Cyndy and I ended up with five days on Seguin to assist the new caretakers in finding their way and to help open the island for summer visitors.  On Wednesday, bright and early, we saw off Greg and Mary to go ashore for weekly chores. Cyndy and I had the day alone on the island until Ethan brought them back and we quickly busied ourselves with cleaning the house and packing our stuff. They left their dog Mitch behind for convenience and he stayed by my side for the rest of the day.  It rained off and on and was foggy but by one in the afternoon, it was just dry enough for that final cut with the sit down mower, even though it clogged often and needed a belt replacement part way through the job.  I left a lot of grass for Greg and Mary to rake but at least the job is done and the lawn is in good shape.

On Tuesday, Greg and I found a 16 foot length of pristine pressure treated 4 X 6 lumber on Cobblestone Beach which must have fallen off a barge.  We managed to move it above the tide line.  When Greg’s brother visits later in the summer, they hope to haul it up the trail.  It could be useful.  The ways from the boathouse were damaged over the winter, I suspect from Hurricane Sandy, and it could be useful in that repair.  On the trail back to the cove, I discovered a pond I didn’t know was there, where Eider ducks were swimming.  Off the Lighthouse Trail were fiddleheads I never knew grew on the island.  And I’d never seen purple pinecones on Fat Albert by the sunset bench.  This is the squat evergreen where we saw a kaleidoscope of migrating monarch butterflies bed down for the night last September on their trip to Mexico.

Before they left, Greg had repaired the broken steps at the bottom of the stairs in the Keepers’ Quarters and fixed the ventilating fan in the outhouse in the cove and Mary had taken down all the shelves from the gift shop and painted them white.

Once ashore, we showered and changed and met Ethan, his fiancé Lindsay, and Jim Bennett at Café Solo in Bath for a meal and happy shared stories.  We practically closed the place down.

There were bad storms in New York on Thursday and my flight out of Portland was canceled.  So after lunch at the Port Hole where Cyndy’s daughter Carney works, I headed by bus to Boston and took the Acela to New York.  It’s a very scenic trip and there was WiFi all the way.

I’ll leave further postings to Greg and Mary about their adventures on Seguin.  They’re off to a great start.  He’s writing in their blog every other day and she’s composing a haiku on the alternate days.  You can find it on the Friends of Seguin Island Light Station web site.  I’ll end with some photos of our adventures and encourage you once again to venture out to this island paradise and see it all for yourselves.