Wednesday, July 11, 2012

amazing summer

Last week I spent on Damariscove Island, whose harbor you can see here in early evening. The Boothbay Region Land Trust owns the island minus the old Coast Guard Station you see here at the mouth of the harbor. Each summer, two caretakers reside on the island for 10 days, then they get 4 days off. Over this Fourth of July week, they had five days off and Marianne Reynolds, Commodore of the BH Yacht Club this year, and I were substitute caretakers for the week.

It was a glorious week though the weather was not perfect. The birds were numerous, especially yellow birds - warblers and goldfinches; the composting toilets worked they way they should; we had plenty of good drinking water which we brought with us; the muskrats were not so numerous that they bothered. The red ants, however, were pesky. They were imported from some boat sometime in the last few years and have taken over some sandy parts of the island. They are a good lesson on how difficult it can be to maintain a balance on an island when a new species of predator - bug or otherwise - is introduced. Chickens seemed to help a few years ago, when caretakers brought them out for their stint on the island. But we had no chickens to bring.

Still, the weather was glorious one day, and it brought many people out on 12 or so boats. They cycled through the tiny harbor with some grace; kids played on the beach and swam like crazy for the water is warm this year; I got to play harbor master and trash collector in a courtesy dinghy. The little museum was open and got a lot of visitors, and kudos for the information there.

That night though, was the full moon. I slept on my boat and woke at five in the am, at dead low tide, to some bumping - not a happy feeling aboard a boat. Peering out of the hatch, I faced the lowest stones of the large stone pier in the middle of the harbor, and realized I was hitting the edge of those stones, albeit gently. Looking out toward the 3 sailboats anchored at the mouth of the harbor, however, I realized that one of them was aground and teetering on the rocks. The people on the boat knew what they were doing however, and waited patiently for the tide to come back in, and the boat floated off in about a half hour. It made for an exciting beginning to an otherwise gloomy day - our only one.

Gloomy days on an island far offshore have their own pleasures. A good book or two, and hike in the fog made our day passable, the birdsong our NPR. A few lobster boats came in to restock their lines with more pots, so we asked if anyone had any lobsters for sale. There were none that day, but the next day, which dawned foggy and then cleared, Bill Hallinan brought us 4 not so soft lobsters for lunch. We sat in the sun on the little cabin's deck and ate them, cooked in seawater, and nothing is as delicious as lobsters eaten that way!

Our stay ended the way it began - with glorious weather, early in the morning. We sailed ever so quietly on very little wind, back into the bustle of Boothbay Harbor. It was an extraordinary week.