By: Karen Dow, SV Karen Lee

The morning of July 27, 2012, I had such a magical visit to Star Island.

Our boat – a ketch named Karen Lee – was anchored in Gosport Harbor, and while my husband remained onboard to tend to nautical issues, I rowed into shore and headed for the Oceanic Hotel. My first and only other visit to Star had been in 1982, though I’d never forgotten the special place. I was grateful that, despite an ongoing conference, people out on the boats are allowed to come ashore.

Earlier this same morning, upon waking in Star’s harbor, I’d found myself humming the old Irish hymn, “Be Thou My Vision.” I never wake up humming – much less hymns – and the tune was still in my head as I walked around the island. A long-time volunteer named Leslie answered all my questions and made me feel welcome. I moved towards the bookstore and suddenly became aware of a piano in the nearby parlor. Not just any piano music however, but the very same hymn I’d woken up to humming. I couldn’t believe it! Further to my great surprise was the fact the hymn was being played by a very young, angelic-looking boy, all by himself at the upright, playing his little heart out. My only previous connection to this tune had been a few months earlier when it was played at a memorial service for a beloved relative. Coincidence? That person’s Presence? In any case, I felt like I’d entered some incredible Spiritual Experience.

Which continued! As I neared the old stone Chapel, people were singing a lovely Shaker hymn. (Gee, I thought to myself, the music here is sure good.) The Chapel’s windows were all open and those who couldn’t fit inside had spilled out onto the rocks, now listening to a minister tell a funny story (laughter lilting as windchimes), then something about a couple wanting to renew their vows. I sat down on a nearby rock as everything grew very still; all you could hear was Nature as, next, the voice of an older man passionately expressed undying love for his dear wife. His message was short and to the point, but it was the best sermon I’d ever heard on the subject. It was so beautiful.

Like some kind of a butterfly flitted, next, to the sweet Library and Vaughn Cottage where Melissa the Curator brought my attention to a former Pelican: Bobby Wharem. A quote about his quiet, yet helpful, strong life was so uplifting I wrote it down. The experiences I was having that morning just kept going on and on! Rather reluctantly I headed back to the boat.

My husband, as always, met me at the boat ladder and helped me tie up the skiff. “You sure look like you had a good time!” he remarked as, apparently, I looked radiant. We sat down on deck, heads pointing towards the Chapel. I attempted to tell him all about the couple renewing their vows, but all I seemed able to say however as my eyes filled with tears was, “It was so beautiful!” And it was.

My sincere gratefulness to Star Island and all the conference attendees for allowing this sailor to step ashore and have a little taste of what attending a conference or a workshop must feel like. It is truly another world on Star and although the s/v Karen Lee has taken me and my husband to many lovely, distant ports and islands, Star Island, to me, is like nowhere else. Though it is winter as a I write this, Star clearly calls to me: “You WILL come back!”

I sure hope so.

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By Linda Anderle, Former Island Registrar

Everyone that has ever stepped foot on one or the other of the Isles of Shoals has a list of descriptive adjectives of every element contained in this grouping of islands. One need not compare the lists for they all register many of the same. It is the adverb – the modifying or qualifying of an adjective that can expresses one’s relation of place, time and circumstance of experiences gathered at the Shoals. Having stepped ashore, my view changed….

It was a yellow scrap of paper with the scribbled name Celia Thaxter. No other words to recall the reason this name was written. Had I needed to phone her? Had she come into my shop? What was I to have done for her? As it was my nature, to use tiny scraps of paper for jotting notes, when this slip of paper ‘surfaced’ again on my desk, I was puzzled. Who is she? Why did I not write more details? Days and weeks followed and now years since Celia ‘invited’ me to her home.

At the end of my third visit and a 6 weeks stay on Star 1999, I was ‘given permission’ to make yet another life changing decision to seek new soil and I was standing on it. I was actually going to be able to return and live on island for longer periods of time. The ultimate adventure of living among the Isles of Shoals.

An escapade of daily discoveries for a flat-land Texan. From Gift Shop Manager to Island Registrar and as we islanders know – everything else that is required 24/7 when living on a rock in the powerful Atlantic.

Who could have predicted the connections and revelations, including and certainly not limited to: uncovering of a Joslin relative who resided on Star in 1633 and to the achievement of collaboration in shedding new light on the artistry of Celia Thaxter?

The view: of land and sea, of vast subjects of study, of people and places. My view took a fresh light while ‘on island’ and it carries forward. Each task undertaken, each person’s path crossed and involvement in all activities have given me gifts far beyond any wrapped with paper in a box. A gift of time few have had the opportunity to embrace that is now a treasure of a lifetime.

Modify – make change, typically as to improve…

Qualify – entitled to a particular benefit or privilege…

Before Star, New Mexico was home for my soul and now my spirit sails from here to there and back more times than one would think. Life was modified and qualified after a night on island. To have participated was a privilege. The spirit of the Shoals never fails us just as Celia’s sunrise never fails us.

Will I come back? It’s not a question for I have not left.

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