Sunday, Aug 21st -Another beautiful day! Air is clean with a touch of crispness until the sun has been up for a bit to warm up. My morning routine has shifted to an early jaunt down the main trail to the Cove. This is from 7:12. Little bit of fog off in the distance, but weather is calm and only one boat.
Coming back up the trail, check out the sky in this photo of the house / tower! That should be in the Crayola box as sky blue!!! Time to start pulling some nosh together for breakfast. Here’s the kitchen table with this morning’s ingredients.
This morning we are having our left-over tuna on some yummy toasted homemade rosemary bread with pesto or guacamole and all the extras! I love this breakfast.
Here is Colin enjoying the sunshine and someone else preparing the morning meal! No one really in the Cove just yet so we have some time to relax. Shortly after breakfast I wanted to head down to the Cove again to check the Clivus as well as take a picture of me performing my maintenance! We need it for the SummerFest (the annual fundraiser for Seguin) presentation we’re making this Saturday. Colin and I headed down to the Cove to see if we have any new boats. Yep – there are a few!
Once we finished there, back up top to get ready for some tours. First group up a threesome from Cozy Harbor, Kelly + M? + Margaret and their dog Coral. Coral was very well behaved during the tour I might add! During their tour I took a pic of some more rainbows from the prisms. Always an interesting perspective.
Next up the trail was Cal & Katrina with a couple of friends and Katrina’s fiancée Evan! Yay! Everyone enjoyed the tour, the weather and was having an awesome time.
Next, we had two different groups, but it was not too large so I gave them a tour together. First on the left is Eugene and Sharon on S/V Spring and they are from Sydney Australia! On the right side is Henry, wife Clay, daughter Ginger and boyfriend Evan all from Small Point. They were definitely a fun group and we all spent a chunk of time talking after the tour too!
By mid- afternoon, the sky above was still “sky blue” but looking straight out all you could see was fog. It was pretty unique looking! And just as it rolled in, it rolled on out.
No more tours so Colin and I decided to head off and hike the South Trail. I’ve been wanting to climb down some of the rocks to get closer to the water, Colin was game for that so off we went. This first picture is a small pine tree that has a lot of pine cones! Most of the pine trees are on the NE wall of the Cove where the rocks become shaded in mid-afternoon. But here we are on the south trail where most everything growing is pretty low to the ground. As we came to the end of the trail, we started making our way down to the ocean. Again, as with the geology of the Cobblestone Beach area, the rocks here are wild, so many different shapes, sizes, textures, etc. Here is a picture where a hole has been worn away but there is still a small bridge of the main rock crossing over!
As we got closer to the waterline, the barnacle population increased dramatically. It was like a line across the rocks. Here is a close up of a small pond of ocean water. It is so clear and the colors of the life in the pond are very bright!
Next as we were walking along the barnacle line, I noticed lots of small mussels. Colin and I began looking for some that might be large enough for Steve to actually use as bait! I had a blue rubber glove in my pocket so we used that as our “container” to carry them back. They were in areas that were deeper than the barnacles and mostly where it was shady. Then I just took a scenery shot of Colin. I’m looking in a southerly direction on the western side of the island.
The picture on the right is of some cool rock formations. Sometimes you’ll see these areas where it looks like the rock was flowing or moving at some point during its life. They just look so unique; I hope you can see some of it in these pictures. This next picture is a wide-angle view of another amazing rock which looked like it was about ready to fall on us and part of it was resting on another rock yet a portion was suspended over our heads. I left this picture large so you get a sense of what I’m sharing.
Then we looked more towards the North and decided how far we wanted to follow the coast. We picked an area and said lets go there and see what we see, then we’ll start to head back to where we descended from the trail and go back to the house. During this part of the hike, we saw a seagull nest and noticed one egg off to the right that was unhatched (see the green arrow). I’m guessing that one didn’t make it. At this point I took a picture of Colin facing Northeast, it just seemed appropriate for me to take a picture of him!
From here we walked a little further north and noticed the change in the steepness of the island. Here we figured was a good place to stop. However, we noticed an area where the tide was raging in, it would fill up an inlet and then the water would race out as the wave receded. I did take some videos, but the pictures didn’t do it justice as you need to hear the sound of the rushing water. Maybe close your eyes and mentally picture the wave going back out to mix with the ocean!!!! Then we thought we should take a picture of the two of us. So, we put the phone against the water bottle, hit the timer button and Colin ran over to where I was standing. That’s the picture on the right!
We reversed direction and headed back the way we came and then back up to the trail. What a great hike. I love those as you’ll never know what you see or find!
Back at the house we decided it was time to have some crab claws / legs out on the picnic table. It was about 5:30 and Steve hadn’t had any visitors. Here we are eating our crabs and check out the view behind them, you can’t see a thing! By 6:00 the shore was hidden by the fog.
As I turned more towards the west, these clouds were our view! The weather out here is just amazing!
Closer to sunset, Steve took his artistic shot of the day. From outside, facing towards the westerly dining room window, showing the reflection of the sunset behind him. How about that!
Well time to go in start working on dinner. On the menu tonight was lamb burgers with sautéed bak choy, carrots and onions topped with sesame seeds and pickled cucumbers. Then Steve came out of the kitchen with a bowl. I couldn’t quite figure out what he would be bringing out before the meal. He said “Oh I cooked the mussels you brought back as an appetizer!” Oh no – he misunderstood. We brought them back to be used as bait – he thought they were to eat. We all laughed! We ate them, they were just like mussels! The picture is of my plate as mine was minus the bun!
Monday, Aug 22nd – ☹ I’m sad. As today Colin heads back to Richmond. We got up early to have some nosh as Cal & Katrina were picking him up about 8:30 to start his journey home. Here’s my pic of the Cove. Yikes – is it foggy!!!!! I had talked to Diane earlier this morning and she asked if we had taken any pictures yet of the three of us! Gosh darn, I did forget to do that! We lined up the camera on the railing and were able to take this photo. Just like we don’t often have pics of the two of us, we often forget to capture the three of us!
Here are the pictures down in the Cove, very calm, but very foggy today. Steve taking him out….
A hug for Dad and a wave to me!
Then off they go into the fog- going, going and gone!
Well, we had a great time with him and great weather. He got a real sense of what our summers been like!
My comfort is that by the time we return home to VA, Colin will have moved back in with us. So, we get to look forward to having him around for a few months, which we both enjoy. He and his roommate opted to end their lease as they are heading in different directions. His next clinical is very close to our house and the one after that will be in CA near Steve’s mom. Ok back up to the house.
Around noontime, we had some visitors, Krista, Aali, Dan and the dogs Olive and Bonnie. The girls decided to take the tour while Dan sat with the dogs. The rest of the afternoon was pretty quiet and we couldn’t really see if there were any potential boats due to the fog.
Around 4 o’clock, our next group came up. It was Jeff from Sailing Ships Maine with another group and now we have his website (https://sailingshipsmaine.org/ )! It was not a great day for sailing! It was foggy and windy and the temperature was on the chilly side but they came up for a tour so a tour they’ll get! At the beginning, you can read the crowd to see who is interested and who isn’t. I take that on as a challenge to see if I can pull the group into what I’m sharing. And I did that for this group! By the time we were out on the catwalk, they were asking questions about the Tower, Steve and I, our adventure etc. It was a great group and I really enjoyed giving them an top notch tour.
After that group, I went down to the Cove and met up with Steve and the roofers who were packing up their stuff and taking it out to AJ’s boat. It was rainy, cold and raw. Fortunately, a small power boat offered to help and bring some of their gear out to AJ’s boat instead of piling it all into the dinghy! They made three trips and said they needed to head on their way back to the mainland as the weather was continuing to deteriorate. Took them about an hour.
We went back up top, got warm and made dinner. No other pictures though!
Tuesday, Aug 23rd – Slept in a little. Still pretty cloudy looking to the east and temperature just a little chilly as sun wasn’t out. However, by 9:00 the clouds were clearing out and the temperature was warming up. I went down to the Cove to see how the schooner crew made out. The wind last night was in the “bad” direction if you were staying in the Cove, which they did. It was pretty wavy. I noticed a few sailors on the boat deck looking like they were eating breakfast. I waved! One young woman saw me and yelled “Good Morning, Carol.” That made my day – anyone who remembers my name means they were at least listening!!!!
Here is a picture of the Cove. The wind last night brought in a lot of seaweed!!! Yikes!
So each day, I try to take pictures along the way, the groups of people, interesting notes about visitors, some of their names, weather, meals, etc. For today. That is all the pictures I had!!! I didn’t have any notes and only had “8/23?” on my visitor list! Oh well, guess that’s it for today. 😊 Although, we are headed to shore tomorrow, we did some menu planning and working diligently on our PowerPoint presentation for the fundraiser “SummerFest 9” on Saturday.
Wednesday, Aug 24th – Yep, today is our shore day. Not many of these days left. It’s a very Maine-like morning here in the Cove! We have lots to bring in as last week, we were not able to go to the Transfer Station since they are closed on Thursdays.
The focus for today is to get most of the food for the next week which includes a four-day visit from our oldest son Gary and his girlfriend Therese. They are flying into Portland Sunday from Colorado Springs. We’ll be going back in on Saturday too for the fund-raiser, so we’ll pick up a few refrigerated items then, but we’ll get the bulk of what we need today.
This was the first time we have gone ashore where you literally couldn’t see 20 feet. The water was calm and there wasn’t any wind but wow it was foggy. We pulled into Popham and it was still very foggy. Most of the time it would be foggy at the island, but clear on the mainland but not today.
We did the usual – laundry, food shopping, deciding where to eat lunch – oh and we’re supposed to meet Leeli for lunch today. She offered to have lunch at her place in Georgetown. We met her at the Natural Market in downtown Bath, picked up some yummy food – I picked out a kale, chickpea, tofu salad with ginger dressing that was over noodles, a Maine ginger beer soda and a bag of sweet potato chips! We followed her to her place. A beautiful home on the water near Five Islands Marina. Jim was waiting for the three of us and we had a delightful lunch on their porch. We hugged in case we don’t see each other for a while hopefully they will be able to make it to SummerFest and said our “goodbye’s for now.”
Here we are back at the floating dock for our 3:00 pick-up. We could see Ethan out in the cove area cleaning off the boat. He is kind enough to do that before we bring all our bags onto the boat. Wow what a difference in the weather compared to this morning!
Well things are pretty quiet here on the island and the Cove, but here comes that pesky fog again….We made a couple of trips up the trail with our stuff, then put everything away and started thinking about dinner. We continued to work on our presentation. Each time one of us sits at the computer, we think of another picture we want to include. Then the challenge is finding the picture!!!! I can’t even think of how many pictures we have taken since we’ve been here. I’m sure it’s in the hundreds.
Our last picture today – a sunset – what a surprise! But this one didn’t let us down as it is different than all the previous ones. The sky, the clouds, the fog. Since we can’t see land when it’s like this, it reinforces the fact that we’re on an island. But we’re ok with that! That’s a wrap for today!
Thursday, August 25th – No Cove picture today, but took this one around 9:00. I was in sweeping the tower. You need to start at the top and sweep in circles. The dirt, dead grass and paint chips all fall down to the next level! I swept the top deck, then down the 10 steps to the “28th step” platform, then each of the 28 steps and finally the floor as you come in the doors. It’s amazing how much you get…. Anyway, when I had gone up to the top, I opened the outer door to the catwalk to let some fresh air in, and I noticed the shadow of the tower – oh and there’s Steve! Kind of a fun picture, can’t believe I haven’t noticed the shadow before today!
We had some early visitors, Mark and Cecilia from S/V Seaglass. They said there wasn’t anyone else in the Cove, so they got the deluxe tour. And as luck would have it, he used to work for Corning! We chatted a lot about the lens and it’s maintenance. I had a few history and cleaning related questions and he said he would reach out to their Museum of Glass Restoration department and put me in touch with the right peeps! Yee ha!! (Just the other day I received the contacts email and we have been communicating – super interesting). Unfortunately, I took a picture of them with their camera! So I texted him and asked him to send to me, Viola!
Next up the trail was a family of four. Dave and Morgan with their two children Garrett and Joslyn. During our tour, we took some more rainbow pictures with the prisms as well as a picture with the rainbows going across Garrett and Joslyn and then, the Christmas card family picture in front of the Tower. They enjoyed the tour – even the kids!
Next group up the trail was Kip (you may recognize his name as he has been here before with his family – he makes the Seguin Island swag!) Anyway, here is a picture of his family and his Mom (he sat out the tour) on the catwalk
Next was a group of five. Sundeep, August, Bea, Mike and Tom. Sundeep was here earlier in the season with MITA (Maine Island Trail Association) to help with trail maintenance, general clearing and moving the old shingles into the helicopter bags. This time he wanted to come to the island just to hang out!!
Last group of the day, was extra exciting! Think back to the second blog when we talked about our arrival in Maine and waiting to come out to the island. One of those days we were walking and started a random conversation with a couple of guys working on a porch and we asked them a few questions. Sound familiar? It was Bruno our sailing instructor from St. Thomas (our previous caretaking gig). Anyway, he had told us that he was getting a new-to-him boat in the middle of August and he would then sail up to see us on the island and today they showed up!!!! Yay! In the picture is Diana, David, Bruno and Steve as he was tending his burn pile when they arrived in the Cove! Remember we can only do the burn pile when the tide is just around low tide so that as it comes in, it’s sure to extinguish any embers. It is truly amazing how fast all the cardboard burns!
They headed up the trail with us to see the Tower, the museum, and of course have a tour! Later in the afternoon, he brought us out to their boat for some snacks and beverages and to see the boat! By the time we were done, it was getting to be dusk, so he brought us back to shore. We headed back up the trail to have some dinner and check out the sunset!
As we came around the corner, I was able to get a plane trail and a reflection of the sun setting in the lens! Within about 20 mins I caught some pretty pictures. So sunset pictures today, no dinner food pictures. We’re repeating most of our meals anyway!
Friday, August 26th – This morning’s weather, not the best. Here is the Cove around 10:00 am. Pretty quiet. The weather today is supposed to deteriorate by late this afternoon so I’m guessing we won’t have any visitors unless they are going by and need to take cover in the Cove.
We do however, have a camper, Jason B., coming over today for one night via Five Islands Boat Charters (aka Cal & Katrina)! He’s only staying one night. He’s from Indianapolis and was in VT for 6 weeks with the Conservation Corp doing work on trails, etc. Then he worked his way over to Maine, camping along the way. Not exactly sure how he heard about Seguin, but we’re glad he came. We gave him some information about the trails, gave him a tarp to hang off the picnic table as it is supposed to rain tonight and he had forgot his tent! Oh well, all part of the adventure!
Well as the day wore on, the weather did indeed deteriorate. I had gone down to the whistle house to send some emails and work on the blog. I heard what sounded like rain outside and Steve walked down and suggested I come back up to the house as a wild storm was coming up the coast and lots of thunder and lightning. I wrapped up what I was doing and walked back up to the house. It was crazy windy, starting to rain and the thunder / lighting was all around us! When I got back into the house, Steve said he had texted Jason to tell him to just grab his sleeping bag and come on up because the storm was going to get worse.
We started to get a little nervous as he hadn’t replied to the text. Just when the storm was overhead, we got a text saying he was on his way up. He was drenched when he arrived at the house. We took him in and offered him a beverage and some snacks. Spent some time chatting with him and hearing about his adventures this summer. Very interesting young man. He slept in the house in his sleeping bag, but at least he was dry!
Saturday, August 27th – Well later today we head to shore for a couple of days! We’ll go in late this afternoon, head to SummerFest in Georgetown and when that is over head to a B&B in Topsham for an overnight not on the island! First time in three months! So, we have things to pack and take with us. But first we have a day where the clouds are breaking up after the storm – so we’ll see if we have any visitors, it is Saturday after all.
Around 11:00 we had another group from Different Drum Sailing group come up the trail. Although Liz was not leading the group as she had to head back to school (she is a teacher). Her husband Jeff was still in charge on the boat, but the woman in the blue t-shirt was their lead. Sorry – didn’t catch her name. Anyway, good group had fun regardless of the less than perfect weather. Remember it’s Maine – just wait an hour and the weather will change! Which it did.
We spent the morning packing and prepping for our soiree on shore, collecting our last few items and heading down to the Cove to meet Ethan around noon! Instead of taking us right in, he offered to take us around Seguin from the water side. We have never seen all the island from this perspective and hence, have a bunch of pics of the island as well as a few of us (again, we don’t often have pictures of the two of us together).
I’ve written a little description underneath the pictures!
We are coming around the eastern side of the island. Oooo – a picture of the two of us!
This is the only picture we have of Ethan where you can see his face! Southern most point looking North.
I love the reflection in Steve’s sunglasses! After we landed on shore, we stopped at Grab N’ Go to grab (no pun intended) a quick bite (chicken curry sandwich) that was fantastic! We needed a little nourishment before tonight.
Here are some pictures of SummerFest, outside listening to the band, my sister Diane and Dave you’ve heard about them several times, Sara from The Osprey in Georgetown (they were providing the pizza, salads, dessert and beverages). All was super delicious!
The silent auction was held in the main hall of the Georgetown Community Center, the live auction was upstairs, and here’s Jodie (creator of our purchase) with our purchase of the seaglass window made with some glass from Seguin as well as other locations. I can’t wait to find a place of honor to hang it when we arrive home!
The food (pizza) was delicious and there was lots left over (so they gave us a few to take with us). We gave our presentation which was divided into several areas: Work, Weather, Observations, Food, People and Closing remarks. We shared many pictures that described those categories and shared what we found to be the amazing highlights of our adventure.
During our closing remarks, Steve shared the painting of Seguin his Aunt Marie (Misery) created for us. I shared some of this story in an earlier blog. She was a joy to so many folks but we missed seeing her on our journey North as Steve had come down with Covid a few days before we left and weren’t able to see her. We just figured we’d see her on the way home. Unfortunately, she passed away in the meantime. We dedicated our presentation to her. Then I shared a brief stream of consciousness I had one day on the island, which I have included at the end of today’s blog.
After the auction we helped clean up, pack up etc. and then headed to our B&B for the night.
The Black Lantern B&B was in Topsham and you’ll see some pictures in the next blog. Steve and I arrived about 9:00 pm and were greeted by Tom, one of the innkeepers. Very welcoming, beautifully appointed room which had everything we could need. We then went down and sat in one of the sitting rooms to just recap the day and enjoy a little night cap!
The Black Lantern B&B (https://blacklaternbandb.com/ ) is located on 57 Elm Street, Topsham, ME 04086. Judy and Tom Connelie have owned the Black Lantern B&B since 1997. Initially at another location in Topsham they moved to their present waterfront location in 2005 and have tastefully renovated the circa 1860 home, adding bathrooms and restoring the original charm to the bedrooms and public spaces. We are very excited to have someone cook us breakfast! Well, that’s all we have for this week. Can’t believe we are winding down.
Carol’s closing remarks from the Keepers presentation:
My Observations
The keepers before us leave their spirit behind, yet we need to discover our own;
A single grass bends to the wind, the clouds bring reflection of the sun as it sets and the night is upon us;
The sky is somehow so vast, we feel alone yet it reminds us we are one.
Every day we get to feel and see the splendor of Seguin.
We see the sea, the sun, the clouds, it’s life and it touches us in a place we did not know existed.
Every day is different, every day we seek to behold its beauty
Whether it’s cold or warm, or still or breezy – its life is ever changing.
We know not what brings this beauty, yet it is captured uniquely by the eye of the beholder
Who stops for a few minutes to listen, observe and slowly exhale as we absorb it all.
The morning comes each day, with a promise to be different yet somehow still the same.
The rocks, the sea, the wildlife, the sounds will forever be etched in our minds and soul, labelled Seguin.
Next week is our last week on the island and it’s a doozy! I plan to write a brief blog about our journey home so I will have two more blogs – thanks for hanging in there!
When will the light be working again? We see it from our home in East Boothbay and have missed our steady sentinel!
Thanks
Dic&Cilla Alden