Monday, July 27

When we got up today we noticed some people walking around outside. I went out an introduced myself to the three men from Long Island. They had sailed from New York in their thirty-four foot catamaran. They took off on a hike on the North trail and returned later to tour the lighthouse. Meanwhile I saw two Outward Bound boats in the cove. The Outward Bound group made their way to the lighthouse where we gave them a tour and opened the museum.

This was a group of fourteen and fifteen year olds on a two week Outward Bound sailing adventure. They sail in open boats called a pulling boat; these boats were modeled after 19^th century whaling boats. These boats are powered only by sail or by oars and they navigate by dead reckoning. No GPS or fancy chart plotters here. The boats are open to the weather. They erect hoops over the boat and cover the deck with canvas to sleep under. It is a bare bones experience. The only piece of electronics on the boat is a VHF radio.

I watched the boats sail away in the fog around noon. Meanwhile I cleaned the visitor restroom and Brenda continued working in the guest quarters. She finished painting the bathroom walls and then began removing the paint that was spilled on the floor of one of the bedrooms. We can only assume that whoever painted these rooms did not use a drop cloth because the floors are a mess. She spent five hours working on the floor in just one of the rooms. Razor blades, steel wool, mineral spirits, soap and water and a lot of elbow grease. It is a slow process. But, the floor looks great, a real improvement.

I went to the shop to continue my organizing and ended up cutting the grass…..again. Grass is as green as it gets and is growing daily. Looks good but it is a lot of work. By now the sun was shining and the fog lifted. Brenda’s arms were giving out and she stopped around 1800.

Oh yeah, look at the pictures above to see how hard we are working. Don't laugh! Since Brenda was busy I had to get the camera, set it up, focus, move the chair, set the scene, program the camera for a timed exposure and rush back to the seat in time for the picture to be taken. And I had to THINK about all of this ahead of time and precisely plan it.

I mean, she could have taken the picture BUT she was scraping the floor.

It's tough, but somebody has to do the hard work.

A brief storm blew through around 1930 and then the sun came out again, just in time for a nice sunset.