Craighill Keeper’s bLog

The main floor is not in this video, but some of it can be seen in the next video when I show the experimenting we did with geopods. Still working on that one! Had a great time waving at all the boaters who went by! Where I said “fog lights” I meant fog bell. I have fog lights on my car. A fog bell was in the lighthouse!

I do have a request, though. If our little boat is tied up there, please try not to make a huge wake flying by. It slams our boat into the side of the lighthouse. Thanks!

Today we were accompanied by Dr. Larry Forsley and his really cool gadgets and equipment out to the lighthouse. Despite that linked video, I actually understood what he was saying (usually) in person! He brought a laptop (Toughbook, just in case) and these little data collector pods that transmit their data to the laptop as well as record it internally for downloading later. The only problem, which I have already experienced and occurred to me when he was having problems “talking” to one pod we located out on the deck, was that the lighthouse serves as something akin to lead encasing kryptonite for Superman. Nothing really transmits through. I’ve experienced that with my VHF radio, regular AM/FM radio, cell phone, etc. So the pods couldn’t acquire GPS data because they couldn’t “see” the satellites from inside the lighthouse, and the one we placed outside so it could get a GPS fix, couldn’t transmit to the laptop inside. Interesting! We may have to try this again another day.

The coolest part was that Dr. Forsley got my kids involved. He had them assemble the pods before we began and disassemble them at the end. He also instructed them on setting them up and leveling them and then let the kids do that on their own. They really had a blast. These little pods measure movement and vibration. He wanted to see how much the lighthouse vibrates or moves based on tides, ships passing by, etc. I’m curious to know that as well as it feels pretty solid with all that concrete sunk so far down. The database is somewhat intelligent as it can pinpoint if vibrations are a person walking, an animal, a car, etc. Although, it incorrectly tabbed one of us walking as a car driving by. Umm, 2 miles off shore? Don’t think so! I don’t think they were programmed for lighthouse motion datapoints! I can’t wait to see his results - should be interesting.

I’ll be posting a full article once he sends me the results, as well as a video of everything we did after I edit it. In the meantime, here are some photos from today.

P.S. Boat ran great today. I even throttled it up and we flew back to the marina, if a little wet. Whew!

Wow, thanks for the comments below! I’ve had a few website issues lately, so I didn’t get emailed about the new comments, but I think I’ve resolved most of them tonight and the main website is also back up. I’m glad someone has noticed the small progress we’ve been making out there (hi John! I’ll definitely take you up on volunteering!).

We made a lot more progress this weekend. After replacing the impeller on the new boat twice (I will never go in the Potomac again) and the fuel pump, I think we’re in business. The RCRA held a race this past Sunday (July 8th) and money from each entry was donated to the lighthouse. I wanted to make sure we were out there to wave as the racers sailed by, so I had the boat ready in time. We spent the first night on the lighthouse as a whole family and even got out and back without needing to call Tow Boat US! I consider that a huge success. Of course, I was so paranoid about a breakdown that I never opened the throttle up and we chugged out there and back slowly. [Photoset from weekend]

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