Day 62, 18 July

40 visitors

Today we finally got off on a beautiful morning for our shore leave. We had a quick breakfast and said our goodbyes to our overnight guests. We waited at the beach in the cove for Ethan with our stuff and greeted Anne who came ashore from her pretty dark blue sailboat. She brought us chocolate biscotti’s that she made on the boat – yum! We also had a small dinghy come ashore with a lady – her husband dropped her off and he was going to go back to his boat to get a few more. This is when Ethan arrived in the Guppy and our work crew jumped out with our next overnight guest Bertha – whose grandparents were keepers here on Seguin. I only had time to shake her hand, introduce myself and say hello. We got our stuff on the boat and then the action started. There were some strange rough waves that appeared and pulled the boat to one side and Mary went down in the water off of a rock. She popped back up and was all right. The boat in the current and waves continued to head for more rocks and everyone got out of the way so Ethan could power it out of danger. We all got to the beach and waited as Ethan bailed some water that had gotten in the end of the Guppy. Fred and I still needed to get on board and we asked the man in the little dinghy if he could bring us out to the Guppy. He agreed and we hopped in but at that moment the waves came again and nearly bowled us over. Cyndy was trying to help steady the dinghy but took a hit and went down in the water – she was OK. From that same wave we got slapped hard and got soaked good. We had one more slapper wave in which I thought we were going to roll but awesome Cyndy prevented us from doing so and we finally got going out into the cove. The man got his little motor going and off we went to meet the Guppy. We thanked the man profusely and hopped aboard the Guppy and were finally on our way – soaked but safe.

Downtown Bath, FOSILS Office is on left

When we got to the dock at Popham it was lined with boats so Ethan doubled parked and we climbed out through another boat with our containers. There were two nice men that helped us and gave us a hand. I ran to get the car as Fred loaded the stuff up the gangplank and stacked it for my arrival. I noticed a lot of people arriving and milling about – Ethan’s visitors that were going for their ferry ride to Seguin. I said hello to some of them and hurried to the car. We got our stuff loaded and off we went to drop off our recyclables at the school and hit a little roadside stand for fresh strawberries, potatoes, green beans and peas. We then went to Cyndy’s house were I stashed the fruit and veggies in her fridge, gave hugs and kisses to Hinckley and we started to wash the sheets from the over night guests. Linda a neighbor stopped

Famous Old Clock in Bath

by to say hello and she had her adorable sleeping granddaughter in her arms. After she left, we stripped down to our birthday suits and put our wet clothes in the dryer. So here we were in Cyndy’s house, stark naked waiting for our clothes to dry. All we needed was for the cops to drive by and ask what the hell we were doing naked in Cyndy’s house! – HA! After 10 minutes our clothes were mostly dry and we put them back on to do two errands – get gas and mail off my brother’s birthday presents – Seguin cap and T-shirt. Went back to Cyndy’s and put the sheets in the dryer and off to Bath to the office. There we handed in our sales stuff and got new stuff for the gift shop. We had another pleasant chat with Catherine and then off to the Irish pub in Bath for delicious pastrami Rueben’s. At the pub we saw DD and had a little chat with her.  She is the Treasurer of the FOSILS group.

After lunch Fred went to Wilson’s drug store and I got a super comfy orange striped sundress that was made out of bamboo at a local shop. We hopped in the car to take a drive to Boothbay, which was about 45 minutes north of Bath. We had to go through Wiscasset, which always has a big slowdown of traffic for no apparent reason and we chugged through there and off through the beautiful Maine countryside to finally arrive at Boothbay. We located our goal – a very yummy local ice cream shop and had the most delicious, natural homemade ice cream and sat by the bay enjoying the views of all the boats coming and going.  We managed to do a little shopping on the way back to the car and got to pet a retrieve-adoodle that was in one store. They are so cute! Back we hopped in the car to go back and went through the slow section in Wiscasset again, though not as bad on the southbound side. We stopped at a Shaw’s just outside of Wiscasset for our groceries and hurried back to Cyndy’s to get the laundry and veggies. One last hug and kiss for Hinckley and we raced back to the dock, hoping we were not keeping Ethan waiting. He was transferring from the Leeward to the Guppy and we got our stuff down to the dock and I returned the car to the church. The same young man that helped Fred in the morning was there and he helped Fred again and we waited just a few minutes for Ethan to take us back home. We had a nice chat with the young man who said he was working on getting jobs for homeless people to help them transition back to society. A nice ride back and we arrived at the island at high tide and had to use the dinghy to get us and our stuff ashore.

Lettuce and Arugula from our Garden

When Mary went to get on the dinghy from the beach a wave caught it and she went in the drink again – a 2 dunking day for her. But she is tough and didn’t let it bother her. After Fred came back we loaded the few things left and I went back in the dinghy with him. I managed to get out Ok and the waves weren’t bad. Fred rowed Jeff back to the Guppy and returned and we pulled the dinghy back up on the beach and secured her. We loaded the stuff up to the tram and I went up to the house to check on Sac and Bertha. We got the stuff up on the tram and to the house and packed it all away. We could finally relax a bit and had a nice long chat with Bertha. The stories of her grandparents and relatives were so fascinating and interesting and we enjoyed her company. We took her up into the lighthouse for a nice sunset tour and she really enjoyed being with Beauty. It was so neat to think about her relatives in the same place doing the same things that I have been doing.   Her grandfather, Millard H. Urquhart, Sr. was the assistant keeper from 1928 to 1931 and was the head keeper from 1931 t 1938, a total of 10 years.  How nice and special it was to have a direct descendant from Seguin keeper of long ago.

At around 9:30 pm I finally got around to making a big salad – this time lettuce and arugula for the first time from my very own garden and chives and cilantro. I mixed in other store bought veggies and enjoyed the taste of my efforts and it was very good. I did notice a strange cold draft in the kitchen and finally figured out it was from the outside wood fascia boards that were removed from the kitchen roofline to be replaced. They are drying out the rest of the wood members but it leaves the space for the breeze to come it. Wonder if the moths get in too?

Sac had trouble sleeping and I finally got her comfortable at about 3 am and I was able to finally drift over to my green lettuce and arugula dreams.