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Everything on Seguin is weather dependent, and, for the last 24hrs anyway, the weather hasn’t been great. There have been bouts of rain, persistent wind, and we awoke to the island’s characteristic fog. Surprisingly, we were treated to a visit by a trio of intrepid sailors, coming to tour the lighthouse and museum before continuing on to Rockland Harbor.
With our hopes of beginning a painting project delayed by the weather, we used the remainder of the day to deep clean the museum and lighthouse. The light was soft and cast eerie, diffused shadows about the buildings as we swept and it was easy to see how ghost stories have persisted throughout the island’s history.
Daily Weather Report Temp: 68° / 57.9° Overcast; periods of rain and fog Wind: WSE 9.2 mph / Max Gusts: 23.9 mph High Tide: 10:24 am / 10:30 pm Low Tide: 4:13 am / 4:16 pm
If you were to ask us how to best describe the opportunity to be caretakers on Seguin so far, I think both Matt and I would describe it as a privilege. To wake up and fall asleep every day to the smells and sounds of the ocean and to spend our days helping to preserve the beauty and charm of this living piece of history has been nothing short of amazing.
I think we’re most acutely aware of the privilege of living in this place when we get to share our experience with others. On Friday we were lucky enough to have two friends from our hometown come out to the island for the night with their dog. We spent the day hiking around the trails, exploring tidepools, reading about the history of the island, making and sharing good food, and watching the sunset from the yard. Life here is very simple and it was a pleasure to let our friends step away from the hustle and bustle of on-shore life to experience the peace that is inherent to existence here.
With every new visitor to Seguin, we find a deeper appreciation of the magic of this place that the passage of time has mostly left untouched. We’d love to hear what makes Seguin special to you. Be sure to tell us when you come to the island this summer or post a comment here on the blog if you aren’t going to make it this summer!
I am, at best, tolerant of history. I would love to refer to myself as a history buff, since I am drawn to history when it is well presented and because we have been to a greater than average number of historical sites in our travels, but I abhor the dry and dusty litany of names and dates we were forced to memorize in school. i guess I’m a fan of living history, of places like Seguin.
In a lot of ways the history of Seguin is the history of its technology. From the improvements in the lighthouse lens, the transition from whale oil lamps to solar powered LED, and the evolution from bell to fog horn to whistle, the advancement of technology on the island continues. Today I spent a portion of the day clearing vines from the spot where someone carved their name in 1859. I cut weeds and overgrowth from the site of the blacksmith shop, once one of the more important buildings on the island that now only exists in photographs.
For the later part of the day I installed a Starlink, which brings high speed internet to the island by communicating with satellites in near space. A few weeks ago we installed a state of the art weather station which uses the Starlink to transmit data in real time to a crowdsource forecasting network and to our website. It’s interesting to wonder what technology will be written in the next chapter of Seguin’s story, years from now when we too exist only in photographs.
Daily Weather Report Temp: 72° / 59.7° Cerulean blue skies ☀️ Wind: WSW 19.5 mph High Tide: 9:28 am / 9:38 pm Low Tide: 3:18 am / 3:22 pm
After a few rainy days, we’ve had some much nicer weather with some good winds. This means more sailboats have been arriving in the cove. Today we had some intrepid groups of travels visit the island!
Last night, a group of four high school students from Sanford, Maine and their sailing school guides arrived just before dinner on a 40ft sailboat. The students had never sailed before and were able to take the opportunity through a grant program to spend a week learning to sail around Casco Bay! We were really impressed with their adventurous spirit – going from not boating to living on a boat for a week is a big jump. The students conquered some sea sickness, the hike up the hill, and the steps up to the lighthouse tower in good spirits and were excited to continue on their journey. It was awesome to be able to host them for the night and be a small part of their incredible experience.
Just before lunch, a group of three sailors (and their small dog) who had been living on a 44ft catamaran for the last seven months arrived at the island. They had started their journey in Cape Canaveral and spend time in the Florida Keys and the Bahamas before heading north to eventually end up in Newfoundland. They hadn’t heard of Seguin before making their stop, so it was fun to give them the tour of the museum, lighthouse, and a little background on the area and the other local islands.
One of the joys of greeting the guests on the island is that everyone who comes out is a bit adventurous and has a great story to tell about where they come from and how they came to find themselves a few miles out at sea. Looking forward to hearing more stories as the summer goes on!
Daily Weather Report Temperature: 72.0/62.8 Sunny and breezy; partly cloudy in the afternoon Wind: 3.8mph; Max Gust: 19.5mph High Tide: 2:21am/3:07pm Low Tide: 8:51am/9:06pm
Today we had a quiet celebration on Seguin as we finally cut through the remaining section of North Trail, the last of all the trails to be completed. Of course, we still have some clean up of various lawns and the inevitable months of ongoing maintenance ahead of us, but this marks the bulk of our battle with the overgrowth. All trails are open!
In the afternoon, guests began arrive by the, well, boatload. We ended up spending time with 19 guests, some veterans of Seguin and others experiencing the island for the first time. We enjoyed watching families and friends hiking the trails and learning about the lighthouse, and hope for more visitors in the coming days.
Seguin Island Light is the highest lighthouse in Maine. This isn’t because the tower is necessarily the tallest in Maine – that honor goes to Boone Light just off Cape Neddick. Seguin is the highest because the focal point of its lens is 186 ft above sea level. Most of that height is gained because the tower sits on the rocky top of the island that juts about 140 feet above sea level. Anyone who comes to visit Seguin gets to test their stamina and endurance by hiking the nearly quarter mile trail that runs alongside the old tram. It leads visitors from the dinghy beach in the cove, up a set of wooden stairs, all the way up a grassy hill to the steps of the museum and keepers’ quarters.
While everyone has to hike the tram trail if they want to visit the lighthouse, not everyone explores the other two miles of wooded and rocky trails that lead out to overlooks and rocky beaches. At the base of the tram near the Clivus (the composting toilet), there is an information board and the Cove Trail and Cobblestone Beach Trail branch off. The Cove Trail leads to a small camping area with a picnic table and little further up a bench where you can see the boats in the mooring field. The Cobblestone Beach Trail is a bit longer and more rugged. It dead ends onto a very rocky beach where we often find geese and ducks nesting in the rocks. At low tide, beautiful, ornate swirling patterns in rocks are revealed where the waves continuously lap up against the shore.
Further up the main tram trail, the South Trail branches off to the left just before you crest the hill to the lighthouse. Matt and I both agree that this is our favorite trail. It passes through fields of wildflowers and ungulates over rocks all while overlooking the entire south point of the island. After emerging from a short wooded section, the trail opens to a 360-vista of resting gulls and rocky cliffs.
Finally, the longest trail, the North Trail, starts just outside the museum door and nearly immediately enters fairly thick woods for the island. There are old stonewalls to navigate over and a very exposed loop at the northernmost point of the island where you can look up and see how far down you’ve had to hike to reach this viewpoint of Popham Beach out in the distance.
I’m running very long race in September, so I hike and/or run every single trail on the island nearly every single day. None of these trails are very easy to get moving quickly on, but I am starting to learn every root, rock, and hill on this tiny island. It feels very special to have such intimate knowledge of this place we’re calling home for the summer.
Daily Weather Report Temperature: 70.2/61.3 Sunny and clear in the morning; clouds and scattered showers in the evening Wind: NNE 3.8mph - 19.5mph High Tide: 1:42pm Low Tide: 7:29am; 7:33pm
It has been raining and foggy for the last two days, so we had given up on having visitors to the island. It wasn’t until we took advantage of a brief break in the storm that I realized we weren’t alone at all, we were surrounded by brown lipped snails, Cepaea nemoralis!
Full disclosure; had to look up the Latin name. And the common name. I’m not even sure they are brown lipped snails to be honest. But they are everywhere on the island, especially on wet days like these.
When we first decided to come to Seguin we told everyone that we were going to live on a tiny island. As time has passed, the scope of this place has surprised us. Seguin is bigger than we had thought, not just in area but in diversity and in the experiences it offers. Every day it seems we discover another curious feature that we hadn’t noticed before, and I wonder what secrets the island will reveal next!
Daily Weather Report Temp: 65.7° / 57.0° Dense fog with periods of heavy rain Wind Speed: E 15.2 mph High Tide: 12:56 pm Low Tide: 6:44 am / 6:45 pm
With the school year ending and the summer officially beginning, we expected this weekend to be busy and a good taste of what the summer would bring for visitors. Instead, today was a near total washout and no visitors came to the island. The forecast is for rain and scattered thunderstorms tomorrow as well, so it may be a very quiet weekend.
With it being such a quiet day, I baked bread in the morning and we had it straight out of the oven with some blackberry jam I bought at Lisa Marie’s in Bath when I was on shore on Wednesday. I never got into baking bread during the pandemic, so I’m a little late to the game. I’ve been pleasantly surprised how easy it is to make a simple rustic loaf of bread. I’m sure I’ll be experimenting with sweet and savory modifications to the recipe throughout the summer.
Without being able to work on the grounds, we mostly spent our day cleaning, reading, and playing cribbage and Scrabble. We searched the closets to see what games other keepers’ have brought to the island over the years, but we only found an incomplete Battleship game. We’ll have to find some other good two-player games for future rainy days.
In the late afternoon the rain let up a bit and we took a walk with the dogs down to the beach and the cove trail. After dinner we did a full loop of the North Trail and did our final markings of the loop so we’ll be able to open it up completely to visitors by July 1st.
Hopefully some sunnier weather comes our way soon and we’ll see some more visitors.
Daily Weather Report Temperature: 65.1 / 57.0 Steady rain in the morning; cloudy and scattered showers in the afternoon and evening Wind: NE 3.4mph / Max Gust: NE 17.2mph High Tide: 12:11pm Low Tide: 6:00am / 5:59pm
It’s been pretty clear on the island for the last week, but the there was some heavy Maine fog when we first arrived. One night when we were socked in I snapped this photo, and it’s become a favorite of mine because it reminds me of Seguin’s primary purpose as beacon to those trying to find their way.
Yes, Seguin has a lot to offer. It’s a safe harbor for passing boaters, a sanctuary for nesting birds, and an adventure destination for hikers and history buffs alike, but it has always been foremost an aid to navigation. During tours of the tower I sometimes recount a time when friends and I sailed from NH on a sailboat with no engine or electronics, using only charts for navigation. Entering Portland under a blanket of darkness, it was the lights from Portland Head and Bug Light that guided us safely in.
Now that summer is here and the number of weekend visitors is ramping up, it’s time for us to put our other chores aside and attend to our primary responsibility; our guests. We’ll be here for anyone looking to visit the museum, tour the lighthouse, or sit on the porch and swap sailing stories. We can get back to mowing the grass on Monday.
Daily Weather Report Temp: High 79° / Low 63.1° Mostly cloudy, clearing in the afternoon Wind: NNE 12.3 mph / Max Gust: 15.9 mph High Tide: 11:28 am / 11:26 pm Low Tide: 5:18 am / 5:14 pm
The summer solstice marks the longest day of the year, and we have been making the most of the daylight. Our dog Zorro is always up with the sun, so at first light today at 4:08am he started stirring and by sunrise at 4:45am, he was ready to go. Waking up early here feels natural, and somewhat necessary. There are large windows that let the light in in the keepers’ quarters, so we never need to set an alarm, and there is always something that needs to be done around the house or the grounds.
Today was more lawn mowing and trail clearing for Matt. We are almost at the maintenance stage for the lawns and trails, but there are still sections of the North Trail that need to be cleared of hip-high grass now that the geese and gulls have finished their nesting on the rocky cliffs at the northern most point of the island. I had the chore of hauling 10 gallons of water up from the bottom of the tram so we have drinking water for the week. This nets nearly 700ft of elevation gain over the course of the trips up and down the hill in less than 1.5 miles of hiking.
In the house, it feels like we’re always doing dishes or tidying up something. We can’t go out to eat, so every meal and snack leaves dishes in the sink. Not surprisingly, the keepers’ quarters doesn’t have a dishwasher, so we wash everything by hand. Between dogs coming in and out and the constant mowing and raking, grass is always being tracked into the house. Sweeping is a daily necessity, though, I feel like every time I sweep there’s just more grass in a different corner of a room.
Our days are long and full and we’re exhausted by dinnertime, especially when it’s sunny and most of our day is spent outside. About 45 minutes before sunset, the light on the island makes a dramatic shift and every blade of grass and rock is lit up and looks like a movie. We’re often watching it from our kitchen window and run outside to take pictures – it never gets old to see a perfect golden hour light up Seguin.
Even though today’s the longest day of the year and last light nearly 9pm, we’re getting a little break in pace because some thunderstorms started to pass through around 5:30pm. We’ll take advantage of this time to read and relax before we welcome in the official start of the summer season!
Daily Weather Report Temperature:79.0/63.1 Sunny and still in the morning; clouds and winds building by afternoon; thundershowers in the evening Wind: N 1.8mph; Gust: N 15.9mph High Tide: 10:32am/10:30pm Low Tide: 4:21am/4:17pm
