Month: July 2024

Every evening, I spend about 45 minutes to an hour (sometimes longer) hiking and running the trails of the island. Sometimes I wear a weighted vest to make it a bit more challenging on the steep and rocky terrain. Usually every other day, I’ll take hand clippers out on at least one of my hikes with the dogs to cut back the thorns, weeds, and brambles that inevitably creep into any open spot on the trail when given the chance.

Here’s Zorro helping me prune trails and scout for raspberries!

Lately, I’ve been hesitant to cut back to the thorns too much because we’re about to hit berry season! The raspberries are coming in here and there on the Tram Trail and Cove Trail, but it’s rare to get many ripe ones at any one time since the birds are almost always faster to get to them than I am. It appears as though a lot of blackberries are growing on the North Trail. With blackberries being much hardier berries than raspberries, I’m hoping there will be a day when we’ll be able to make attempt at picking them.

When I think about gathering the berries from the island and making something from them, I find myself thinking about previous lighthouse keepers who didn’t have a weekly resupply boat or grocery stores to shop at when back on shore. Matt always tells visitors about the first lighthouse keeper who was stationed at Seguin who asked for a raise after his first year and was denied because the island provided such fertile ground for growing plants and for fishing. I really can’t imagine how hard it must have been to grow or catch all of your own food while also tending to the lamps of the lighthouse all evening.

I’m looking forward to and grateful for the opportunity to eat some of the wild berries on the island, but I’m equally as grateful for the ability to order Hannaford To Go!

Daily Weather Report:
Temperature: 75.9 / 66.0
Sunny and clear
Wind: SW 11.4mph / Gusts 18.3mph
High Tide: 7:17am / 7:31pm
Low Tide: 1:09am / 1:10pm

One of the activities we’ve added to our list of daily chores involves heading down the hill to the beach. Since we can’t see the cove from the lighthouse, it gives us a chance to check on the moorings and see if we have visitors, police the outhouse, and make sure the dinghy hasn’t floated away. When possible, we make sure this trip coincides with low tide, the best time to look for sea glass.

The cove beach is a great beach for hunting sea glass. When a beach is known for seaglass it can often be too plentiful, and I feel robbed of the reward of discovery. Segin’s cove beach, however, yields just enough glass to make the trip worthwhile without giving it away. With sea glass, it seems, easy is a four letter word.

One of the things I’ve noticed is that my efforts are rewarded exponentially. At first, I see almost none, but eventually my focus softens and it begins to appear everywhere, even in spots that I’ve already scoured. I was once told that whatever you look for you will find, be it problems or possibilities. I guess it like that with sea glass and with life, where you put your effort is what you will find.

Daily Weather Report
Temp: 76.1°F / 63.1°F
Clear and sunny skies ☀️ 
Wind: W 4.6 mph / Gust 13.6 mph
High Tide: 11:34am / 11:38pm
Low Tide: 5:23am / 5:23pm

After a few days of no visitors because of the fog and some small craft advisories, things picked up by Saturday morning, and we welcomed 40 visitors over the weekend. It kept us busy! We spent most of the last two days sitting outside on the porch and taking turns showing visitors the lighthouse and museum.

From the keepers’ quarters, we don’t have a view of the cove, so we really never know when a boat has come in. That means that on occasion we can be surprised when a guest shows up on the porch or in the museum, though it usually only happens on a foggy or rainy day when we’re inside.

Until we have a better solution, we refashioned an old bell that was attached to the tramway at the top of the hill with a “Ring Me” sign made of driftwood and positioned it right in the middle of the trail. Now we hear our guests and can be out on the porch to greet them when they crest the hill.

We also installed a slightly higher-tech version for the museum doors. Now we have a wireless doorbell system that is mounted on the front and side door of the museum so guests can summon us if we happen to be in the keepers’ quarters or the side yard.

As the days get busier and more boats arrive to the island every day, we expect to hear those bells ringing almost as often as the bells on the buoys out on the water!

Daily Weather Report
Temperature: 76.1 / 63.1
Sunny and warm
Wind: WSW 8.7mph; Gust: 13.6mph
High Tide: 5:27am / 5:52pm
Low Tide: 11:31am

The weather cleared today, and with the sun came the swallows. I think a couple of wet days have robbed them of the opportunity to hunt, so today we had a continuous acrobatic show. One pair in particular have always shown interest in our porch, where they’ve tried (repeatedly and without success) to build a nest.

The swallows are my favorite animal on the island. Similar to terns, their aerial acrobatic prowess will entertain me for hours. We’ve learn to keep doors and windows shut, however, or the performance will move into the living room (or bathroom, or kitchen, or museum).

Swallows have a place in maritime tradition, too. The swallow a classic tattoo, signifying a sailor has sailed 5,000 miles and returned safely to port, while two swallows often identifies someone who has sailed around the world. Imagine the relief and joy of seeing the first shorebirds after weeks at sea, knowing that you had finally made it back to your nest safe and sound.

Daily Weather Report
Temp: 72.5° / 63°
Windy, with clear and sunny sky☀️ 
Wind: WSW 8.2 mph / Gust 22.8 mph 
High Tide: 6:20am / 6:40pm 
Low Tide: 12:14am / 12:18pm 

Wednesday is “Shore Day” – the day we leave the island to run errands and resupply for the week. Honestly, we still haven’t really gotten the hang of it. Matt and I are enjoying our time on the island so much that we’ve decided to take turns going on shore. Every other week, one of us heads to shore while the other stays back at Seguin with the dogs.

A shore day starts early. We’re up getting things ready by no later than 6:30am to meet the boat around 8:30am. We strip the linens off the beds, gather laundry and trash, and make runs down from the house to the dinghy beach with the gear needed for all the errands for the day. Whoever’s turn it is to go to shore loads up the dinghy and rows out to meet one of the FOSILS members’ boats to be ferried to Fort Popham where our car is parked.

The day is then filled with a variety of errands. I always try to get a run in and explore some new trails. We need to get mail from our PO Box in Bath. There are trips to the grocery to get Hannaford To Go or Shaws Pick Up orders. We use a wash and fold service for a week’s worth of laundry and pick up the laundry we left on shore the previous week. We often need to stop by the FOSIL’s office in Bath to pick up gear for the gift shop or drop off donations. Additionally, since it’s our only day in normal civilization every two weeks, we also like to take some time to go to a coffee shop or get ice cream.

Nothing is simple when it comes to getting on or off the island. All the mail, groceries, and laundry need to packed into water-tight bins so they can be loaded on to the dock and eventually on to a dinghy so they can be rowed back to shore. Weather, fog, and tides can make it difficult to plan exactly when to make a run for the island, but we manage and generally spend from about 9am to 3:30-4pm on shore. Our job isn’t even done then because everything needs to be haul by hand back up to the lighthouse before we can rest.

To be frank, shore days are hectic! I was going to post a picture from on-shore, but we never manage to take any because it’s so non-stop. By taking turns every other week, Matt and I find that we look forward to our day on land, but we are equally grateful for the “shore day” where we get to stay behind.

Daily Weather Report
Temperature: 69.6 / 64.2
Foggy with rain showers in the morning, clear and windy in the afternoon
Wind: WNW 6.9mph; Gust: 25.1mph
High Tide: 3:03am / 3:41pm
Low Tide: 9:25am / 9:43pm

Built in 1857, Seguin Light is not terribly old, at least by New England standards. When we give tours to visitors from outside of New England, as we did today, they are amazed that a building so old is still standing. This conversation invariably leads to one question:

“Is it haunted?”

The question always brings a smile to my face as we recount the ghost stories of Seguin. There’s the keeper whose wife drove him mad by playing the same song on the piano ad infinitum, until he took an axe to the instrument and then her. Passing sailors claim the hear piano music playing across the water on still nights. There’s the young girl who was buried on the island and can be heard laughing and calling out to visitors, or running up the lighthouse steps. There’s a former keeper who is so vexed when current residents move furniture that he returns it to the original position.

The following question, without fail, is

”Have you seen any ghosts?”

We answer as non committedly as we can. There have been a few suspicious incidents since we arrived on the island. Once, while alone in the keeper’s quarters, I was somehow locked in the basement. What makes it even more odd is that door has a hook and eye latch, and we have no explaination of how it happened. Twice, Maureen and I have heard a female voice distinctly call out “hello?!” Thinking guests were arriving, we pulled on our boots and ran outside only to find the yard vacant.

The are plenty of rational explanations for these occurrences, of course. It’s a drafty house and doors blow shut all the time. Maybe we just heard a seagull cry and mistook it for a woman’s voice. We try not to jump to conclusions, but there is always one last question. It’s wording betrays the beliefs of the guest:

”But you do / don’t believe in ghosts, right?”

I think anyone who’s asks this question is missing the point. The real question to ask is

“Do ghosts believe in us?”

Daily Weather Report
Temp: 73.9° / 71.7°
Clear skies and sunny with afternoon shower and fog 
Wind: N 2.2 mph / Max 30.9 mph
High Tide:1:37am / 2:17pm
Low Tide: 8:05am / 8:11pm

I don’t know if we quite appreciated just how foggy Seguin would be. In theory we knew it was one of the foggiest places in Midcoast Maine, but what that meant for our day-to-day experience was hard to imagine.

The long holiday weekend was very foggy, so the bulk of our visitors came on Sunday when the fog cleared for most of the day. The fog settled back in overnight, and this morning we awoke to a sheet of gray outside our bedroom window. The skies cleared around 10am and we had two groups of two sailors visit the island and take a tour of the lighthouse. After only a few hours of sunlight, the fog rolled in again and we couldn’t even see the water from the front porch. The humidity, lack of breeze, along with the high temperature made the island feel like a steam bath for most of the afternoon. Just as the sun was starting to set, the fog dropped down and settled on the water. We still couldn’t really see the ocean from the house, but the skies cleared up enough for a beautiful sunset.

It’s funny how days when it’s foggy it’s easy to forget that we’re almost 3 miles from shore. It would be easy to mistake the oil house as being on the plains of the Midwest with the tall grass swaying in the wind and barn swallows overhead.

Daily Weather Report
Temperature: 72.7 / 60.3
Foggy with a brief clearing late morning.
Wind: WNW 0.0mph / Gust: 6.6mph
High Tide: 12:54am / 1:35pm
Low Tide: 7:24am / 7:27pm

After several thick days, the fog finally lifted and we were greeted with long views and big skies. The visitors that we have been expecting since the holiday finally arrived; we had a steady stream of 27 guests throughout the day! Frequently, a visiting group is comprised of experienced islanders who are initiating friends or family to Seguin. A few were local boaters who had sailed past the island for years, and finally made good on their promise to stop and explore our shore. In all cases, our favorite visitors are the young children.

There’s probably something about a remote island that speaks to the child in all of us, but adults are usually composed and reserved when expressing wonder. Kids are not. They run around starry eyed at the private world that’s been unleashed upon them; they chase snakes, barrel through the trails, and grasp at the rainbows cast by the lighthouse’s prism. We hope that they are creating lasting memories of Seguin, but if the details of their day on the island fade, we know they will always have some vague recollection of having been to a magical place.

Daily Weather Report 
Temp: High 77.2° / Low 61.5°
Foggy in the AM with clear skies for the remainder of the day 
Wind: W 1.1 mph /Max Gust 12.5 mph
High Tide: 12:08 am / 12:52 pm
Low Tide: 6:42am / 6:42 pm 

Matt doesn’t always offer it up in every conversation, but he’s quite an accomplished sailor. He’s sailed over 10,000 nautical miles, with a good portion of those miles coming during a transatlantic crossing in 2019. He and three friends sailed from Boston to Bermuda to The Azores, and finally to Ireland between May and July of that year. Over the weekend, two of his sailing companions and their young daughter visited us here on Seguin on S/V Creeky, the Creekmore45 that they sailed for the crossing.

It has been very foggy with some pretty large swells, so the island was very quiet for a holiday weekend. It made for a nice time for us to enjoy the keepers’ quarters and share stories about the crossing, our separate adventures on the intracoastal waterway, and our more recent times living on shore. When the weather cleared a bit, we were able to hike down to the cove trail to collect snail shells and sea glass and visit with the seals who were watching us closely from the water just beyond the rocky shore.

This was Creeky’s first time to Seguin, but I’m sure not her last.

Daily Weather Report:
Temperature: 68.7 / 61.7
Dense fog, briefly clearing in the late afternoon
Wind: W 6.0mph; Gust: W 15.9mph
High Tide: 12:06pm
Low Tide: 5:55am/5:56pm

Happy Fourth of July! We had seven visitors to start the holiday celebrations here on Seguin, and are hoping to have more as the weekend approaches. The majority of our guests today were new to the island, and most arrived by sailboat, which seemed challenging considering the general lack of wind. Despite this, we flew the large ceremonial flag and the US Lighthouse Service burgee to mark the day. For the past 229 years, Seguin Light has stood in service to this country, and we are grateful and proud to be a small part of its history. If you are heading out on the water this weekend we hope you have a safe but thrilling adventure, and when done, the light from Seguin will help guide you home.

Daily Weather Report
Temp: High 76.5º / Low 60.8º
Sunny with partial clouds, still
Wind: SW 6.0 mph / Gusts: 15.9 mph
High Tide: 10:24cam / 10:30 pm
Low Tide: 4:13 am / 4:16 pm