Day 32, 18 June

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We did not go off the island today since there were small craft warnings and a slight storm moved into the area during the night bringing the rough seas. The rain pounded on the bedroom window and it was hard to sleep because of it with worries about Sac. Sacatar was still having problems with her back legs and we contacted a vet to come make house call. Ethan recommended the practice he used and they made contact with a very nice vet who contacted us and was willing to come out Thursday morning to the island on the ferry with our Wednesday Warriors to come look at Sac. We feared the worst and were prepared to put her to sleep if need be. I spent the day with her thinking it might be the last day on earth with her. It was a nice quiet day with no visitors so I could devote all attention to her.

Sacatar in front of the lighthouse

The great lens after the power reset the light and got it back on

We had a power failure for about ½ hour and Cyndy called us telling us she was out also.   When we have power outages, it is important to determine if the problem is local on the island or a failure on the mainland where our underwater cable comes from.  If local, we will have to call the coast guard and the underwater cable might be damaged.  Damage usually occurs when someone illegally anchors in the cave damaging the cable.  Fortunately it was the mainland power problems.

Fred did some poison ivy spraying on the main trail and South trail. Cyndy called back and was very concerned about Sac – she had received my email telling her about Sac. We had a good chat and Sacatar’s Auntie Cyndy was still very worried. I ventured up the tower around 7 pm to have a look and secure things. Something seemed a bit strange and it took me about a ½ minute to realize that the light bulb was not on in the lens. It was that time of day, still bright enough from the sun to not notice immediately the light bulb. But notice I did as I walked around the lens and saw only one of the backup lights on the east side on outside the lantern room.  I ran down the stairs to find Fred and let him know. We called Cyndy to make sure we knew the exact reset button to try to get power back to the lens. That button is located in a box inside an inner room to the whistle house. We located it and Fred pressed it to hear the large relay make a loud noise (the relay engaging) and I saw the light come on in the lens from the door of the whistle house. Whew – so glad she came back on. We have had short power outages, which did not affect the lens light bulb, but this longer one did. If we had been unable to turn the lens on, we would have called to Coast Guard for assistance.  We will be sure to check the light if this happens again in the future. We had some pasta for dinner with a salad. I was dreading the next morning but took a shower and lay on the floor all night with Sac. Of course I couldn’t sleep much or well and morning came all to soon.