26 May 2011

Up early this morning after a solid nights rest.  I got coffee & eggs going while Amy cursed me in a loving fashion for dragging her to a damp, cold island.  Once we had eaten she gained a new perspective on the day, and all was well.  The wind was still gentle E’ly, but the skies were closing in and I could see a solid wall of fog to the south, flirting with a decision to roll in; at 0800 on the nose Amy & Darcy got to hear the Seguin Whistle for the first time.   

We spend a couple of hours down on the bottom of the island checking our situation out; most of the buildings seem to have survived well.  The Boat House is missing a couple pieces of siding, four shingles gone on the north side of the Donkey Engine house, not too bad.  The big issue may be the tram, I have a sneaking suspicion that a couple of the braces have rotted out near the bottoms.  There is a pronounced dip in the track, and a new inboard list.  I’ll be checking into that first dry day we have.

 All in all it was a busy, but good day.  A cursory building inspection done, the big composting toilet has been maintenanced and The Cone leveled, the cistern is over half filled, Amy got the gift shop inventoried and set up, I raked up the first round of grass clippings from the front of the Keeper’s Quarters, bread was baked, soup made, and Darcy found his first dead seagull.  Fantastic. 

We also got the antennae mounted for the VHF radio and got a sat check with USCG Station Boothbay Harbor.  By evening Amy was very curious why I wanted to leave it on all the time .  Personally I find the occasional fisherman or ferry making a call soothing being used to the sound of Indians, Pakistanis, Filipinos, etc, screeching obscenities at each on VHF 16.  Not good enough for her, I explained that it was important to guard the channel in case of a mayday or someone trying to call us.  Not five minutes went by after that conversation when we listened to a search for the sailing vessel Afterglow (she had no charts and her electronics were shot) go down only three miles away at White’s Ledge; the search was done by USCG Boothbay, a Sea-Tow boat, and Dad in his boat.  Point-set-match.  I would rather listen to my father than the Filipino Monkey  on the radio any day.  

If anyone wants to know what the Filipino Monkey is, ask me when you come to visit us on the island.  I promise it is nothing derogatory, it just would take up way too much space to explain here.

Looking out towards the tram from the tower

After a solid ten hours of fog, with the temperature falling, Amy talked me into starting a space heater and blocking off the living room, which is where we are wrapping up the night.  Amy can keep the space heater, I’m enjoying a nip of The Balvenie 12 year, courtesy of her father (thank you Don, it’s excellent).  Wind is starting to shift to more SE’ly than E’ly, the barometer is trending up, and I’m hoping for better weather in the next 24 hours.