A still image from a video of the January 13, 2024 storm that battered the Isles of Shoals. The video was shot by Star Island caretaker Alexandra de Steiguer. Photo courtesy Alexandra de Steiguer
Winter 2024
By Jack Farrell
The unusually warm weather experienced along our coast through November and December allowed the Isles of Shoals breakwater reconstruction project to continue into early January. This extended our season of regular runs to the islands way beyond the normal cutoff of mid-November. Driven by financial incentives in the contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the repair crew was willing to endure wet clothes, cold feet and long evenings in drafty camp trailers in an attempt to meet a major contract milestone before shutting down for the season. But the season was fast running out, and we all told them so. I really like these guys, but it took them a while to understand how bad things can get out there in the winter.
In mid-December the landing craft Lionel LaPlante ran down from Peaks Island for a day to move heavy equipment across the harbor from Star Island to Smuttynose Island for the second phase of the project. The largest excavator was too heavy for the boat. It had to be partially disassembled before making the quarter mile run across the harbor, and then reassembled in the cold on the rough, rocky shore. This was among the largest loads ever moved on the Lionel LaPlante. As usual, Capt. Mulkern and his crew made it look easy.
By the time the big storm hit a week before Christmas (with hurricane-force gusts and 16-foot seas), I was more than ready to wrap things up. But the boys running the job were undeterred, and the work continued until the trailers froze up just after the first of January. With no water or sewer, and limited heat and power, it was getting pretty difficult to sustain a presence out there and get any work done. And it still hadn’t gotten really cold. Finally, on a bitter Friday afternoon with northwesterly winds gusting to 30 knots, four-foot standing waves rolling past the end of the Star Island pier, and salt spray freezing on the windshield and deck of the Shining Star, it was obvious to all that the end of the work season had arrived. The ride back to the mainland driving headlong into the big waves was nothing short of spectacular.
But that’s not where this season’s story ends.
The environmental permitting process for the breakwater project identified significant risks to the marine environment if the usual methods were employed. This would include barges anchored on spuds in the harbor adjacent to the breakwater structures for extended periods to provide working platforms for the cranes and excavators needed to supply and place the stones in the rebuilding process. It was therefore determined that the heavy equipment must be deployed instead from the top of the breakwaters themselves in order to avoid disruption to eelgrass beds and associated critical habitat for fish and shellfish on the Gosport Harbor bottom. But the tracks of the heavy equipment can damage the newly-placed stones on top of the repaired structure. And the bare stones provide an unstable and unsafe footing for the machines (in excess of 100 tons), which can slide unpredictably on the rough and brittle stone surface. The solution was to spread blasting mats on top of the breakwaters as a cushion to protect the new stones, and as a roadbed and base for the heavy machines. These mats consist of salvaged rubber tires connected together by strands of heavy wire cable.
After months of travel over these mats by the heavy machines, the first breakwater section was complete. When the mats were lifted for removal, many of them broke apart, leaving behind loose pieces of tires along the structure and on the rocks at the shoreline. The contractors picked up over 200 cubic yards of these shredded tire chunks by hand to be later removed in lift bags on a barge. Larger damaged mat sections were to be lifted from the shore by a crane onto a waiting barge, but prolonged stormy weather prohibited the crane’s arrival. Some of the loose tire chunks were picked up by the surf in ensuing storms, and scattered along the shore and into the harbor. Ironically, the solution devised to protect the harbor bottom resulted in an unanticipated risk to it. These runaway tire chunks will ultimately need to be collected and removed from the harbor by laborers and a team of divers, one piece at a time.
Our veteran island winter caretaker is a renowned artist. But she’s also a studied naturalist and a devout environmentalist. I have come to know and appreciate her over the years, and I think it’s fair to say that she is unwavering in her commitment to protecting the fragile resources of the Isles of Shoals and the waters around them. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that big storms make her happy, but I do think that part of the appeal of living alone in such a remote place for her is the chance to witness and feel the power of the wind and waves on this outpost in the open sea. And she has seen, over a quarter of a century of wintering on the island, extreme storm conditions that are so unlike those of the dreamy bucolic summers – the experience of almost all other island visitors – that her descriptions of them often come across as gross exaggeration.
The contractors and the Corps of Engineers have stated their commitment to the collection and removal of all of the broken tires as part of the project. They are all good people, and I believe them. Our relentless caretaker will turn their stated intent into a guarantee.
As I write this, word comes in from the Shoals of significant damage in yet another storm. The caretaker’s videos show surf rolling across a damaged and inundated pier, and washed-out roads at Star Island. Waves lash the big excavators and other equipment stashed at Smuttynose Island. The breaking seas at the height of the tide roll unimpeded across the harbor, often obscuring the breakwaters from view. The wooden pier from Cedar Island is swept away to fetch up across the breakwater near the excavators parked at Smuttynose. White water nearly reaches the top of the lighthouse at White Island, 85 feet above mean high water. View these breathtaking videos of winter storm conditions at the Isles of Shoals at You Tube [type “Storm of 1/13/24, Isles of Shoals” in the search bar]. The power of the ocean is on display in all its grandeur, and there is no need for exaggeration.
Jack was the manager at Star Island for many years. He currently manages major construction and utility projects there and provides all-season boat service to the island (average 250 trips per year) for luggage, food, employees, supplies and guests. He also runs Seacoast Maritime Charters, LLC providing year-round private charter boat service and marine logistics to the general public, now in the Shining Star. He still enjoys cruising in his classic Ted Hood sloop, Aloft, and teaching skiing at Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine.
