We headed Down East (Chris and I have a bit of a competition going to see who can use “Down East” more often in conversation, now that we’re all local and know what it means..) towards Seguin Island.  This island is even more remote and held the promise of freedom, nature in the wild, and quiet.  I have a memory from 1994 of the most intense quiet I have ever heard.  I felt like I might have a similar experience somewhere in Maine.  I spent a weekend on an island in the archipelago of Stockholm, far from the mainland.  The silence of that place filled my ears and overcame my senses.  It was a quiet that made the sky above seem bigger and blacker than it ever did before.  It pressed in on me and yet made the world seem infinite at the same time.  Have you ever experienced that?  Well, Seguin Island was NOT the place I would experience it…

We pulled in to the harbor and found the 4 Coast Guard moorings that the cruising guide promised.  Anchoring here is not recommended, so we were glad to see that only one other boat was using a mooring.  We set our mooring but were unhappy with our proximity to the shore and the other mooring.  It seems that a 47 foot boat is on the large side for coastal cruising in this part of the country and the moorings are set up with smaller boats in mind.  Luckily, the other boat left, so we moved to their mooring.  No other boats arrived the entire time we were there, which, as you will see, was a VERY good thing.

We packed up our backpack with bug spray and waters and set out for another exciting day, exploring what seemed like a quiet island.  We were not disappointed.  First thing, we discovered a composting outhouse that was built by a Boy Scout for his Eagle Project.  It was a great “port-a-potty” and it was clean and well built.  It’s funny how living on a boat will quickly make something like an outhouse a highlight of one’s day.

A short hike led us to the lighthouse, which sat atop a hill with views in every direction.  It was stunningly beautiful in that windswept, desolate way that only lighthouses hills can seem to conjure up.  Finding a snake was the only drama around.  Even the lighthouse keepers were nowhere to be found.  A walk along the northern shore of the island introduced us to the keepers, who were out for a walk.  From North Carolina, they applied for the sought-after volunteer position to be keepers for the summer.  They told us what it was like to live on an island all by themselves, with only a weekly mailboat to bring supplies and contact to the rest of the world.  Luckily, they enjoy the visits from recreational boaters and the lobstermen, who leave “extras” for them when they fill their boats early in the day.  Sounds like a very cool retirement schtick to me.

We hiked the rest of the island and returned to the dinghy, happy to see that we had not made the same low-tide mistake again!  Back to the boat for a paddle/kayak/swim and then we got ready for a storm that was coming in.  We went to sleep, knowing we would be up at some point during the night.  We listened for the wind and the rain, and sure enough, it woke us and gave us quite a scare.

If you follow us on Facebook (Like our fanpage: conwaysailors), you already know from my updates the next morning that it was quite a night.  Chris was up for quite a while.  In the darkness, with the waves crashing on the rocky shores close by, and the eerie sound of the fog horn, it was hard to tell what was happening.

standing watch at 4am

Then I heard a crash against our hull.  I ran up top and saw that we had bumped into one of the other Coast Guard moorings.  We were nowhere NEAR this mooring during the day, so now we were convinced that we were dragging our mooring.  As I have mentioned, our boat is on the larger side for coastal cruising, and it seems that many of the moorings are not heavy enough to hold us.  Our cruising guide didn’t mention a size limit on these moorings and neither did the lighthouse keepers, but it is hard to convince yourself of these book facts in the middle of the night during a storm.

the waves I knew were crashing on the nearby rocks

We decided that I would stay up on watch for the rest of the night and try to gauge whether or not we were dragging.  At least I got to wear my new Helly Hanson foul weather gear!  I bundled up, made my Chinese herb “tea” and grabbed some Biscoff cookies to keep me occupied when I wasn’t standing on the stern, staring into the darkness.  The only thing I could make out in the pitch blackness was the white froth of the waves as they crashed into the rocks, in what I hoped was the far distance.  But the longer you stare at that whiteness, the closer it seems to get.  The wind was swinging the boat through 180 degrees, so in fact, we were closer to the rocks at times.  It was hard to discern if we were swinging safely or drifting toward the rocks.  Twice I almost woke Chris up, thinking that we should start the engine and just leave, but I knew that we were safer attached to a mooring than trying to sail off into oblivion.

sunrise never felt so good

Slowly, very slowly, the sky began to lighten.  Part of me was relieved to know that the end was near, but as the rocks blurred into view, I was more and more convinced that we were closer than we were during the daytime, even with the swing of the boat taken into account.  The eyes play tricks in the morning twilight, so I stayed calm and watched the depthsounder, which didn’t budge from 23.8 feet (that made me feel better).  So did my tea and cookies.  Eventually, I busted out my Guide to the Maine Coast and started reading up on our next few stops, glancing up every paragraph to make sure we weren’t getting too close to the rocks.

Chris checks for damage from banging into the mooring

As soon as Chris woke up, we got things ready to go and pulled anchor.  We left Seguin Island with the joy of spending a peaceful afternoon roaming around and also the confidence of having weathered our first storm.

Stay tuned for more on Maine’s beautiful coastline and to see if I could possible write a whole paragraph without using parentheses (probably not), or too many commas.

paddleboarding before dinner

snakes at the lighthouse

helicopter landing on Seguin Is.

a baby seagull (?) we found on our hike

good dinghy. stay.

Fresnel Lens at the Seguin Is. Lighthouse