Day 7, 24 May

12 visitors

This morning started off with a special visitor – a Minke whale!  She was swimming about, diving and surfacing. You could clearly see her dorsal fin shining in the morning sun. The 6 of us had a big breakfast together and then they packed up and left us at about 9 am. We shall miss greatly the company and good cooking of Cyndy and Michael at the lighthouse.  Michael will be returning to Manhattan and we will be seeing Cyndy, Ethan, Lindsey and Pepper again throughout the summer on our Wednesday transfers.
Fred mowed the lawn around the tram and cove buildings and also fixed the lawn mower so it pushed a little easier.  He also retied the some of the many lobster buoys.  They are always washing ashore and are collected if they look in pretty good shop.  Adds color.

Buoys hanging from tram down by the cove

So here we are all alone on this pretty little island with a magnificent lighthouse. I washed all the dishes while Fred mowed the lower areas. Cleaned out the silverware drawer and rearranged the silverware. Lined some more kitchen shelves with shelf liners. We moved a little bit of furniture to our liking and had a late lunch of leftover yummy lobster, corn on the cob and tabooli mixture with the last of Michael’s blueberry muffins. I found a wonderful classical radio station to listen to in the house and it sounded glorious playing all day permeating every brick with classical music. At around 3 PM we had visitors! Our first ones of the season! We had 8 kayakers that came over from Hermit Island about 8 miles away. They all piled onto the picnic table outside our back door in the sunshine to eat their lunches. We let Sacatar sit out with them and she got a few pats and treats. Fred took them up in two groups to see the lighthouse and I chatted with the others. They didn’t go into the museum but I dragged out the log book so they could sign in. They needed to get back to kayaking to make it back in good time.  A bit later we had 4 gentlemen show up from a pretty sailboat moored in the cove and we had a nice time chatting with them. They loved seeing Sacatar and took pictures with her. Both groups seemed to love seeing a dog at the lighthouse. I gave the 4 guys a tour up in the tower which they enjoyed immensely. They didn’t want to go into the museum either and opted to take a hike on South trail.  We were disappointed that they too didn’t want to see the museum and gift shop. Got them signed in and thanked everyone for coming to visit. The afternoon was sunny and gorgeous. I started the next

Beautiful Fresnel Lens!

big job – cleaning the lens. I took off all jewelry so I wouldn’t scratch the precious glass and wore t-shirt and shorts since it is quite warm in the glass lantern room with the huge glass lens in the sunlight. I used a partial white vinegar and water mixture with rags cut from a clean old sheet. I found it best to spray a small amount of the mixture on the cloth and then carefully and gently wipe each surface of each prism and then wipe down with a clean dry cloth. My small hands and fingers fit well into the small areas on and between the prisms. There were some chips and cracks in some of the prisms and I was careful to be extra gentle in these areas. I could feel the little hurts the great lens felt with these damages. It was so very nice to touch her and see her shine and sparkle.  Here I was
caring for this huge breathtaking work of art over 150 years old, following in the footsteps of a long line of keepers that did the very same thing so long ago. It is a first order Fresnel lens, 9 feet high and 6 feet wide that is so rare and priceless today. I got half of the lens on the outside surfaces cleaned and will probably take 1-2 days more to complete.  Fred was able to receive a number of TV stations via an antenna and his computer and we watched some shows via the computer screen. Just a good sized salad for dinner and cozy relaxation in the living room to complete the day.