25 May 2011

Regardless of the amount of experience one can have with Seguin, she will always throw a curve at you.  Ninety-five percent of the time this comes in the form of water coming either up from the ocean or down from the sky.  Hence during the packing process Amy & I packed everything possible into watertight, durable containers, or put everything into boxes lined with garbage bags. 

We arrived at Popham imagining I had Seguin beat this time; then I realized the floats were not in and the tide stood a solid seven feet below the wharf.  With the assistance of Ethan and dependable Gravity, we transferred all of our thoroughly waterproof and now thoroughly awkward & heavy boxes to the boat.  Note to self, rig everything with lowering bridles next time prior to leaving the house.

Of course even foresight of this possibility would not have saved us from one 44 lbs package that you could not attach a strap to:  Mr. Darcy did not appreciate being manhandled down a vertical ladder into the waiting boat.  Had I had free hands to take a picture, I would have, because watching Darcy cling to Ethan with all four paws after I handed him off was hilarious.

Boat loaded, off we went to the island.  The trip out was chilly but otherwise uneventful, we made it to the cove around 1700.  Amy went from all stop to full ahead with the Seguin experience, as I pretty much dumped her out of the dinghy & started thrusting boxes into her hands, yelling “just get it up the beach, we’ll move it later!”  I made five trips with the dinghy, getting all of our stuff & the gift shop swag on, and all of Cyndy’s stuff and Cyndy off.  With turnover complete (“No disasters Nate, the cistern is half full, pump’s off, everything is unlocked, and I didn’t mess with the composting toilet, bye bye, have fun”), quite abruptly Amy & I found ourselves alone on the beach surround by our gear, food, and a gleeful dog who in five minutes had already managed to find the ocean, roll in sand, and get covered in prickers.

I would wager that Amy & I are the first keepers in recent memory to move all our gear up the hill by ourselves, and I loved every second of it.  The donkey engine ran like a champ and after about two hours our gear & supplies went from beach to tram, tram to top, top to the quarters.  The folks who opened for us the weekend prior did fine work, we moved into a clean house.  Amy took care of the bedroom while I took care of squaring away the galley.  Darcy, being ever helpful, managed to insert himself in the way every time we were moving something heavy.

By 2000 we had eaten dinner (what my father would refer to as a Railroad Job, but it was hot, tomorrow I’ll do some real cooking) and made ourselves reasonably comfortable.  With cups of tea in hand I walked Amy up the tower for her first time and we watched the western sky go pink & finally dark.  The sun set with a gentle E’ly breeze, low SE’ly seas, mostly clear sky with some cirrus clouds to the north, and fog rolling in from the south.  I imagine Amy & Darcy will learn what the fog horn sounds like tonight.  My last act before bed is to clean the coffee pot for tomorrow morning, so there will be no delay in the java juice.