30 May 2011

We awoke to the sound of the foghorn again, but this time it was just messing with our heads.  I went outside and saw blue-sky overhead, by the time we were wrapping up breakfast the fog had lifted enough we could see Popham Beach.  The temperature also started rising immediately; the space heater got a reprieve from its duties for the first time in 4 days.

Not wanting the good weather to go to waste I decided to take up my new favorite sport: off-road mowing.  Amy, sensing danger, opted to stay up top and work in the museum, while I headed to the bottom to do battle with the flora of Seguin.  Due to an engine casualty on the new, 7HP, self-propelled mower, I had to work with the old 4.5HP mower that actually had been condemned, until the new one crapped out. 

Darcy took off to the hills on hearing the metallic banging and string of profanity the first time I pulled on the starting cord.  A word to the wise: if tin snips and a hammer are needed to successfully start a mower, things are probably not going to go well.  I did get it running, and it did work, for about 15 minutes, burning mostly oil I think, before the bolt holding the blade in place sheared off.  Not so surprisingly, I didn’t even hit anything.  It just came apart.

This necessitated a trip to the top of the island again, to retrieve the other condemned mower, and haul it down to the bottom.  I got mower number two running without using fine adjustment tools, and got the rest of the bottom mowed, plus part of the south trail, just as our visitors arrived. 

They came in two groups, about an hour apart.  The first was a group of Sebasco Estate employees, scoping out charter boat trips; they were very energetic and promised to return multiple times this season with tourists and barley sodas.   The second group consisted of two folks in kayaks, one of who promptly threw up when he came ashore.

I politely enquired if they had a rough trip paddling out to the island, to which they replied yes indeed, the mouth of the Kennebec was very rough, with some standing waves close to Pond Island.  I offered the observation that trying to exit the mouth of the Kennebec at a max ebb tide could be a harrowing experience in a good sized power boat, never mind trying to paddle through it, and that you should rarely try to hug the east side of Pond Island.  I love being helpful.  They were good sports about it, agreed that they would not try it again, and asked if there were any charter boats making daily runs to the island. 

It turned out the charter boat was not needed (although I did provide them with Ethan’s card), after resting for a couple of hours, eating some food, scoping out return courses and landing sights from the tower, and finally buying some t-shirts, they gamely loaded into their kayaks and paddled off to the north.

Amy & I finished the day off in the cove, her doing yoga, the pooch playing games with the waves, and me setting up my chair in the Boathouse.  The hanging recliner which was an impulse buy back in Mississippi was clearly meant for Seguin, as the height of the Boathouse door is perfect to accommodate it and it rests perfectly on the skids when I take it in for the night.  The day wrapped up clear with a moderate SW’ly breeze, E’ly seas, and temps cooling off into the low 60’s from high 70’s earlier in the day.