Flashes of Panic

More pictures from last Saturday’s cruise:

When I was younger, I was fascinated with watching the dinghy bumping along behind the boat, like a baby elephant latched on to a parent’s tail. Now that we’ve got a powerboat, it’s much more like a little trailer. We tried adjusting the length of the tow rope so the dinghy was always running down the wave behind us, but once we started hitting more significant seas, it was pretty much a hopeless case. We wound up having to heave-to and pull it in at one point to lash down the oars and secure one of the oarlocks due to the knocking about it was taking, and it needed bailing when we got to Indiantown Island.

I mentioned Seguin in my initial post. I think I’ll always recognize the shape of this island, the way I recognize my grandfather’s driveway; it’s the first boat destination I can remember, in my father’s Boston Whaler while I was about the age my nieces are now. The name is pronounced se-GWIN, and the lighthouse has some kind of historic singularity in the Coast Guard (highest on the East Coast? Last manned light in Maine?) This is the west side of the island, taken from the northwest (we’re in by Jackknife Ledge, I think.) On the northeast side there’s a small cove with a some moorings; visitors can climb the long ramp built to drag supplies up to the lighthouse and walk around the islands. The cove is too small for an overnight; anyone desperate enough to look there for shelter might find it hard to get in, and when the Kennebec and Sheepscot were shipping centers there were plenty of wrecks in the area. (Hence the lighthouse.) There’s a small maze of ledges in the area, so when the river pilot meets Navy ships coming in to BIW they generally meet outside Seguin.