Made it out to White Island of the Isles of Shoals to visit my brother Dan his wife Melissa and my niece Emily. We arrived in Portsmouth after a quick drive down from Portland. We did some food shopping for the island and then packed our gear on the Shoals lab boat Kingsbury that would take us out. When we arrived at Appledore Island where the Shoals Marine Lab is we helped unload the cargo hold full of supplies. It was packed to the rim with everything from fresh produce to massive logs of cream cheese. A huge group of students and faculty came to help unload and it was quite a sight. There must have been more than 50 people all lined up in a chain gang all the way up from the dock to a small dump-body truck and a few other small utility vehicles. We unloaded hundreds of boxes in no time with each person only having to hand it a few feet to the next person. I felt like I was a worker at the the base of a big ant hill and it the experience was quite calming. No thought, just pass the box, get a box, pass the box. Quite lovely.
We then departed Appledore on the Kingsbury and another member of Shoals Marine Lab followed us in a 12 foot Zodiac boat to help us land on White Island. Last year a landing ramp was installed here which helped our landing tremendously compared to the last time we visited Dan a few years back. That time was a wet landing in decent swells and chop and the shore changes with the weather. Sometimes it is almost like a rough beach and others it is very rocky. We made a much smaller chain gang this time. 3 people. Missy, Nicole and I. Dan went back to the boat that was drifting a few hundred yards off shore to get the rest of our gear. We had just missed Susie an intern for the last 2 years being pecked on the top of the head by a tern. She was bleeding pretty good Missy had said but was doing fine.
We lugged our tubs of clothes, bedding, laptops and cameras up to the house on White Island where they all stay. Since last year, the terns have expanded their habitat from the adjoining Seavy Island to White, encroaching on the house and surrounding areas. In order to walk from shore to the house you had to walk through a flock of dive-bombing terns protecting their nests. Dan’s solution is to carry a stick with bright paint on one end and wave it above you as you walk to avoid being pecked in the head. I chose the rudimentary arm wave. I could hear when they were getting close but I’m sure my method is flawed and I’ll have to have a dent in my cranium before I use the stick method. Nicole took to the preferred method instantly and was quite cute traipsing the board walk through the tern’s turf like a cartoon band leader.
We got unpacked and realized that we left the pump for the air mattress at home. Luckily they had a quite effective boat pump that Nicole mastered and we were running in no time. I debagged all of our gear. I think I was a bit overzealous with the waterproofing. Next time I’ll ease up for sure. Our gear could have taken gale force winds, sideways rain and sea-foam no problem. With the new ramp this was entirely, flat out over-kill. I do tend to err on the side of cautious but at least if something happened our gear would have been fine.
We spent time with Emily, cute as the dickens and had some wonderful stir fry for dinner. Dan showed me around a bit and everyone was preparing for the next day’s tern census. I’ll have more later but here is a quick shot I got with the lighthouse to my back of Seavy Island, the the terns and the sunset. Now to see if we can sleep through the foghorn that sounds every 30 seconds, 24/7/365. One tends to forget its existence after the first day we’ve been told and experienced but it will be interesting to see if that happens every time you visit or if you only don’t sleep well the first time out. Wish us luck!
High tide covering the land bridge between White and Seavy Island at sunset with the New Hampshire coast way off in the distance.