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
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
