Month: June 2024

Traditionally, Wednesdays are the day we hang up the rakes, kick off the boots, and head to shore for espresso and bagels. It’s also our day to provision for the coming week and do our laundry.

We’ve streamlined the process by using Hannaford-to-go and a drop off laundry service, but there’s one step that can’t be outsourced; we have to hand carry everything we bring back to Seguin up the hill. On a typical week, this includes three totes worth of groceries, two bags of clean laundry, and 10 gallons of water.

Luckily for me, Maureen is in training for the Grand to Grand, a 171 mile stage race in Utah, so she carries all 80 lbs of water up the hill as part of her regimen. I carry the laundry, and the totes are secured onto a cradle that we’ve been customizing since its original conception by Chris Hall.

I won’t lie, carrying our provisions is sweaty work and it’s something we have to convince ourselves to do. But I can’t help wondering how we’ll remember this when years have passed, when we’re recounting stories of living on Seguin Island for the summer, and telling about how much fun we had getting up that hill.

Daily Weather Report 
Temp: 73.8° / 60.1°
Wind: 11.4 mph 
Skies: Mostly Cloudy 🌥️ 
High Tide: 8:07 am / 8:22 pm
Low Tide: 2:02 am / 2:04 pm

While much of New England has been blanketed by a heat dome, we’ve had some very pleasant weather on the island. It was a warm and sunny day with next to no wind, which was great for yard work and exploring the beaches, but probably a little lackluster for those out on sail.

We’re starting to see a steady stream of visitors now that we’re inching closer to the official start of summer. We had ten visitors today (three were from Sweeden!) who spent time hiking the trails and getting a tour of the lighthouse. So far, most people who have visited have had at least one person in their group who have been to the island before, so our conversations are often a mix of hearing how others have experienced Seguin on previous visits and bits of what we’ve learned about the island since we’re staying here full time.

Our last visitors of the day were from the Portsmouth, NH area and we had some mutual friends and knew a lot of the same people in the boating community there. They told us that they recently acquired their boat that used to be named Seguin Light and they had found some Friends of Seguin Island Light gear on board. As far as they know, this was the first trip back to Seguin this boat had had in quite some time. If anyone knows the history of how this boat came to be named Seguin Light, I know they are following the blog and would love to know more about the history of their boat!

Daily Weather Report
Temperature: 73.8/60.4
Mostly sunny
Wind: W 3.6mph
High Tide: 8:58am; 9:06pm
Low Tide: 2:52am; 2:50pm

Living on an island miles offshore, there is one hard truth that we’re coming to terms with…It is really hard to have a pizza delivered. Apparently, the same goes for mower parts.

Within the first two days of arriving on the island, the clutch on the riding mower burned out. What would be a fairly quick fix on the mainland has not been resolved in over two weeks, despite the Herculean efforts of the FOSILS volunteer staff. It’s just a matter of timing; if we can’t diagnose the problem and order a part in time, we’ll miss the Wednesday delivery to the island and have to wait another week. So it occurred to me today, as I crawled around on the oil stained, grass covered concrete floor of the whistle house looking for a tiny locator pin that I had dropped and lost – a part that I sourced a replacement for but would not arrive until a week from Thursday – that this is perhaps the best scene of island life I can draw for you. Despite a world of Buy It Now immediacy, of Facebook connectedness and of instant digital gratification, we are still physically cut off from everything. We can’t run out and pick another up, we have to make it work with what we have. It is at the same time annoying and also strangely motivating, and even at times liberating.

I did finally find the locator pin, it was in a literal haystack. Now, if only the clutch will arrive in time.

We had the pleasure of welcoming three different fathers and their children to the island today. The island was full of life with kids playing in the fields, guests getting tours of the lighthouse, and boats coming in and out of the cove through most of the afternoon.

We have loved seeing how Seguin is part of so many families’ summer memories. Hearing adults recount childhood memories of the tram, the old dock, and the hike up the hill has made us realize that everyone who visits takes a little piece of this summer wonderland with them.

We were particularly lucky that our friends who were moving a new sailboat from Mystic, CT up to Belfast, ME had a chance to stop by for the weekend with their young children. Last night we ate dinner in the dining room in the caretaker quarters and the house was alive with laughter and conversation – very different than our relatively quiet nights with just the two of us and the dogs. Today, the kids marveled at the beautiful rainbows the prism of the lens casts on the steps of the light house tower and then spent almost all day today exploring the trails and the cobblestone beach. They only took a break to watch dolphins swimming off the east side of the island through a set of binoculars. I have a feeling they’ll remember the magic of this island and fun day with their dads for years to come.

Daily Weather Report

Temperature: 67.3/54.0
Sunny
Wind: W 15.9mph
High Tide: 7:12am, 7:37pm
Low Tide: 1:08am; 1:16pm

People have begun arriving on Seguin! Today we had 20 visitors to the island, several of whom were here for the first time. We love the weekday quiet and solitude, and we are finding that we equally enjoy the more social vibe of the weekends. Giving tours of the lighthouse has become an especially fun part of our role as caretakers, and we can’t wait to meet even more of you as the summer season approaches.

Daily Weather Report 
Temp: 71.8° / 58.5° 
Sky: mostly clear 
Wind: 18.3 mph 
High Tide: 6:29am / 7:02pm 
Low Tide: 12:44pm

We’ve noticed that mornings here tend to be warm, humid, and still. They are perfect for reading and sipping coffee on the front porch in the sun. The winds often pick up during the afternoon and sometimes bring in some threatening rain clouds or fog.

Today was probably the windiest day we’ve had since arriving on the island two weeks ago. We had sustained winds of 5-10mph with gusts reaching 20mph this morning. Despite the windy conditions, Matt was able to finish the last of the raking of the upper lawns by the lighthouse and the grounds are now in great shape for this weekend’s visitors. We had some friends arrive on their sailboat just before dinner and they said that while there were warnings of hail and choppy seas, the actual conditions weren’t nearly as hazardous.

Daily Weather Report

Temperature:  67.8/55.9
Mostly cloudy skies
Wind: S 20.6mph
High Tide: 5:34am/6:14pm 
Low Tide: 11:56am

Today we had a 13 visitors to the island, all part of a wedding party. Seeing the island teeming with people was a welcome taste of the excitement the summer promises to bring, and hearing their impressions of Seguin and the beautiful Maine Seacoast was yet another reminder of how lucky we are to live here. 

For the majority of the day we continued our  efforts mowing, weed whacking, and raking. It’s hot and sweaty work, and we’re pretty itchy by the day’s end, but we’ve also felt some pride in providing our visitors the opportunity to hike along the edges of the island and grateful to help create new memories of Seguin. 

Daily Weather Report 
Temp: High 67.8° Low 54.3°
Sky: Mostly clear with morning fog
Wind: SW max speed 17.2 mph 
High Tide: 4:29am / 4:13pm 
Low Tide: 11:54am / 11:16pm 

Rituals have always had a place at Seguin. In her memoir The Lighthouse Keeper’s Wife, Connie Scovill Small, the (you guessed it) wife of Seguin Lighthouse keeper Elson Small (1926-1930), describes life on this remote island as “a life of order and duty”. She fondly describes the ritual of ironing the cover for the expensive and fragile Frensel lens and the joy she found in being such an integral part of the lighting of the lamps every evening and extinguishing them every morning at dawn.

Now, the light is automated, so rituals are found elsewhere.

Today, we had a group of four visitors whose family had been in the area for seven generations. The two adult children in the group had been coming to Seguin nearly every year since they were very young. It was clear from the moment they crested the hill that they were so happy to be back and enjoying this family ritual of climbing the tower and exploring the trails once again.

After almost two weeks on the island, we’ve started our own rituals. We prepare our coffee the night before so we can wake up with the sunrise and have our coffee ready. We sip it as we take Tulah and Zorro outside for the first time for the day while we raise the flag. Later, we add water to the large cistern in the basement through a coordinated series of steps that pump water up from the well. We turn on the hot water heater in the mornings and shut it off just before we shower to conserve power overnight. We play cribbage over dinner and end each day reading and drinking hot chocolate.

While our rituals differ quite drastically from those of the lighthouse keepers who were stationed here prior to the automation of the light, they have allowed us to fall into our own patterns and rhythms that shape our days here on Seguin.

Daily Weather Report
Temperature: 66.7/53.2
Sunny skies
Wind W 9.2mph

Now is the perfect time to visit Seguin Island; moorings are available, the trails are opening, and the wildflowers are blooming! Today, we had four visitors share the island with the gulls, swallows, and osprey while we worked on the South Trail.

Daily weather Report 
Temperature 60°/55°
Scattered showers 
Wind S 18.3 mph 

Welcome to the Seguin Island Lighthouse blog! We’re Matt and Maureen, the 2024 caretakers. If you come visit the island this year, you’re almost certain to meet us, and our two dogs, Zorro and Tulah, as we’ll be calling Seguin home through mid-September.

We arrived on the island on June 1^st, and after a week of mowing hip-high grass and weed whacking impassible trails, we’re nearly prepared for the busy summer season to begin! The museum is open, and we’ve been brushing up on Seguin history so we’re ready to give tours to the visitors to the island.

We can’t wait to share more about life and weather on the island and our experience as caretakers this summer!

Summary of Week 1

Saturday, June 1: Opening day, 8 FOSILS members, 0 visitors; Sunny & mid-70s

Sunday, June 2: 6 visitors, Sunny & mid-70s

Monday, June 3: 0 visitors, Sunny, breezy, low-70s

Tuesday, June 4: 1 visitor, Sunny, breezy, low-70s

Wednesday, June 5: Wednesday Warriors on the island; Sunny & warm in the morning, threatening rain and storms in the afternoon

Thursday, June 6: 0 visitors, Foggy, mid-60s

Friday, June 7: 0 visitors; Foggy, mid-60s

Saturday, June 8: 0 visitors; Foggy in the morning and threatening storms; afternoon cleared and sunny in the high-60s

Sunday, June 9: 0 visitors; breezy, low-60s and rain in the morning; foggy and cool in the afternoon