I’ve been under the radar or at least without internet for the past week. We left Salem, MA 9/3 and sailed out through the Annisquam Canal to Massachusetts Bay. We had a couple of short sailing days, to Plum Island and Harmon Harbor, NH, the home of the Seabrook nuclear plant, the narrowest bascule bridge with rip currents and power boats only.
From there we’ve enjoyed reunions with old friends. We sailed to Isles of Shoals, which is in both NH and Maine and picked up a mooring for a night. We met up with Malcolm and Carl, who were heading south after their sail in Maine. We walked around Appledore and enjoyed the garden of Celia Thaxter, which has been recreated. Star Island has a large facility for religous retreats and we had dinner there. Isles of Shoals is about 9 miles out of Portsmouth, NH and there have been some grizzly events there over the years. One is retold in Weight of Water.
Weather was forecasted to get rough so we only stayed one night and then headed back to last year’s lighthouse, Seguin Island, ME, 57 miles away. It was wonderful to head to the lighthouse from the water with that marking our destination. We saw whales and dolphins along the way. We could see the island from about 16 miles out. We spent a rocky night in the cove and walked the island. Tim thought it looked smaller than last year, kind of like seeing the bathrooms in your old elementary school. But it was great to be back there. We needed to provision and headed into Casco Bay to Sebasco Harbor. We picked up a mooring and took advantage of all the shore amenities, laundry, shower, internet, restaurants. Shirley tried to jump ship when we were at the dock, She jumped onto the dock but quickly returned to the boat. We even went for a bicycle ride and were greeted by an old friend, Ethan, who knew it could only be us on our goofy fold up bikes. We returned to Seguin and met the Friends of Seguin there because it was lighthouse day in Maine and then they were closing up the island. We reconnected with Cyndy, Connie, Dave and Linda and Jim.
We toured the lighthouse and marvelled at the wonder of the fresnel lens. We had a delicious lobster dinner and each ate 2 lobsters! It was foggy so we got to hear the foghorn and see the umbrella effect of the light. We hiked the trails and picked up the trail markers. There was even a bald eagle on the rocks. Our experience was complete. The next day we put away furniture and boarded up the house.
Yesterday we had a great sail to Squirrel Island. We went ashore and ran and hiked around the island. We are taking advantage of good internet connection this am while we charge our batteries with the generator and then we are sailing off to Damariscove Island.
Photos to follow
We are moving for a change. We finished all this year’s projects and winterized and stormproofed the house. Then we hauled our stuff down to the beach in wheelbarrows and took several dinghy trips out to the Boston Whaler. We moved everything onto the S/V Water Lily and ran lots of errands in town getting her in shape for the trip. It was more tiring than any day doing work on the island- the running around part.
