Jewell
Island - Anchorage
We
spent a quiet slow morning enjoying our beautiful view in the anchorage. We
decided to go back to Jewell Island to position ourselves to depart Maine and head back to Massachusetts on Thursday…weather permitting. It was a beautiful
day and we spent time after lunch exploring in the dinghy. At low tide Stan
took me to shore and I spent a couple of hours on the beach relaxing and
looking for sea glass.
Since we don't have a lot to report on today I will share a little history. This
is the Orrs Island-Bailey Island cribstone bridge was built in 1928 with 10,00
tons of split Maine granite laid in an open cribwork held in place only by
gravity. Its graceful span is engineered to allow the free flow of tidal
currents and to withstand the corrosive effects of salt and the abrasion of
ice. It is the only bridge of its type in the world and is listed in the
National Register of Historic Places and is a National Historic Civil
Engineering Landmark.
A close up of the granite blocks...only kept in place by gravity!
This
is the Little Mark Island Monument, built in 1827; it is one of about a dozen granite
towers built as daymarkers on the New England coast during the nineteenth
century. Little Mark Island tower is built of dressed granite
blocks.
At
some point in modern times (no one seems to know the date), the Little Mark
Island Monument became a lighted aid to navigation. Is it a lighthouse? It has
never been considered a lighthouse in Maine, because this not what Maine
lighthouses look like, and it never had a keeper. But if it were located almost
anywhere else it would undoubtedly be on the lighthouse lists.
Some of the little beaches we explored today.
I may never want to look for sea glass in Texas again...notice how rounded these pieces are. The rock beaches do a much better job of polishing glass than a sand beach does.
Love the sea glass! But, the beaches look much different from what we're accoustomed to seeing, with the rocks and evergreens. Hope you guys have great weather as you move further south.
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