.  The centerline of the lens is 53 ft about the ground making the total height 238 ft give or take a foot or two, this makes it Maines highest lighthouse. 
• The Tower and the house were completed in 1857 and both still stand today, 165 years later, looking much as it did back then.  There are a few minor changes to the house.
• When the 1^st order Fresnel lens was installed, it used a single lamp consisting of reservoir holding 10 gallons of kerosene oil. 
• The lens consists of somewhere between 242 and 284 pieces of glass and weighs in the vicinity of 12,000 lbs.
• It’s a very impressive passive piece of technology.
• The lens was fabricated in the Henry- Lepaute (Henri-lapaut) facility in Paris and was then shipped to the U.S.  Here’s today’s quiz question – any thoughts on what packing material was used to protect the lenses during shipping????  Here are two clues:  It is a food item and is somewhat liquid…  This is where I start to hum the Jeopardy jingle!!!! (Answer will be later on in the blog!)

We had one late tour today.  Peter and his sister-in-law Amy sailed over from Magala Island.  An off the grid island near Sebasco, which is still part of the Phippsburg peninsula, around Small Point from us and up the New Meadows River.   It was a pretty fun tour with them.  I took the “special-today-at-no-extra-charge” photo where I walk around the inside catwalk next to the lens and take a picture of people standing on the stairs and it background behind your head is reversed since I’m taking the picture through a prism (I had one of Steve very early on in the blog).  However, there are a couple of lines of reflection as the sun was pretty low in the sky. Didn’t really see them when I took the pic, but still pretty cool.

Monday, July 25th – We have two boats in the Cove this morning.  Dean is still here plus another boat.  Pretty windy overnight and some light rain this morning.  Still very cloudy and temps a little cooler than it has been.  I made some scones from scratch this morning (you know the kind where you grate the butter, freeze it, then mix it with flour using your hands, press the blueberries in, etc.) The plan is to use a bunch of blueberries we picked recently!!!  The recipe had a great hint which suggested you could freeze the scones uncooked then add a couple of minutes to the cooking time.  So, I put half the batch in the freezer for a later date in August when we have friends visiting!

Here’s a picture looking towards the Northeast and you can see the unsettled weather.  Also in the pictures is a fog bell and additional fog signaling technology called diaphones.   And a closer picture of the fog bell.  Let’s learn a little about fog signal technology here on Seguin. Information on Seguin’s Island original fog signals is a little sketchy. 

• Although the date is not known, the first fog signal used on Seguin was a bell, rung by hand! Whenever a ship passing in the fog would signal, the keeper would signal back.  Many sailors complained that they could not hear the bell when a sea was running, crashing against the island and its ledges. 
• The fog bell grew in size from the time the first bell was installed until 1872 when the existing bell was replaced with a fog whistle.  Bells ranged in size from hand bells to those up to 4,000 lbs. in weight!  The story goes that if you wanted to make an extra $100 a year, you could volunteer to “bang” the bell!  Yikes, I’d volunteer for just about anything but not that!
• September 5, 1872, the American Sentinel reported “The Lighthouse Board gives notice that the steam fog whistle has been established on Seguin Island.  During thick or foggy weather, the signal will be sounded at intervals of 52 seconds, the length of each blast being 8 seconds. The machinery is placed in a small wooden building about eight yards to the SW of the lighthouse and 149 feet above sea level.”
• In 1907 the operation of the fog signal required 60 pounds of steam pressure and used 90 gallons of water and 150 pounds of hard coal per hour!
• In the latter part of the 1920’s, the steam fog whistle was replaced by a compressed air diaphone horn.  The diaphone fog signal is the old familiar “Beeee Oooooh” sound.  (That is the sound I’m most familiar with when as a child I heard the fog horn at Nubble Light – aka Cape Neddick, in York, Maine).

Here is a neat picture of the Oil house, the Tower, the main house, the assistant keepers home and the fog whistle house in the foreground. No sure what the small building with the picket fence near it. Ok, time to move on!

Given the weather we didn’t think we’d have many visitors today. We thought it would be fun to make a video of Steve playing the Lightkeepers Waltz. I think he has done a fantastic job with this piece. So we went into the Tower and played around with make a video. We did it about 5 times and agreed on one! It’s been posted to YouTube so if you’d like to view / hear it – this is the link! He’s got 70 views already! ( Steve’s Lightkeepers Waltz July 25, 2022)

Next was to do some clean-up whipper snipping of the Cobblestone, Cove and Main trails, then under the tram, around the Clivus.  It certainly doesn’t take as long as you are basically cleaning up the edges and the center is well packed from all our visitors.  Steve took this picture of the waves at Cobblestone.  I find it very invigorating to be on the rocks with the waves and the wind.  I have always loved being near the sea when she is exhibiting her massive strength…..

Spent part of the afternoon working on the blog, then more blog and more blog.  I know what you’re saying – Carol you spend so much time on the blog, I hope you’re not missing the experience of the island.  Well, as I type this up on Aug 5^th, I’m starting to feel a little sentimental and want to make sure I fill every part of my being with Seguin.  I think that is because as the clock continues to tick with the same regularity as it always has, I’m making an effort to ensure I take it all in.  Oops, there she goes again digressing.

We could see a storm approaching so we went up in the tower to watch but it seemed to skirt us.  We got a very brief shower.  I’ve been wanting to get to the South Trail when it’s low tide.  Steve took his snips and I joined him to walk the trail.  However, from just the little shower we had, the rocks were very slippery.  He slipped a couple of times, which set off the “danger Will Robinson” alarm! We decided it was best to turn around.  We are cautious when walking here as neither one of us wants to hurt ourselves.

As we came back to the house, the clouds were pretty crazy all around us.  Here’s a few pictures of them about an hour and half apart.

We walked down to the Cove and decided to row out and get some more crabs.  Ethan has been very generous with them so we have a lot! We pulled out a bunch and Steve cooked them up.  While he was doing that, I headed to the Whistle House to actually make a post to the website (the Whistle House is where I connect to the internet).  You’ve heard that story before – lol!   Dinner tonight was swordfish, tots and asparagus.  Around 8:00 or so, the sky’s started to clear a little and the clouds parted for another beautiful sunset.

Back down to the Whistle House to work more on the blog and make a few phone calls.

Tuesday, July 26th – I was up early this morning, about 6:30.  Cove is empty and it’s a beautiful morning!  I discovered an issue with my photos last night while working on the blog!  Somehow, I had switched a setting to wide-screen on my photos!  I was wondering why the dimension sizes started to be different and spent most of my time down at the whistle house trying to figure it out and how to fix it!

Steve made me some blueberry pancakes this morning since I was so busy with fixing the pictures! And it is a picture-perfect day!  Check out the sky and the barn swallows were storming the Tower!

Our first visitors today were Don & Sandy from Boothbay Harbor and their son Craig and wife Colleen.  They are here for a brief walk around to plan a treasure hunt for 3 of their grandchildren next week.  They hide things on the island and have a little treasure map!  How fun is that! Unfortunately, Don broke an oar on his way in, so we let him borrow one for the row back out to the boat.

Next group here was a gentleman that was here with his son a few weeks ago (dang it, can’t find his name – if you see this, please make a comment on the blog as to your name – I’m so embarrassed) and he brought a friend and his son today.  Gave them a tour and they had a great time.

Next group was fun, Arthur Osgood and family here from Sebasco.  He was active Coast Guard 1968-1972 and was involved with working on lighthouses up and down the Maine coast! He was loving the tour!  He actually educated me on a few things and I learned about the “mogul bi-pole.”  This is a device that held different light bulbs (incandescent and halogen, both 1000 watts).  It was wired such that if a filament went out or something went wrong with the bulb, it would detect the change in voltage, set off a relay that would rotate out the bad bulb and rotate in a good bulb into place to keep the light on!  How cool is that! I love learning new things about the Lighthouse and its operation from my visitors!  Here’s a couple of pictures of Arthur in the Coast Guard room of the museum and him sporting is swag!

Arthur then asked if he could see the area where he worked which was down in the whistle house as he was the person that worked on some of the high voltage connections for the shore power line. By then, two other gents (Paul and Dave) had come up the trail, overheard some of the discussion and decided they would love to see that area in the Whistle House as well.  So Steve headed off with them. Unfortunately, we forgot to get a few snaps of that part of the visit.

We had a long chat with Paul and Dave as it was later in the day and we figured no one else was coming up.  We talked about so many things.  Paul has built several small boats and paddled in several locations around New England.  He has one more trek to complete and he will have paddled around New England!  There is a name for the loop, but I didn’t catch it. I was in absolute awe listening to his story.  He also shared about his children and was especially proud of his daughter.  She works at Mass General in Neuro PT.  So of course, we chatted about Colin, his journey so far and the range of opportunities in PT these days beside our traditional thinking which is usually Orthopedic.  Dave was trying to orchestrate transportation from Portland to Boston for the next day.  Not an easy task as cell service on the island is not the best!

We started to get a few things together for our shore day tomorrow, prep dinner which was pork tenderloin and I headed off to the Whistle House to finish fixing my picture issue!  Which I did thankfully!  Yikes that was a curve ball for sure!

Here’s one of my favorite pictures as I was walking back up to the house a little after 9:00 pm.  Isn’t it beautiful?

Wednesday, July 27th – Good Morning, another beautiful day in Georgetown Maine.   Cove was empty this morning. We rowed out to Ethan as we were getting picked up first and tied off the dinghy to the mooring. Great ride in.  Sam, Ethan’s helper for the summer is a high school senior and enjoying his breakfast of champions, a large container of mac and cheese!

We got to Popham and unloaded. We decided we would eat light for breakfast and have lunch out. Steve brought a banana and two of our homemade blueberry scones for breakfast.  I brought my own coffee cup today so I’m looking forward to my chai tea at Café Creme. We noshed on the banana on our route to the transfer station.

When we got to the transfer station, I noticed that the “free” section was just about empty.  I’m not sure how often they empty it out and move it all to the trash side….. so much stuff, so much waste.  However, I was pleasantly surprised to find three items in the free section.  A Black Dog brand bandana for Gracie, a box of Monet note cards (I can always use those) and jackpot – a Baggallini back pack / purse!  It’s an eggplant color with a beautiful lime greenish color on the inside.  I’m stoked!

Next stop, fire station to drop off returnable bottles and cans, then off to Café Creme!  We drove down the little hill to City Park to drink our beverages and have our blueberry scones.  It was delightful to just sit and enjoy the scenery and our own little breakfast.

Next, the laundromat to start our two loads, check the computer, emails, bank accounts, pay bills, etc. plus anything else I’ve added to the “computer list.” I washed my new Baggillini and it came out awesome!  I shared a piece of Seguin sea glass with Amy.  Why you might ask?  When we were back in St. Thomas, the person I used for my leg waxing there ran a business called Love Spa.  We struck up a friendship over the year we were there and I made her some dishcloths that spelled LOVE and she gave me a rock she painted with a symbol for “Love” and painted the word ‘LOVE’ on the back.  I keep it in my purse and everyone once in a while when I’m digging for something in my purse, I come across it and it reminds me of her.  I’m hoping the sea glass does that for Amy.  She works very hard at the laundromat and takes great pride in making sure the place is clean and is friendly to all her customers. I digresses yet again!

Off to groceries, Swango (local produce), fish store, etc.  We got all our stuff and then some.  While at Swango, he was throwing out these weird looking things and we asked what they were – Garlic scapes!  I’ve seen those at the farmer’s market.  He said they were going to give them to the pigs….. So, he gave us and the lady behind us a bunch.  Both the owner and a customer said they are good, sauté them up, little balsamic vinegar on top…. We took some and figured we’d give them a try.  Then I had about 20 mins so I went to the tattoo place to chat some more with Shawn about setting a date as well as more discussion on the actual tattoo!  I’m very excited!  After that I walked up to Mae’s Café to meet my Maine friend Leeli for lunch!  As I went to walk in, I ran into some folks that had come out to the island for a tour!  I recognized them – how crazy is it that I’m recognizing people on the street after being here for 2 months.  I went in and Leeli had a table for us already. We had a most delightful lunch!  We shared lots of stories and got a chance to get to know each other a little better.  She is a very funny, sweet, generous person.  Then we still had a little time so we decided to have ice cream at Fountain on Front Street.  As we walked to her car, we walked by our car.  Then we found Steve and he joined us for ice cream!  Leeli had Georgia Peach and I had Vanilla with Brownie Bites and Caramel. Is your mouth watering yet – OMG it was soooooo yummy!  I’ve had a hankering for ice cream and they had so many flavors, now I need to go back!  And guess what I forgot to do?  Take PICTURES!!!  Well, I’m meeting her again for lunch on the 24^th of August so I will definitely take a photo then!

Alrighty time to head back to Popham.  As we left Bath, temp in the car read 87, by the time we got to the dock it was 75!!!! Popham is only 10 miles from Bath! Gotta love the ocean. We met up with Ethan who hit the mother load today, about 700# of lobster!  That’s great except, they keep lowering the price they are paying them for the lobster, but are charging the consumer the same amount!  They don’t really have any recourse.

Back in the Cove.  As we came in a couple were coming in to shore in their dinghy.  They are Phillip and Pippa, they are English.  Really fun couple.  They helped us carry our stuff up the trail.  Turns out the Coast Guard was here today.  They carried all this random scrap metal stuff that has been sitting on the grass down to the whistle house area under the tram. However, they just left it there!  It was very messy and lots of nuts and bolts just lying around.  It looked awful.  It’s like a job half done!  So frustrating. 

Talked with Phillip and Pippa for a bit and gave them a tour. Then we headed down for Cove time, sitting on the side where the rocks are warm.  The sun is starting to move, so the boat house where we used to sit is in the shade earlier in the day.

Dinner tonight was haddock and garlic scapes fried rice which was delicious!  When you put the cold rice in with all the vegetables and egg, you stir it then press it into the pan.  Let it go for a bit, then flip it all around, press into the pan and that is how the rice becomes “fried.” It was really good, definitely being added to the recipe roster!  Rick, this dinner pic for you! Check out how good our basil is doing now that we moved it to a new location that enjoys some shade during the early morning.

Here is a pic of the house / tower.  Taking a few of these from this angle to help Shawn with the tattoo. I like the perspective that includes the door to the Tower. Oh and also another unique sunset!

Tonight’s entertainment was an episode of Virgin River.  Season 4 came out a few weeks ago.

Thursday, July 28th – Gorgeous morning.  If you’re not in the sun, it’s even a little cool. Another sailboat had come in last night to spend the night, so there were 4 boats overnight.  The cruiser left this morning.  The close-up picture of the blue hull sailboat (below-left) might have been Phillip and Pippa’s boat, not sure. As I started to walk up the trail, I just couldn’t resist a picture looking up at the tram.  Look at that sky!

I did my Clivus duties and boy the barn swallows were flying crazy around the area and right in front of the door.  It was like they wanted to come in! Headed back up the trail for breakfast.  Took a quick look at the weather today and could be windy and rainy this afternoon.  We’d love a good thunderstorm!  We see a lot of thunderheads near shore, but we’re so much cooler out here, not sure we’ll get any.

I made up a tray for breakfast, toasted homemade rosemary bread, avocado, peppadews, Kalamata olives, cream cheese, cucumbers, some greens, some pesto and some SMAK (the spicy stuff in the bottle).  Oh, almost forgot the smoked trout!! It was delicious – now you see it, now you don’t!

First up the trail this morning was Rob and Sarah, they have come here several times and have a Leopard 39 catamaran.  We talked with them at length.  They are both captains and she has done a lot of sailing and has helped people sail their boats from one place to another.  Boy did she have a few stories.  We were very interested in hearing what they had to say about boats, chartering, being crew etc.  They invited us to come by later on in the day to see their boat (you’ll see those pics a little further down).

Next up was Natalya and Mariana and their dog. They had never been here before and enjoyed learning about Seguin.  Lots of questions which was fun. Then a group of 3 – Craig, Wendy and Olivia.  Give them a tour.  They were easy going, friendly and really enjoyed the tour. Here they are in the gift shop. Many people say they have been here several times, but by far my tour was the best!

Then we had a family and their two daughters.  They were so well-behaved and were very excited to see all the prism rainbows in the tower.  If you time it right, they are spectacular. I just had to get a picture of them with the prisms on their arms!

Steve headed down the trail after I did their tour and when he got there he said, get ready.  There were 8-10 boats in the Cove and lots of kids!  Turns out it was a field trip from Small Point Summer Camp!  Holy Cow – a little bit of a whirlwind of activity!  There were 20 kids, maybe 15 staff and then all the adults that owned the boats which ferried them over.  Some folks stayed, other boats left and were coming back later as Small Point is pretty close by. Gave all the kids a tour and in between they played games and had their lunches.  We made one suggestion to them for future reference, to email the caretakers the day before.  Not that we would have done anything to prepare, but just knowing a group that large was coming would have been helpful!

Next pic is Steve wanted to cover up the scrap metal pile the Coast Guard made down by where you come up from the beach (I mentioned it in yesterday’s write-up).  Anyway, we thought it looked a little cleaner if it was covered with a tarp vs looking at all the pieces, etc. just piled up by the tram.

I noticed my phone had a call a little while ago, which I screened (Google phones will screen a call from someone not in your contacts).  Turns out it’s a guy named Dan Schmitt that I know in my yoga class. He decided this summer to ride 4,500 miles across the U.S. from Anacortes, Washington to Bar Harbor, Maine in a solo, unsupported bike-packing trip to fulfill a twenty-year dream to pursue an adventure inspired by a true story.  Kon-Tiki is a book documenting the journey of 6 men who sailed 4,300 miles from Peru on a balsa log raft across the Pacific to the Polynesian Islands to prove it could be done. Dan will be riding to raise awareness and funds to support Sportable’s. ( http://sportable.org/events/coast-to-coast-2022/ ) Their mission is to provide opportunities and access to sport for people with physical disabilities in Richmond, Virginia.   “Sportable creates opportunities to make sports accessible for individuals with physical disabilities and visual impairments year-round.  By fostering a fun, inclusive, competitive, and accessible environment, Sportable transforms the lives of athletes and frees them to see beyond their disabilities, enhances their peer relationship and helps them to reach their personal finish line.” Colin’s PT class went there a couple of times to help out as well as our close friends have brought their son there for some PT.  Dan knew about our gig here in Maine and said he might call.  Well, he was in Camden, ME and expected to be in Boothbay Harbor in a few hours.  He wanted to know if there was any way I might be able get him out to the island!  Yikes!  I started sending a few texts to my sister, a friend of hers that has offered to bring people out, the charter people etc.  No luck, bummer.  I asked Diane if it was ok with her if he camp at their place and she said sure.  I told him about Robinsons Wharf, which is in Southport near her, to stop and have a bite there as it is a typical lobster place in Maine, right on the water by a swinging bridge!  We go there every other year for our family reunion lobster meal!

Today, while Diane and Dave were out sailing on their boat with a few friends, Dave called us from his Coast Guard radio and we heard him!  They were out sailing near Cuckhold’s and we could see them, albeit a super tiny sailboat as they were pretty far away!  The cool part of this story was that Steve went in and got a mirror and signaled them from here and everyone on the boat could see it!  How crazy is that!

We did end up heading out to Rob and Sarah’s catamaran in the Cove. They gave us a tour of the boat, pointed out all the features they love about having a catamaran, lessons learned, etc.  Interestingly enough, she had a picture her mom had painted of Seguin on the wall!  It’s beautiful.  Seguin is her favorite island she said. Here’s a picture of painting and their dining area.

Cove is still pretty busy!  We started to head in but rowed around to a few other boats to say hi again and in the last boat we went by, was a couple from NH.  We sat there for a bit and chatted with them.  Nice couple, offered us a beverage and we hung out there for a little bit.  They didn’t have a dinghy but one of the other boats was kind enough to bring them in and they had gone up top.  We saw that dinghy but thought it was the people we had already given a tour to, but it wasn’t.  I felt bad they had gone up and we weren’t there. Another sailboat had came in with registration for Anchorage, AK!  They took the Coast Guard mooring and made sure they had ample protection from bumping into it.  Put a life vest on the actual mooring to protect the hull and hung their spinnaker pole off the front rails along with fenders tied off for added protection.  We stopped to introduce ourselves, chatted for a few and they said they would be up in the morning for a tour. They were Jade and Benjamin.

We rowed into the beach and pulled the dinghy up and covered it, part of our normal task but there is a storm coming so we made sure everything was in order.

Dan did stop at Robinson’s and then went on to Diane and Dave’s.  He stayed there overnight.  It rained pretty hard so she offered him a futon in their home!  That was super nice of them!  Here’s a pic of the three of them – Dan, Diane and Dave! The last picture is our dinner, shrimp etouffee for tonight and I made crab bisque as I needed to make it before the crab went south!  Wow what a busy, crazy day!  Storm finally came in about 8, thunder, rain and some wind.  That’s it for tonight.

Friday, July 29th – Wow it’s almost August!  Yesterday was a very, very busy day. Today is Friday and we still have the weekend! I was in the kitchen preparing my breakfast and the barn swallows were flying like crazy birds outside the kitchen window.  I don’t know their behavior but would sure like to understand what is going on with them!  Made a yummy breakfast of champions this morning!  Leftover fried rice, additional veggies, small piece of haddock and a fried egg on top – delicious!  I cleaned out all the leftovers!

First order of business was to sweep the tower after yesterday’s crazy day! Jade and Benjamin came up the trail.  It was early and we spent a lot of time talking with them and learning of their adventure.  They were both working remotely and enjoying life for sure. We talked about another place besides Salty Dog (crew opportunities) called Offshore Passage Opportunities.  Could be the next Carol and Steve adventure.  Being around all these boats and water is reminding us how much we love being on and around the water.

Next group up the hill was the Damariscove Island caretakers and their friends that own the Life Saving Station on the same island.  And boy did we talk with them for a long time, tour, showed them our quarters, etc.  Scott and Aiko the caretakers live in a 12 x 16 building!  They don’t provide tours but act as a presence on the island. They also have an arrangement where they ‘work’ 10 days then have 4 days off. This is their 2^nd year as caretakers on behalf of the Land Trust.  Then Chub and Natalie told us their story.  Chubb had an amazing story of how he purchased the Lifesaving Station on Damariscove Island for the cost of a pick-up truck!  Natalie was having a blast taking photos of our place. We had great fun sharing stories. Here is the picture of the gang that came over and all their Seguin swag and then a pic of both “caretakers.”

Next up the trail was another group with Liz Armor, Different Drum Sailing Adventures.  She shared this is her last trip to Seguin this season. Her husband may bring one more group but she is returning to teaching for the next school year. I’ve enjoyed seeing her a few times and we are convinced our paths will cross again! This was an American Girl group from Chicago.  Very fun group of young women and their leaders.  We all had a laugh or two.  In addition, one of the girls McKenzie was the first person to have the answer to my shipping the lens question that I ask during every tour as well as I asked it here in the beginning of the blog.  She is 14 and knew the answer, way to go McKenzie!

Our next visitor was a single person with his dog Riley.  He was a sailor for sure and shared many of his trips and insights! Again though, another person sailing by themselves.

Our next group was 10 people.  One family has been here already this season.  I think it was Carrie’s sister Kim and her family that joined them.  When I take a photo with young people in it, sometimes I say ok, let’s take a regular picture, then take a crazy photo!  Everyone seemed to embrace the fun photo idea so I decided to use that one for the blog.  Pretty fun!

Next, we had a group of 3.  John was from Rhode Island and the two women were from DC.  Took a pic of them in the tower while on tour with Steve.  As I was waiting for them to come down and we’ve had a seagull or two acting a little weird.  One landed on the sidewalk and walked around poking in the grass.  At first I thought maybe there was some food left over from the Small Point Summer Camp group.  Then another came by and landed on the picnic table and just stood there.  They are big birds up close…. Not sure what’s going on with them.

Things seemed to slow down around 3:45 so I had a little bite to eat since I hadn’t had lunch.  Jeff and Susan came up from the Cove.  They are sailors.  Jeff lives in Melrose, MA and she lives in Wilmington, MA.  We spent a bunch of time chatting with them, one of those couples with whom you connect. When we were finished in the museum, they asked it we wanted to come out to their boat for a little bit – why not!  We enjoyed chatting with them about their adventures and we shared ours.  He brought us out in his dinghy which he actually built (it’s a small sailboat) and they have actually sail it sometimes! It was getting late, so we decided it was time for us to head in, up the trail and have dinner.  Tonight was homemade crab bisque along with sautéed bok choy and carrots.  Pretty yummy and very flavorful. And last but not least, a sunset.  You can see most of Mount Washington.  Later in the evening I got a text from Auri!  They were sailing our way and wanted to check on the moorings.  I said you’re good, we have room!

Saturday, July 30th – Another beautiful day on Seguin, most of the haze is gone!  Wanted to get ready first as I feel it’s going to be a busy day.  I needed to do my hair, suntan lotion everywhere (lips, face, arms, legs, hands, ankles – everywhere). We headed down to the Cove to get some water so I might as well take a picture!  We refill two 5-gallon water jugs just about every week.  Those are the big blue jugs you might have seen in a picture.  When we come ashore, we carry them up from the beach and store them in the Donkey Engine house.  Then every couple of days, we transfer the water into two 2.5-gallon jugs to carry up to the house.  Here’s Steve carrying those up the trail! He’s so strong!!!  I carry up my 1-gallon girly jug!

Here’s our first group of the day.  Three young women Lauren, Lacy and Quinn.  They wanted a tour so up we went!!  Nice, engaging and funny!

Steve headed over to mow the helipad as we are anticipating the pending roof work starting next week. The helicopter is supposed to come out Aug 5^th and he’ll bring out new shingles and then take back some of the old ones.  He’ll do that a bunch of times.  That will be an exciting day!  As we were sitting on the porch, Jeff from last night popped up to drop off one of his business cards and to let us know they saw the bioluminescence last night in the Cove.  WOW!  We’ll definitely check that out tonight! 

Then we noticed a crew walking from the Cove Trail along the coastline to the Cobblestone Beach.  We usually tell folks to go the other way around as it’s sometimes hard to tell where to go as you approach Cobblestone Beach.  Well sure enough, they made it about ¾ of the way and then turned around!  They were so close to making it.

Next up the trail was Auri!  They made it last night and there was plenty of space.  He was here with his brother Dane and friend Molly.  I talked with Auri a bit and then Steve gave Dane and Molly a tour, that’s them at the top of the Tower. 

While we were talking, a large group of 9 came up the hill!  They were from Southport and guess what, yep they knew Diane and Dave!  Guess that’s what happens when you’ve had a summer place for 20+ years! They all wanted a tour, so I took them up after Steve was done.  Then they needed to get going as the sister Susan (in the picture back row on the left) was waiting for the boat.

Next up the trail was a single attendee, his name is Bob Patton.  We chatted a bit, talked about the moorings and how some folks stay overnight, etc.  I gave him a tour and he was very interesting, engaging and friendly! Another single sailor.

Next up was a group of 4.  Burton & Amanda Rankie, from Scarborough and their friends from Philly, Chris & Kristen + Sam the dog.  Super interesting to talk with them as Burton’s dad Charles was a keeper here in the late 60’s.  Two neat stories.  First, his Mom and Dad met on Seguin.  She came out as a visitor to the island and she met him!  Second, he shared how they would get the diesel fuel from the tanker boat on the west side of the island up to the tanks on the east side of the island.  He was one of a couple of Coast Guard guys in a boat on the west side (right side in photo below) who would shoot a rope gun towards the island that was attached to the hose on the tanker.  Then other Coast Guard guys on the island would pull the rope and ultimately pull up the hose from the tanker to fill the tanks that sit in the cradles (far left side of the photo)!  This stuff is great, because I can add it to my tour!

In the museum we have a blue board in each room that list the keepers for that period of time.  The front room goes from 1795 to 1939.  Middle room is the Coast Guard years that go from 1939 to 1985.  We don’t have all the Coast Guard keepers but if someone comes in and has new information, then a little plaque is added. For instance, I should have checked it when Burton was telling me the story, so I could have had him get the info so we could add a plaque for his Dad. Then the gift shop room has the keepers since 1990 when FOSILS took over.  And we actually got to hang our plaque up!

Two more groups of two came up today.  One was Jeff and Maria from the Mt. Washington Valley area. Gave them a tour as they had not been here before. Thought I had a picture of them, but no luck.  Then we met Jim and Jill. They came up kind of late, but we still gave them a tour.  Really nice folks and we chatted a bit about all things sailing.  They have a 406 Sabre, with a beautiful blue bottom. 

Well, it’s 5:00 and that’s Cove time.  We headed down and sat on the rocks near the Vista off the Cove Trail.  My new favorite spot.  Here’s a pic of Jim and Jill’s boat.  She sent me a picture of us sitting on the rocks!

We walked back up and boy the wind just couldn’t make up its mind.  First from the west, then swung to the east then back again.  I took a little video but it’s too hard to get that in the blog so you’ll just have to imagine it. Tonight, was Chicken Stroganoff – Steve does a great job of making this.  Here he is enjoying his efforts! 

Beautiful moonrise over the west tonight, just above the clouds, not quite a half moon.  And guess what, the bright star that is to the left of the moon and about 1 ½ inches up is the International Space Station!!!!  The Tower pic has the ISS too, just above the dome! 

Lastly, we did go down to the Cove tonight and we both saw the bioluminescence for the first time in our lives!  Of course, I tried to take a photo as the little waves came into the beach and as Steve was paddling the dinghy, they would stick to his oar.  However, my pictures didn’t really capture anything.  I know what the little dots in the photos are, but I don’t think you’d see them on the blog.  Guess you’ll just have to use your imagination!

Phew that was a long blog entry – Hope you are all well and thanks again for reading!!!

PS – Almost forgot to give you the answer to the question!  It was molasses that they used to package the lens for it’s shipment across the pond!  I know, you’re saying “sweet!”  But the related fact we learned was they turned it into Rum and sold it!!!  Now that was smart!  They weren’t going to take it back, right?

See you next week 😉

Sunday, July 17th – A gorgeous morning! Our friends Sharon and Brent need to leave today ☹, but it has been a great weekend having them here! I know we need to rock and roll this morning as it’s going to be a busy day.  We are going to go down the main trail and then out to Cobblestone Beach, we’ll walk the coastline back to the end of the Cove trail.  It’s sort of a rock scramble, but you just need to pick you path ahead of you as there is no trail on the land.  What’s great about this walk, is every time you see something different, a rock formation, a flower, something has washed up on the shoreline, etc.  Here we are on the porch ready to walk the island, is the perfect size! I love being able to say that, it’s like Goldilocks said, “This island is just right!”

Here’s the Cove this morning, a few boats enjoying the calm, sunny morning.  The walk to Cobblestone down the trail doesn’t take very long and Steve’s excellent trimming and snipping skills make it an easy jaunt to the beach.  The picture is our ‘selfie’ with the Tower just behind Brent’s head!  I need more experience taking these selfies as I can always find something wrong with the picture!  Here I’m looking into the sun. My sunglasses have those transition lenses for when you go from outside to inside, they adjust, but I don’t like them.  In pictures, they are never dark enough like regular sunglasses so then I have a “squinty eyes” face!  Note to self, get regular prescription sunglasses that are dark!

There is always a lot of wood washed up on the beach, some big, some small, some well-worn, others just random shapes.  I picked up this piece of wood as it struck me as interesting since both the knots in the wood had fallen out.  It also reminded me of one of those pasta tools for spaghetti where it has different size holes for different serving sizes!  Do I always digress to food?  Anyway, I thought I would attempt a picture through the hole in the wood, not a bad first try!

Again, we asked Sharon to take a photo of us on this walk.  We continue to pick our path, looking at the shoreline, looking at the rocks and having to look down a lot as you pick your foot placement, I see this tiny, itty-bitty claw – kind of cute actually. As we make our way around the coastline, there are pockets in the rocks that sometimes fill up with water.  Some are ocean water, some are rain, some are both.  Sharon and I are walking much slower than Steve and Brent, as we are exploring and taking in all the little sights we see!  We found this one particular larger, maybe 6-8 inches deep puddle, that was filled with some kind of algae.  But what was very cool was that the water was so clear and deep enough that you could see the algae growing towards the surface.  Combine that with the suns reflection and it was really quite pretty.  The adjacent puddle wasn’t as deep so the algae was laying over in some parts. These two pictures were looking into the water.  I found that to be rather interesting!

Then Sharon found a Morning Glory flower!  I think I’ve only seen one other of these near the tram near the Clivus. How delicate they look.  She also found a sea urchin, empty of course.  Not sure I’ve seen any of those on the island before.  Maybe it was a seagull’s meal and it was like leaving the wrapper!

We turned the last corner coming around to the Cove and there are the men surveying the Cove.  Gives a good perspective on what the coastline looks like on this side of the island vs what Cobblestone Beach looked like.

As we approached the guys, Steve was talking with Tom (our museum visitor last night that was last here in 1955).  Tom was letting us know that a father/daughter team had paddle boarded to shore and was headed up to the top. Well time to put on our keeper hats, walk up the main trail and see what’s what with our early morning island visitors!

We found Kara and her dad Dennis over on one of the benches near the cairns of the first lighthouse.  She was just rolling up her yoga mat – I like her already!  Dad had a mat as well, but it looked like he was already done with his morning stretch!  We chatted with them for quite a while.  Kara went to Boston College had just finished her residency I think at Mass General Hospital in Boston.  She is also a certified yoga teacher.  She is taking a break with her Dad before she decides what her next move is.  We hear of folks’ journey’s and usually have lots of questions related to what has brought them here and our visitors are always interested in learning about our journey and what has brought us here.  It usually starts with where are you from and 45 minutes later, we realize we need to get moving!   The pace started to pick up as more groups were arriving and that means more meet and greets and more tours!

Well, are friends are heading out to start their journey home to Norway, Maine.  We bid them farewell at the beach around 2:00 pm. After all the hugs and waves goodbye, Cal brings them back to ‘Gratitude’ for their ride back to Georgetown.

We stayed down at the Cove for a bit as we had given tours to the current groups so we decided to just stay down there.  Here’s a couple of pictures of the goings-on at the Cove.

Steve opted to just sit and enjoy the sun, I on the other handed headed to the shady part of the Cove.  After a little bit, we headed back up.  As it seems to happen more often than not, it wasn’t long before another group of 4 arrived.  It was Maria, Nick, Sophia and Simon (MNSS was my acronym).  They are from NH and it turns out they just missed some friends of theirs from NH that were here!  How crazy is that!  Nick had bought his dinghy from them! Very down to earth folks.  They enjoyed the tour and all got swag and Sophia took some Seguin shells I offer for free in the gift shop to hang on hoop earrings or necklaces.  The pic to the left is them.

One last group of the day, showed up as the NH foursome was heading down.  This group had a dog and had just pulled in with a catamaran.  They signed the guest book and just used their last names!  So much for the acronym!  They were from Atlanta, GA and Saco, ME. I gave them a tour, then they headed on their way.  As Steve and I relaxed on sunset bench to see if Mount Washington would appear, we saw them head towards Portland in the catamaran.  We waved! No Mount Washington but we did see a beautiful sunset!  Noshed on some yummy Sharon Granola while we prepared dinner.  Tonight, we had leftovers!  All good!

Monday, June 18th – Foggy morning, even in the Cove.  Only one boat.  Very Maine-u-lar as I would say if talking to you in person! As the morning progressed, it got even foggier, is that a word?  We started the foghorn which runs for about 45 minutes each time you set it off.  Our breakfast was more leftovers.  You know how some leftovers are leftovers, but others are just as delicious as the day you first had them – well today was like that!  We have the from-scratch-yummy-Sharon maple biscuits with homemade strawberry jam, scrambled eggs and bacon.  Awesome again!  We sure have been eating well here on Seguin.

We got dressed and headed out to do some trail work.  Steve went off to attack some PI and do the main trail.  I headed off to do some serious work on some sections of the North Trail.  As I was whacking, I saw someone come up behind me on the trail.  Caught me off guard a little bit.  They were Jean-Claude and Dennis from the boat in the Cove.  They had seen Steve on the main trail and talked with him a little bit.  I had shut off my whacker and talked with them for a spell.  They pulled in last night and were just taking a walk before they headed out.  Jean-Claude has been here several times and was very familiar with our trials.  They went on their way and I proceeded to try and get my whacker started.  A few minutes later he came back up the trail and apologized since he didn’t mean to have me shut it off when they approached me.  No worries, I’d rather chat than whack!  I got it started eventually.

Steve met up with me on the North Trail so I kept going and he was addressing the growth that starts to come in from the sides.  We wanted to get this all done as it is supposed to rain later today and tonight.  Sometimes that is a nice break in the action. I made it all the way to the end and boy did some sections need it.  Passed the blueberry bush!!! We need to pop back out with a container to get some more delicious Maine blueberries! Here is a picture of the Cove from towards the end of the North Trail and then another pic from back by the bottom of the tram in the Cove.  Notice how in the second picture the visibility just stops at the end of the Cove, we are “socked in” as they say!

Once the trails were done, we headed back out to the North Trail to pick some blueberries!  They are the tiny ones.  Thinking we’ll maybe make some blueberry scones later in the week!  Did some general stuff around the house, put out the rest of the dry sand I had in the sidewalk cracks then I walked back down to the Cove to get some drinking water which we store in the Donkey Engine house and put away my weedwhacker.  Mine is a little lighter and easier to start.  While I was down there, I put out more doggie poop bags.  I must have spent 10 minutes trying to figure out how to roll them so they would undo 1 at a time when you pulled them out of the bottom of my Clorox-bleach-jug-turned-dog-bag holder!

All of that before lunch – ate more leftovers, starting to see the back of the fridge now!  Thanks again Sharon and Brent for all the great food! After lunch, rehung a sign in the Tower that had fallen.

Well, interestingly enough, that’s all the notes I have.  So, I’m sure we did a few more things but didn’t write it or dinner or anything else down!  Oh well, on to the next day.

Tuesday, July 19th – Check out this picture, a gorgeous morning. There is the Osprey flying by.  Couldn’t tell if it was the male or female, but I don’t often catch it in flight.  I’ve started heading to the Cove in the morning just so we can see if any more boats came in overnight, check the Clivus status, etc.

At one point when Steve was heading down to the Whistle House, he saw this butterfly on this plant. He was able to catch it just hanging out!  Sometimes it’s just a matter of slowing down to see what’s right in front of you – you’ll be surprised at what you notice!

I spent a lot time of the blog today.  When I get behind, I need that rainy day to catch up.  Well, we worked a bunch yesterday before it rained.  Then sometimes the day goes by and you wonder where did it go plus I do get distracted easily….. (those that know me well enough are laughing and nodding their head right now!)

We only had a couple of groups today.  A group of 4 from Freeport, ME and then a little later a group of 2 (Gabe and Mariah) from Bend, OR.  Well, they are a long way home.  Didn’t catch a pic of the Oregon couple.

More time on the blog.  When I’m writing the blog, I sometimes realize I need another picture of something around the Tower or property, so I go run and take it.  Then I need to upload it to the computer, “resize” the photo (those pixel dimensions you see when look at the info for a picture) as that determines how many pixels the file is and improves the speed with which it uploads) and modify the blog text accordingly.  I have figured out a process by which I write the blog, but I’m not so sure it’s the most efficient.  However, at this point, I’m sticking with it as it allows me to prep all of the things I need offline and then it’s just a matter of uploading the text and all the pictures when I am on the internet!  When I’m uploading, I’m doing it one by one as I need to decide if it’s 1 picture with text around it or 2 pics side-by-side or 3 pics in a row, etc.  It sounds like a lot and it is, but I know for a fact that a year from now when I have my book that captures this adventure, I will be so glad I did it all and then made a book of it!

Well, I guess I digressed enough there!  No other notes or pictures for today.  Tomorrow, shore day already!

Wednesday, July 20th – Lots of stuff to bring in today as last week our shore day was a day the Transfer Station is closed.  Nothing of note with the usual stuff at the transfer station.  Nothing exciting for me in the free section. I saw a pair of hiking boots but Steve said he didn’t need another pair.  Off to Café Crema for a little breakfast.  The first big decision of the day is do we have a big breakfast or lunch. Think we decided on lunch.  At Café Crema I had a chai tea, Steve got a coffee and we split a blueberry scone. I haven’t had tea like that in a while and I’m hooked!  The scone was grilled with a little butter.  Yummy!  They compost everything and if you bring in your own cup, they only charge you for a small!  I’m bringing my own cup next week! 

Steve headed off to Rocky’s and Lowes.  While at the laundromat, I was looking at Venmo to help Cyndy get her QR code so we can post it in a few places.  I sent her some instructions based on what I found then she’ll be able to print a few for us to post around.  Then I remembered to have Steve take a picture of Amy and I at the Garden Island Laundromat. She is really a sweet person and very helpful. Oh, and here’s a pic of Steve with an envelope from my Mom.  She sends Steve crossword puzzles (and the answer key).  She also included a notification she received in her electric bill about offshore wind – she included that too! Steve was very involved with an offshore wind project off the coast of VA beach before he retired.

Finished laundry and wanted to stop at the bookstore near the library that sells used books and the money goes to a local charity.  We popped in and walked around it for a few minutes, looked for a few specific books and then we needed to rock-n-roll to get going to Shaw’s for our groceries.  Big news was cherries are on sale for $2.77 lb instead of 5.99!  I was pretty excited about that so I bought a bunch.  I have a little kitchen tool that punches the pits out then I freeze them.  They have been very good so far this season.

We stopped at Winnegance for lunch.  We like to stop here as we are very close to Popham so there is no rushing.  It makes lunch a little more relaxing.  I had a grilled veggie wrap and Steve had a Fish (haddock) BLT on sourdough.  Both were really good.  From here we headed to the dock.  We had a few extra minutes so we stopped in Paper Tides.  It’s a little shop right along rte. 209.  They sell some jewelry that Andrew makes and Emma does some color printing in the shop.  They also carry other items that local people make.  We met them a few weeks ago when a group came out to Seguin on July 9 and brought their dinner with them!  She had some really pretty mugs that a local potter Elizabeth Levi makes.  Here’s a couple of pictures.  I was thinking of reaching out to her to see if she could make my olive dish.  I broke one several years ago and have never found one that is exactly like what I had.  Everything they had in the little shop was unique and of excellent quality.  If you’re out that way, it’s worth a stop.  Open Wed thru Sat 10-4.  The building they are in is really unique too as it was previously a grange hall, it’s called Dromore Grange No. 302. Here’s the website! https://www.papertides.com/

We still had a little time, so we took a little ride down a side street that we’ve passed a few times called Parker Hill Dr.  What a pretty road!  We only went a little way down but noticed across the water was a small house with a lighthouse on it!  How fun would that be if that were your house! We should have just looked up where it went as it ultimately ended up back on 209 so we could have stayed on it, but we turned around as time was getting close.

As we approached the Popham State Park (a day park where you can park and hang out on the beach) we noticed all the cars parked in a line along the side of the road.  We thought when we saw it, it looked like folks were lining up waiting for the park to open in the morning or waiting for people to leave.  But all these cars were parked and no on was in them!  Guess, they just left their cars and walked in.  They charge a per person fee to enter the park, and it is a spectacular beach!

We didn’t have much for groceries today and it was mid-tide so we were able to load from the floating dock.  Yay! Ethan’s older son Larson was with him today.  Pretty wavy going back.  I had received a text from Cyndy that Leeli had come out to visit today.  She is one of my new Maine friends.  We just missed her and her husband Jim.  They had brought out a couple of friends.  They were just leaving as we pulled into the Cove.  We waved!  Other visitors were just leaving in the catamaran as well.  Looked like Cal and Katrina were in the Cove too.  They left shortly after we got there.  Looking at the guest book, it looks like our volunteers had 22 people visit today!

From here on in, we just brought up our purchases, left what we could at the Donkey engine house until we come down next time.  Unloaded, put everything away – food, laundry, etc.  I don’t even have any notes about dinner.  As we were putting everything away, we had a group of 2 come up (Maron and Amand).  They are from France!  That’s pretty wild.  I gave them a tour and we chatted a little bit with them.  Very nice people.  Guess I was too tired to remember to take a photo!!! Oh well, that’s a wrap for today.

Thursday, July 21st – Today I bought tickets for Colin to come visit in August.  I shared with him the timing and plans and he was game!  I’m so excited.  I feel bad his girlfriend Aliese will not be able to join us but she is working an internship job that doesn’t give her much free time. Anyway, he’s coming in mid-August.  It will be the planes, buses, automobiles, and boats trip!  Weather report for this morning – foggy, can’t quite see the mainland! But within the hour, the fog had cleared and we had a sunny day!

Our first guests today were Dave and Jenny from Old Lyme, CT.  Yes, Old Lyme.  For some of you that don’t know, we lived in East Lyme, CT for 10 years.  We moved into that house when Gary was born and moved to VA about 10 years later.  As we talked with them, things kept lining up.  Like he went to WPI, Steve went to WPI.  He worked for Stone & Webster, so did we.   We talked about where we worked in CT and he knew several of the people we knew at the power station where we worked.  It was uncanny!! They were super friendly, funny and we had a good time chatting with them.  As I went to take their picture, as they had been married for close to 50 years I think, the two were just standing there and I said, “come on, you can do better than that after 50 years” and that is when he leaned over to give her a big smooch – that’s more like it!

Next was another group with Different Drum Sailing Adventures!  This was a group of kids from Connecticut.  Their teacher was Melinda from the CT Experiential Learning Center in Guilford, CT.  The kids all had a great time as did their teacher.  Here they are heading back out to their boat.  Liz said she’d be back again next week with another group.  Wow they are busy with one group after another!

Weather says we should expect a storm late this afternoon.  We love when we get a storm here.  However, about half the time we actually get a storm, the other times maybe the shore gets it or sometimes it’s too far west for us to get it. I checked the Clivus as it’s been a busy week.  Later on, while sitting on the porch, we noticed an unusual boat going by.  It didn’t show up on Steve’s Marine Traffic app.  But we tried to figure out what type of boat it was.  It was a schooner!  Steve did our 2^nd burn today down at the beach at low tide and I painted the Seguin Island Museum sign with a new coat of red paint.  This is the before and after.

Turns out we didn’t get any storm, just some wind. Steve wanted me to take this photo of his swag from Ft. Pierce this winter. Yes there is a story about the shirt, but that’s for another time….Then the fog started to roll in and we could barely see the ocean!  Time to start the fog horn.

It was getting close to dinner time, but as I started prepping dinner, I heard “Seguin, Seguin this is vessel Corsair, come in Seguin” HOLY COW – someone is actually calling us on the Coast Guard radio!!!!  I responded with “Seguin here, take it to channel 78” which is the non-commercial channel.  It was a gentleman on his way to Seguin but wouldn’t be getting in until late and he wanted to make sure we had mooring space, which we did!  So, I let him know, over and out!  How fun is that!

Well, she started remembering again – take a dinner photo!  Here is shrimp pasta (fake pasta made from chickpeas) and homemade pesto made with basil from Swango, the farm stand next to the fish store!  With of course, a toasted piece of homemade rosemary bread!  Just as we were eating, I looked out the dining room window to the south and noticed how the sun is setting, it makes the tall grass look very wheat-like, so I thought a picture would be in order.  And since we have two dining room windows, I didn’t want the other window to feel left out, so I took a sunset picture out that window!  No Mount Washington but still a great pic.

Then as we walked outside later to check the stars, we noticed some significant fireworks going on but couldn’t quite tell who was putting them on.  Turns out it was Bath, but we’re not sure why! Oh, and got a call from Cyndy today – new roofing project is still scheduled to start on Monday!

Friday, July 22nd – Beautiful morning!  We had a visitor bright and early this morning.  It was Auri!  He is the person that spoke to me on the radio!  We chatted for some time and then I gave him a tour.  Today was a pretty busy-steady day of tours.  Not too many, pace seemed pretty good.  We had a group of 2, Sandy & Jim from Chebeague (and island off Portland, ME).  We asked them if they knew the people we knew, but they knew one group but not the other. Then we had a group of 2 from New Gloucester, a group of 5 from West Bath and a group of 4 from Colorado!  We get them from all over.  When it gets busy, I forget to get photos of all our visitors – oh well.

Then things seemed to take a break so I decided it was time to try the Murphy’s Liquid Soap to clean the inside of the Tower doors.  The outside kind of takes a beating and can’t really be cleaned but the inside needed some love and attention.   I was cleaning the inside of the doors and Steve began cleaning the top of the steps.  They had some mold as they are on the North side of the tower.  He cleaned the top and it came out great and we decided to leave the vertical section of the steps alone.  There are two before pictures and two after pictures.  The sun was in the wrong angle when I took the whole door picture, so I took another one the next morning and that is the last picture here.

Once we finished the doors and the steps, we still didn’t have any visitors so we went off to pick some more blueberries.  We got to the bush and it had exploded with ripe blueberries.  Steve and I both had containers and we picked a bunch!!!!! Steve headed back but I hung around to pick some more and just when I was ready to leave, I turned and lost my grip on my container and spilled more than half of my blueberries!  I was crushed!!!  I tried to pick up as many as I could but they are so tiny and they fell into the grass and leaves.  I was so bummed!

Then we had a large group consisting of 4 girls that had just graduated from Tulane, 3 kids and 4 adults, for a total of 11.  Here are a couple of pictures of that group. Everyone was having a good time!

Then I had a man with 2 grand nephews.  They were actually our #500-#502 guests!  Wow, we have crossed the 500 mark! I gave them a brief tour as they didn’t have much time.  The day seemed to get busy right at the end.  It has a habit of doing that.  We had a really nice relaxing dinner of lamb, red potatoes and broccoli.  Then we decided to sit outside on our porch and just listen.  Our friend Sharon that visited last weekend had shared an interesting observation: “You think it’s quiet until you close your eyes and hear all the sounds you took for granted when your eyes were open – the waves, birds, wind, flag flapping, etc.”  Just a nice quiet restful evening.

Saturday, June 23rd -Well I needed to get moving as the overnight guests are coming and should arrive around 10:00 this morning!  It’s a grandmother (Molly) and two of her grandchildren, a girl (Vera) who is 12 and a boy (Beck) who is 9.  They are staying one night. I needed to finish up the cleaning, sweeping and vacuuming.  I like to do that they day folks arrive plus put a few flowers, etc. that grow here into some vases to add a little pop of color to the rooms.

A gentleman came up the trail and he has never been here before.  His name is Dean.  He had two long days of sailing up from Gloucester, MA and is planning to spend a few days.  We probably spent an hour talking to him.  Very friendly and engaging person!  Over the next few days, we learned a lot about him and has had an interesting life. He was a lawyer with his law degree from Columbia.  Currently lives in Vermont, keeps his boat in NY and spends most of the summer sailing Maine. That sounds like fun!

Here is just a little garden update.  Been eating a few zucchinis!  The last picture is our first tomato!  No yellow squash as most of them seem to die at the end where blossom was.  We just learned from a visitor that is probably due to insufficient pollination.  She shared how we might be able to remedy that, Steve did what she recommended, so we’ll see if it makes a difference.  We don’t have many bees up here and the ones we do have are enjoying the clover more because it is sweeter than the pollen of yellow squash. See, we are learning about gardening in Maine, too!

Next up the trail was the overnight guests Molly and her 2 grandchildren.  Her son brought them over on his boat along with several other relatives to enjoy the beauty of Seguin.  Steve gave the portion of the group that is not staying a tour and then I gave a tour to a group from Cozy Harbor, the Hurd family.  After some discussion we made the connection with Diane and Dave! Another group of 2, local folks, no real tour just some idle chat.

Lucinda and Greg McCormick were back with some more friends.  They brought a picnic lunch and hung out a bit.  I gave them a tour and we chatted for a while.  They were asking if they could see the guest quarters, but I mentioned that we have a group that just arrived today.  I offered a tour of our side and they said sure!  Forgot to take pics of some of the groups.  Funny how sometimes I remember and then others, well not so much. I am trying to sneak in writing the blog in between visitors, then it is a little more manageable.

Next two up were Ben and Lauren.  They are from Georgetown, ME.  Steve was down in the Cove, so he already met them.  Young couple, really easy to talk to and engaging.   Eventually, I decided it was time to head down to the Cove and it was very busy.  Steve shared that a small powerboat had lost his dinghy and it drifted to the rocks on the left side.  The owner tried to get it using his powerboat and ended up getting stuck on the rocks himself.  Eventually he got off the rocks but the dinghy was still stuck.  Another captain brought him ashore as he was going to climb around on the rocks to his dinghy but Steve offered to row out and bring him to his dinghy.  I always miss the excitement in the Cove!  

We watched as a few more people changed moorings etc. We were sitting on the rocks by the vista on the Cove trail. That is the spot where I have mentioned we have sunshine for a little bit longer. As I was sitting there, I noticed another tiny claw. But this one had a dot on it that looked like an eye! Pay attention to the small things!

We decided to head back up. While we were in the house, we heard some voices and went out to the porch.  Turns out that the people that changed to another mooring were our first guests back in May, Pam and Don, and now their son Mike had joined them!  We chatted with them for a while. They are planning to stay the night, so we agreed on a tour in morning.

We spent some time talking with Molly – all of them had enjoyed their day.  Later while in the kitchen, Steve showed me the harvest from our garden!  We are going to try to eat it all tonight (ha-ha)!

Lauren and Ben said they would be back up for sunset and Dean said he would be too.  We moved a bench over so the five of us could chat and watch the sunset.  I learned more about Dean.  Again, a very interesting character full of so many interesting experiences, some happy, some sad.  He had a book by John Steinbeck he recommended I read, “The Winter of Our Discontent.”  He said reading it as an adult, it was a whole different book compared to reading in high school!  He said he would give it to me to read from his “little lending library” he has on his boat.

As the sun was setting, Ben came over and asked if I would take some pictures of them on sunset bench! I said sure.  He gave me his camera and I walked over behind the bench to catch different angles.  I finally had to ask him to move as I couldn’t see him in the picture.  I repeated my request a couple of times when it finally dawned on me.  He was down on one knee proposing to Lauren.  I ran back over to the other guys to tell them!  How exciting – our first engagement on Seguin!  He pulled out a bottle of Prosecco and we all toasted to the new couple.  Here are a few pictures of them! How fun!

The day is not complete without a sunset of Mount Washington.

Well, we have reached the end of another blog.  As always, thank you for reading and participating in the adventure with us!  Oh, and thanks for sending your comments!