Though the cove is well protected from the prevailing southwesterlies of summer, it is quite open to the east, and usually there is a considerable amount of swell sneaking in from this direction. But there are two heavy-duty Coast Guard moorings (at least they look heavy duty) and usually one or two lighter ones.

There is a small cove facing north, in which you are not allowed to anchor, because through it runs the underwater cable that powers the lighthouse atop of the high hill that is the island’s primary topographic feature. Glancing at a chart you wouldn’t think that Seguin seems a propitious place for an overnight. We thought, therefore, it might be fun to take her again, now that she is all of five years old. Finally, just three months after our daughter Lucy was born, Clare and I took her out for a two-week cruise aboard Sophie, my old Golden Hind 31, and Seguin was one of several places we went ashore with her. Lying three miles out to sea, it once marked the outer limit of my nautical universe and spending a night there still feels a little like a trip to the moon. Second, Seguin is a nostalgia-laden destination for me, and I’ve always enjoyed putting in there. First, it was getting late and the tide, which runs very hard in the Kennebec, had starting ebbing with a vengeance.

We also decided, on the sperm of the moment, to stop at Seguin Island for the night before negotiating the river entrance the following morning. We usually visit friends there during the summer and this year decided to sail Lunacy over for a weekend. Just past Small Point at the western boundary of Casco Bay lies Popham Beach and the entrance to the Kennebec River, which, as I’ve mentioned before, is where I first started messing around in boats as a boy.

Lunacy virginia beach