Ray, do you think you could live alone, you know, like a hermit?

I think if I lost everything, I could make a go of it, yeah.

Really? For a social butterfly like you?

Yeah, I could see shutting it all down in extreme circumstances.

I don't think I'd last much longer than like a day or so as a hermit before.

I think I'd just go nuts from loneliness. Well, it's not for everybody, obviously. But being out here on this tiny island off the coast of Maine, it's pretty easy to feel isolated. And you know what? Isolation is a good description for Manana Island, which sits just a stone's throw across the water from Monhegan Island, which is about 10 miles from the coast of Maine.

We're isolated out here no matter how you slice it. Manana Island is about 1,800 feet long and about

1,000 feet wide. And the only structures on the island is a foghorn and the ruins of a small house.

I don't even see any trees, just some bushes and grass. Yeah, it's not much. But this was

once home to a man named Ray Phillips, a man who got famous for living out here all alone for

40 years. We're searching for the hermit of Manana Island.

Hello, I'm Jeff Belanger, and welcome to episode 300 of the New England Legends podcast.

And I'm Ray Ozier.

Three hundred episodes.

That's a lot, Jeff.

Yeah, a lot.

We thought about doing some kind of special episode or best of, but we figured every episode could be someone's first visit with

your towny buddies, Jevin Ray. So we'll do what we've done for the past 300 weeks. Explore ghosts,

monsters, eccentric, aliens, true crime, roadside oddities, and other weirdness that makes New England

great. Here, here. Now, it's been an amazing ride so far. To those who have been with us from the start, thank you.

And to everyone who joined us somewhere along the way, we're really glad you're here. We can't do it without you. So please, like, share, subscribe, and post a review for us. It's how you can help us grow. Now, before we go looking for the Hermit of Manana Island, We want to take just a moment to tell you about our sponsor, Nuwadi Herbils.

But before we do that, Nuadi Erbles's founder, Rod Jackson, The Hermit of Manana Island. We want to take just a moment to tell you about our sponsor,

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