Assistant Lighthouse Keepers 7/29- Lobstering and Straightsmouth Island, Massachusetts

 Lobstering and Straightsmouth Island

After working hard for a couple of days, John said he'd take us out on the small boat to do some lobstering one afternoon.  Oh my gosh!  We were excited.  Thacher Island has several traps (10?) that are set off Thacher Island and a keeper can go out and see if there's a catch.  It's an unspoken rule that the lobsters are also shared with the keepers on Straightsmouth Island.  There are lots of buoys in the harbor and we had to look for Thacher Island's colors.  So the three of us would look for a buoy.  I sat in the front so it was my job to catch the buoy and pull it in to the boat.  As it got closer and closer to the boat, Scotty took over and pulled the trap up and over, into the boat.  It's amazing how heavy the traps are.  Sometimes the ropes were knotted or caught an that made it harder.  We all wore gloves because pulling on the wet rope could definitely hurt your hands.  Scotty's strong so he had no problem pulling the traps in.  We put the lobsters into a bucket with water.  We caught several, so we took 2 over to Straightsmouth Island.  We did a quick walk around of the island.

I tried pulling in a trap, but it was much heavier than I thought and
couldn't pull it completely into the boat!

Straightsmouth Island is the island closest to Rockport, Massachusetts that you pass on the way out to Thacher Island.  The lighthouse has been closed to the public for many years.  This year will be the first year that lighthouse keepers will be staying on the island.  They have finished building the dock and are working on a public compost toilet and updating the trails.  It's very interesting that there aren't seagulls all over this island.  Anita has told me that she was struck by the number of songbirds that she could hear on this island.  Also, there is a bluff on the island that faces west.  Apparently, it is a great place to sit and watch the sun set.  Hopefully, we'll be able to be lighthouse keepers on this island sometime in the future.

Wayne carried the buckets full of lobsters up to the house with the tractor.  Once in the kitchen, Anita started boiling the water.  She boiled them in the sea water for 14 minutes (check on that time).  I had the job of pulling them out of the pot!

Dinner is served!!  We each had a whole lobster with butter.  No sides as the lobster was enough!!

We had after dinner entertainment.  The shells were thrown off into the brush and of course, the seagulls were all over them.  We have a resident sea gull, Captain Hook, named because of the hook that is probably in his mouth with fishing line trailing out of his beak.  The thing about seagulls is that they are very territorial so Captain Hook has a good life.  He lives near the keepers' houses and gets occasional scraps thrown out to him.