Aug. 7 – Jewell Island, ME

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.

It is a substantial building, about 50 feet tall, as tall as many Maine lighthouses! There is a large square room inside the base, this room is called the Mariner's Refuge. It was intended to shelter sailors who wrecked on the island during storms and it was stocked with food, blankets, and other necessities. The light displays a white flash every four seconds and has a range of five miles.

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.