Saturday, July 18
The day of the annual meeting dawned rainy and gray. However by the time Ethan showed up, at 0830, the rain had stopped and we had a decent ride ashore. Brenda carried the cake in her lap all the way. From the tram to the beach, into the dingy, transfer to Ethan’s boat, to the dock, into Brent’s house, into the Scooby van and to the Georgetown community center.
We also decided to take a change of clothes and other stuff in case we had to spend the night ashore. It was forecast to blow up to twenty knots later in the day and we needed to be prepared for whatever happened.
Ethan took us to Brent’s house in Bay Point and Brenda got off with the gear. Ethan and I continued on to transfer from big boat to his skiff, stop at Percy’s in Popham Beach and then go back to Brent’s. Since Ethan picked us up early we had plenty of time and were in no rush.
Once back at Brent’s we loaded the Scooby van (local moniker for Brent’s dog/bait/do anything van) and drove to Five Islands. Ethan took care of us all the way.
Five Islands is just that…five islands in the Sheepscot River, a beautiful area. At the wharf is the Five Island Lobster Company, an eatery and an ice cream place. I went into the lobster company and they had some decals for sale for fifty cents. I wanted two but I only had a five dollar bill in my wallet. So I went outside looking for change. I met a guy hosing down the dock and he checked his wallet for change. He didn’t have five ones so he just gave me a dollar and said “no problem”. I expressed my thanks and went back to the store. In the meantime an employee had returned and I asked him if he had change in the cash register. He said he didn’t know but would check. He couldn’t get the register to open and then he said “What did you want, anyway” I said I wanted two decals and said they were free. I told him that there is a sign that says fifty cents each. He said he didn’t know who put that there but as far as he was concerned they were free. I said “OK” and “Thanks”. Then I went back to the guy on the dock and gave him his dollar back.
That’s the kind of people we had had the pleasure of running into everywhere we have gone in Maine.
About fifty people showed up for the annual meeting. We gave our presentation, Brenda helped with the auction, Connie took care of sales and keeping things straight and, I believe, all had a good time. We met many interesting people and enjoyed the meeting. Money was made at the auctions and we all enjoyed the cook out and desserts.
During the day the sun came out and then went back in. As we traced our steps back to the island we encountered considerable fog until we neared Seguin. The fog had lifted around the island and visibility was improving. The closer we got the better it looked.
It was a long day and we were beat. We went to bed early.
Oh yes, the article we interviewed for was printed in yesterday’s paper. Here is the text…. It was on the front page!
Following The Light
| Bill and Brenda Simmons are spending their summer as lighthouse keepers on Seguin Island for Friends of Seguin Island, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the maintenance and preservation of the historic beacon. |
Maryland couple loves keeping lighthouse on Seguin Island
By Rachel Ganong, Times Record Staff
Published:
Friday, July 17, 2009 2:14 PM EDT
GEORGETOWN — Bill and Brenda Simmons had never stepped foot in Maine before they responded to an advertisement for lighthouse keepers on Seguin Island. Since they got the job, they haven’t stepped much beyond the 64-acre island that sits two miles from the mouth of the Kennebec River.
And that’s fine by them.
“It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Brenda said.
A retired state parks manager and a restaurant office manager from Berlin, Md., the 60-year-olds serve as sentinels for Seguin Island’s historic lighthouse and grounds for the Friends of Seguin Island, a nonprofit organization that assumed care of the lighthouse and island in 1987.
The Friends choose caretakers for the island out of dozens of pairs of applicants every year; this summer Bill and Brenda are filling the post.
From an interview in 2007, they anticipated whitewashing buildings, trimming lawns, living in the quaint caretakers’ quarters and giving tours of the historic lighthouse on an island surrounded by sun-drenched seas, views of the presidential mountain range to the west and Monhegan Island to the east.
When they arrived Memorial Day weekend, they discovered another aspect of their job: the weather.
“We had about three days of sun, and then rain, fog, you name it,” Bill said.
Two months later, however, not even this summer’s slickest conditions have dampened their spirits.
“It’s just the sense of adventure,” Bill said, explaining how he landed a summer on Seguin.
He spied the lighthouse keepers’ job in a caretakers journal listing employment opportunities. Enamored by the proposition of keeping a lighthouse, he and Brenda knew they could do the job: they were physically, financially and emotionally capable and offered marine experience as avid boaters and a hands-on skills set (Bill fixed a lawn mower with a spring from a ball point pen, as an example).
After applying and interviewing for the post in 2007, they learned they received it for 2009.
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Rain notwithstanding, the job is demanding, and the couple has been steadfast in their efforts to prepare the grounds, museum and lighthouse for visiting boaters. With so much painting, cleaning and trimming, theirs is a life of work balanced by wonder.
“It is so beautiful,” Brenda said. “The sunsets are absolutely gorgeous.”
“On the Fourth of July, we could see fireworks from 20 different places,” Bill said.
He pointed to where they launched along a panorama of the Maine coast from Portland to Boothbay Harbor, looking out from the famed, first-order Fresnel lens at the top of the lighthouse.
On the clearest of days, it’s too far to see to their hometown near Ocean City, Md., a summertime tourist flytrap. Instead, visitors to Seguin satisfy their people-loving personalities.
This week, they welcomed a 93-year-old man who kept the lighthouse at age 19 during the winter of 1936. Not able to walk the steep trail from the cove to the top of the island 140 feet above sea level, they loaded him in a diesel-powered tram that runs along a wooden track.
At 150 years old, the tram was there in lighthouse keeper’s day and is still used to convey groceries, drinking water and supplies to the lighthouse and keepers’ quarters.
The tram is one part of an extensive island history Bill and Brenda have learned to share with their visitors, which this summer have included people from Moscow and Finland.
Learning about the island and the light, they’ve come to love not only Seguin, but also the people caring for it.
“The Friends (of Seguin Island) are hurting out there,” Bill said, explaining how efforts like this Saturday’s annual fundraiser are needed to help maintain the island beyond the caretakers’ efforts. “It’s a sign of the times and of the economy.”
“They open up their doors to you and their hearts right away,” Brenda said, explaining how she warmed to the hospitality of Friends of Seguin board members like Ethan DeBery.
DeBery, who runs a shuttle service to Seguin, ferries the Simmonses to shore once a week.
On their “day off,” they run to the grocery stores, eat lunch, post mail and launder clothes, cramming as many errands as they can into their afternoon on the mainland.
By 5 p.m., they are back on the boat and back to the island and back to work.
Unlike most visitors to Maine, there’s been no trips to Acadia National Park or dinners in Portland for the Simmonses; the closest they’ve come to glimpsing Boothbay was Wednesday, one of the clearest days yet.
“We’re not able to travel around,” Brenda said, citing the time constraints of their weekly offshore excursion.
But for this summer’s adventure on Seguin, they’ve learned, putting oneself out there requires simply staying put.
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