Category: Seguin Island News

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

The lighthouse, museum, and gift shop are closed today so we can go into town, grab an espresso, and provision for the coming week. Guests are welcome on the island to take in the view, hike the trails, and maybe catch a famous Seguin sunset.

I’m not sure when or where I learned about the superstition of saying “Rabbit, Rabbit” (or in other variations, “Rabbits” or “White Rabbit”) as the first words you utter on the first of the month, but what I do know is it’s supposed to bring good luck. I think it worked because we were met with the most perfect day we’ve had in the one month we’ve been on the island. It was sunny and warm with a gentle breeze and calm seas. Every one of the 16 visitors we had today remarked at how lovely it was to be on the water.

Today we were discussing wildlife on the island with one of our guests, and he asked if there were any rabbits or squirrels on the island. As far as we know, there are currently no mammals on the island except bats, but this wasn’t always the case. During our deep cleaning of the museum yesterday, we read a newspaper article from the early 1960s about life on the island that said that the island used to be stocked with hares that served as a source of food for the three families living here year-round.

Even on the days when we have no visitors, we’re never really alone out here. Seguin is teeming with all sorts of critters like snakes (garter and smooth green), snails, seagulls, Canada geese, osprey, cormorants, goldfinches, ducks, barn swallows, butterflies, moths, and crickets. Not a day goes by without seeing nearly all of these creatures somewhere on the trails, and sometimes in the house (crickets are always in the kitchen sink!). Seguin is their home, and we’re just the visitors.

Daily Weather Report:
Temperature: 76.1 / 64.6
Sunny with scattered clouds
Wind: 5.6mph N / Gusts 20.6mph N
High Tide: 7:22am / 7:46pm
Low Tide: 1:13am / 1:25pm

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!

Daily Weather Report (Friday):
Temperature: 73.2/54.1
Mostly sunny and breezy
Wind: 5.8mph; Gusts 12.1mph
High Tide: 4:32am; 5:13pm
Low Tide: 10:35am; 10:46pm

Daily Weather Report (Saturday):
Temperature: 61.9/57.9
Overcast with some drizzle
Wind: S 12.5mph; Gusts 17.5mph
High Tide: 5:14am; 5:50pm
Low Tide: 11:29am

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