Jan. 5, Saturday: Temp. 38, wind WSW 15 knots at noon. Morning clear. P.M. cloudy. This is our quiet season on the island and usually will stay so until the lobstermen start setting out traps in April, sometimes in March if we have a mild one. Not many boats on the moorings here now. Some have been hauled out for the winter and some are at the floats and moorings at NE Harbor. Several of our island men have homes there now, as well as homes here, and will return to our island to live only during the milder months, especially if they have children attending high school. A few of the lobstermen have traps fishing and go out only after a long set-over. They carefully pick a good day. Times have changed. In my youth, winter lobstering was engaged in whenever a man could get out. I remember one February in the early 1930s when Dad was able to get out most every day and it was worth his while to do so. Lobsters were up to 50 cents per lb. In those times, that was considered a hefty price. And lobstering stayed good offshore, if you could get out in those winter months. Some construction is going on here now, however. The store is open most every day and the post office is in operation. Town and Neighborhood House meetings are held from time to time, church is held twice a month, and the school activities with the merry laughter of our schoolchildren is always a pleasant boost. But compared to our bustling summer days we are at a low ebb right now, and it is good for a change.
Thursday, Jan. 10: wind WSW today at 8 knots, bar. reads 29.44, snow before dawn. Bob Bayer from the University of Maine in Orono came over today at 11 a.m. with a photographer friend, Bill Kuykendall. They had lunch with us and took pix and a tape of me talking about lobstering and life on the island in earlier days. Bob teaches at the University of Maine and is also executive director of the Lobster Institute there. Jack Merrill visited with us for a while too. He brought them over on his lobsterboat, BOTTOM DOLLAR, and also took them back to NE Harbor.
Jan. 15: Temp. 31, wind ENE 10 knots. A lobster meeting at the co-op dock today at noon. Directors present were Jack Merrill, Paul Thormann, Eric Jones, Joey Wedge and Ted Spurling, Jr. The co-op dock is not active every day now, unless some of the lobstermen venture out. Business was discussed as well as future plans and projects. Hopes were expressed for a good year.
Friday, Jan. 18: Wind W at 12 knots and temp. 30 at noon. Sunny all day long. The workmen are coming right along on the new house being built for Hugh and Karen Smallwood on Hadlock St. just east of the Parsonage. The little C.I.R.T. (Cranberry Island Realty Trust) house down the road to the west, on town land, is ready to be lived in except for a well. This has to be drilled whenever the driller can get over to the island. In earlier times, dug wells were sometimes dug where a “water dowser” would suggest a spot. Not far from the C.I.R.T. house my brother-in-law, Francis Armstrong, with his “dowsing stick” several years ago, marked such a spot for his friend, Harold Finnemore, who owned a small cottage and land there then. I never could get the dowsing stick to work for me, but many I know can, and some swear by it. An uncle who once farmed and owned a lot of land in West Granby, Connecticut, used to be greatly sought after by folks in that area to find water for them, and he mostly could. Alton Hayden, also known as “Uncle Alty of the Connecticut Valley,” got to be a legend in his own lifetime, some two generations ago. He always had the best luck, he told me, by using a crotched branch of green apple wood.
Rob Mocarsky and his wife, Katya, we hear, will have the new C.I.R.T. home.
Will and Amy Palmer have just left for a belated honeymoon in the West Indies. They were wed in our Cong. Church last June 23.
Sat., Jan. 28: temp. 39, wind SW, light. We recently received a complimentary copy of a video film titled “A Sense of Place, a Sense of Time,” about Islesford and its people, from Jeff Dobbs Productions. It was produced by Friends of Acadia, the Island Institute and Acadia National Park. Copies were also given to several others who contributed to this beautiful and informative video.
Feb. 1: Wind E at 30 knots, temp. at noon 29. An interesting meeting was held at our Islesford School House this morning at 10:30. Many ventured out into the blustery winds and icy roads to join students and teachers there for a festive occasion: the issue of a new stamp by the U.S. Postal Service of Langston Hughes, during Black History Month on what would have been his 100th birthday. Joy Sprague, our postmaster, gave a short speech, then Ashley Bryan read aloud some of Langston Hughes’s poetry. An official from the Portland Post Office presented Ashley with a poster of the new stamp in thanks for the illustrations he did for the books of Hughes’s poetry. All the schoolchildren read from their own original poetry and all enjoyed Joy’s special crème puffs – 60 in all.
Betty Sprague has retired from her job as postal clerk, which she has faithfully served for many years. Amy Palmer will take Betty’s place, starting today.
Feb. 8.: temp. 38, wind NW. `Tis a very pleasant day. Cara and I went to Franny Jo Bartlett’s home, the Braided Rugs Inn, about 1 p.m. We had a nice visit with her and with Brooke Childrey, creator of our Islesford Historical Museum. Brooke is planning a quilt display here this summer and Franny Jo is loaning some beautiful antique quilts, still in excellent condition.
Feb. 11, Monday: wind NW at 18 knots, temp. 22. Ted Jr., his wife, Jeri, and two of their daughters, Marya and Christy, have recently returned from two weeks in the Dominican Republic, West Indies, with a medical mission group.
Bud Dwelley and his wife, Shirley, and Dale Hadlock and his wife, Jeanine, went “all out” for going south – they took a plane from Florida to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and from there went aboard a cruise ship and went around Cape Horn and also through the Straits of Magellan and up the west coast of South America to Santiago, Chile. From there they flew back to Florida.
Thurs., Feb. 14: temp. 29, wind SW at 12 knots. It was only 8 degrees at 6 a.m. Today is Valentine’s Day. Among some fine ones we got was one from Sarah Corson and Dick Atlee, showing a huge red Valentine near the top of a tree with two crows perched above, wondering. Another card was from Lewis Strudwick from Barbados, in the West Indies. On it he wrote, “while I certainly enjoy gathering mussels on Islesford, there is a lot of fun catching flying fish down here. And with a side dish of casava and salad and a spot of rum, it’s almost as good as lobster!” Also there is a picture on the card with him standing on a sandy beach near a palm tree, holding a dip net on high to catch an airborne flying fish. Lewis and his wife, Shelby, spend some of their summer days at Islesford, at a little cottage on the north shore near Marsh Head. From there they can see lobster boats go to and fro, and cruise ships passing by offshore from Bar Harbor.
Our granddaughter, Heather, fetched us the school newspaper today, the Cranberry Press, Volume 3, Issue 3.
Thursday, Feb. 21: wind south at 8 knots, temp. 40. Rain early, then drizzle and fog. A monthly meeting at the Neighborhood House at 1 p.m. Cindy Thomas, our librarian, announced a grant from MBNA. With this money she plans to buy 10 new chairs, 18 books, 9 videos and some newspapers. The Olympics in Salt Lake city are winding down now. It has been fun to watch. I saw a “whirling dervish” once, years ago in the Middle East, but I honestly do believe some of those skaters would have him beat.
Feb. 27: temp 40, wind S at 15 knots, rain before dawn and then off and on. A full moon tonight, called by some the Full Snow Moon. It is also in perigee, which makes for extra high and low tides. The moon is a beautiful, interesting and useful object up there in the sky, and much has been told and written about it in songs, poems and such. Many of our sayings and idioms are connected with it. Monday is named for the moon. Also the moon gives us the uncomplimentary term “lunatic,” so called because it was once thought that too much exposure to moonlight could make one “moonstruck” and therefore “loony.” The monthly full moons have names also. Some are called Beaver Moon, Wolf Moon, Strawberry Moon and of course Harvest Moon. American Indians used to reckon time by “many moons ago.” The moon rises about 50 minutes later each day. The tides are later each day also, to correspond with the moon’s lag. One can tell the time of high water by noting the direction of the moon in the sky. From my upstairs south window, when the moon is at the window’s left or eastern edge, it is always about high tide, no matter what time of day or night or what phase the moon is in. In different areas, of course, you would need different marks or compass directions. If you want to ascertain whether Mr. Moon is waxing or waning, use your right hand to form the curve of the letter “D,” using the thumb and forefinger. If this fits the shape of the moon, it is waxing. Using the left hand’s thumb and forefinger, form the letter “C.” If it fits the moon’s shape, it is waning. When the moon gets into its crescent shape this can be done better.
The moon was a more useful navigational aid before the invention and perfection of the chronometer or “sea clock.” A lunar observation could be taken if conditions were right and you had the moon in the sky. This was to determine your longitude. But you had to be a good navigator and mathematician, as Nathaniel Bowditch, the father of navigation, was.
I have used the moon many times during my deep sea faring days. Not just to get my longitude, but mostly when it was seen during the day and at a fair distance from the sun. Then with a so-called “line of position,” taken from both, where the lines crossed on your chart, that would be your location or fix. This was back in the days when you relied on celestial navigation completely, no satellite navigation nor the electronic aids such as we have today. The only times I “disenjoyed” seeing the moon was during World War II on convoy duty in the North Atlantic, especially if my ship was in “coffin corner,” one of the two after corners of the convoy. If the moon was at all bright it would be a great help to lurking submarines. I sometimes heard it referred to as “Hitler’s Little Helper.” But to get back to more cheerful facts: a lot of romance is also connected with our good old moon. I especially liked hearing Kate Smith sing her theme song, “When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain.” And I must not forget one last bit of moon talk, the honeymoon. It started way back when northern Europeans promoted fertility by encouraging young couples to drink mead every day from the first full moon following their marriage to the next. Mead, sometimes called “nectar of the gods,” is honey wine, usually made by fermenting honey, water, herbs and yeast.
Best wishes for a happy spring.