Craighill Keeper’s bLog

The “Lighthouses For Sale” article and video is online now and I presume it aired in Baltimore in the last couple days (anyone see it?). Cool stuff! For how much they video taped me and interviewed me, I’m amazed at how short the clip is even though I knew it would be (having, you know, watched the news before). It turned out great! http://www.wbaltv.com/news/17102511/detail.html the video link is under the picture (of a lighthouse that is someone else’s - and they have nice hardwood floors!). Hopefully I’ll get the video to embed on the site as well. Enjoy!

Tune into WBAL 11 on August 6th or 7th (I’ll get the confirmed date shortly) for a news segment that will feature our little old lighthouse on the Bay! I took a news crew out Friday morning (after yet another boat mishap, but many thanks to Michael’s Bay Marine for fixing the seized steering right up and making it on time). Naturally, I love showing off the lighthouse and was thrilled to take them out. I just hope I answered the questions well and did the piece justice! I guess we’ll see when it airs. I learned a few things to keep in mind for future interviews (no matter how many times you are asked the same question, remember how you answered it before!). They liked getting different ‘takes’ in different locations and I think I answered some questions better in some locations than others because like the scenery changing, I veered to different answers each time since I was thinking, “I already answered this, you must want more information!”. You’d think what little YouTubing I’ve done would have taught me a thing or two - not only on sticking to the story on retakes, but also not speaking so fast and without pauses that there’s no where to cut the film. My apologies to whoever has to edit that!

The weather cooperated beautifully, unlike the rest of the weekend, and we had no trouble getting out and tying up without getting wet. We were even able to take a quick spin down to the Baltimore Light and shoot some exterior video for the piece. I noticed they have a big new sign advertising their website on the railing. I had only been putting ours up when we’re out there, afraid it would rip and shred in storms, but we ended up putting it up over the weekend and leaving it up. Fingers crossed it handles the weather okay. It survived Sunday’s storm…

Which brings me to the rest of the weekend…. We headed up as a family Saturday afternoon after the farmer’s market and put the boat in the water at Bill’s Boats around 2 PM, where we always do. We had planned on going to the lighthouse to get as much done as possible, maybe eat dinner out there, and then head to the sailboat over at Old Bay Marina before sunset and spend the night there before going back out on Sunday. Many boaters were coming into Bill’s for a drink and food and escape from the rough waters they warned us about as we put the boat in the water. I could tell by the wind and forecasted wind that it would be rough that afternoon and calm in the morning, but of course, you don’t really know how rough until you get out there. We hadn’t even made it past the last channel markers by Millers Island light before we began debating turning around and driving over to the sailboat! Wow, it was a churning mess out there. We had already determined we would head straight around North Point to Old Bay and skip the lighthouse, knowing tying up would be darn near impossible.

We wrapped my camera bag in a rain parka and pulled the inflatable “emergency raft” (the dinghy to the dinghy) out of the seat and laid it over our bag full of clothes and my laptop(!!). And we forged on. It took us over two hours to make the trip and included gallons of bay water splashing over and on our heads. By the time we reached the sailboat, we were all drenched to the core. Exciting stuff! That’s probably the roughest outing our little boat has made, but it survived and so did we. Besides, it was made for that kind of stuff. It just handles kind of squirrelly in the waves because it wants to either surf them or veer sideways from them. So we took the trip very slowly.

Sunday morning couldn’t have ordered up a more perfect setting. The winds had died, the water was perfectly calm, and we zipped out to the lighthouse in 15 minutes. Access was a piece of cake and even the kids had no trouble shimmying up the new ladder. We hung our sign proudly from the railing in a permanent way and I intended to get pictures of it from the water when we left, taking our time to finally get some good photos of the new paint job as well with my good camera, which I haven’t used yet out there. Kent cleared the gutters (inches of fossilized crud in them!), fixed the wood around the lantern door so the weatherstripping I had installed Friday made more of an impact, and the kids cleaned the deck and railings as I continued the job of painting the posts behind them. Things were humming along smoothly until I stood up for a break and walked around the deck and peered to the southwest.

Ruh roh!! Storms had popped up seemingly out of nowhere and looked too close to try to risk making a break for it and running to shore. I still had an open paint can, supplies were scattered out in use, and we’d have to pack up and likely cut it too close. We determined it was safer to stay put and ride the storm out. Besides, I’d always wanted to be in the lighthouse during a storm and now opportunity knocked.

The only problem was the boat. Without a boat lift (still), I was terrified it would break free of its ropes during a strong storm. I whipped out my iPhone (hey, 3G works out there!) and checked the radar. The first thing that popped up on the screen was “Severe Thunderstorm Watch Until 8 PM”. 8 PM?! We were planning on leaving at 3 PM! It looked like there was a strong band nearly on top of us (red radar blobs) with a break before another one. We decided to ride out the first one and see if we had enough of a break to run to shore before the next one. I ran down the ladder and verified the boat was secure.

Wow, was that ever exciting! The wind completely changed direction and howled while rain pelted down so hard, we had to close the front door and stop watching all the lightning in amazement. “Bam!” The plywood boarding up the outhouse blew off - we battled the wind and rain to pull it inside the lighthouse. Tyler (my son) kept running down to the basement to peer out the porthole and make sure the boat was still there. And then suddenly, silence. We thought maybe we could run then, but I looked behind us and ominous clouds were still bearing down on us, so I said no, we had to wait a little longer. Another line went through. One rope (out of three) broke off the boat. I could see the lines rubbing on the ladder and worried they would fray. Those elastic ropes are awfully cool, though. They’re sheathed in intertwined elastic roping with a thick rope in the middle and never frayed or broke. Whew!

Oh yeah, did I mention our creative docking has evolved over the years?! Not only are we now using a rubber multi-chambered inflatable boat, but I’ve resorted to elastic lines and caribbeaners for quick tie-ups and less strain on the glued rings on the boat (since many have ripped off). Since the boat and the lines held up through this gale storm, I think we may have a winner! With one slight adjustment - no matter how much of a hurry we’re in to leave, we should still have one person fish the springy line back up through the eyelet and drop it into the boat. We all locked up and raced to the boat to get back before the next line of storms, so I had to pull the line through. The outer sheath bunched up and got stuck in the eyelet, so I pulled harder and harder until it finally broke free and slingshot back at me, with the beaner hitting me square in the cheekbone! Ouch!

So needless to say, I didn’t dawdle to get a picture of our cool sign newly hung for good. Darn! We raced back, the seas had temporarily calmed until just before we reached the channel markers, and we had the boat up on the trailer and out of the water before the rain poured down again. Whew! We were also present to identify a few prominent leak spots. Next time out, flashing over the range light housing and downspouts to redirect the gutter runoff out to the bay instead of into the basement…. We also didn’t set off the bug bombs as we left like we meant to. Life can be very unpredictable in the middle of the Bay!

Next time: Finish painting the exterior of the Watch Room and the main roof over the keeper’s quarters, as well as the railing (wow, the bird poop cleans off fresh paint so much more easily!). Install pipes for downspouts. Flashing over range light housing. Install dock bumpers on ladder… Set off bug bombs, get picture of sign!

In search of: flat platform work raft that can be towed out behind our boat (or has a small outboard) so we can paint the caisson and finish stringing guide wires around it…. Can double as “floating dock” access platform for bringing volunteers/visitors out. Volunteers!

Just like when Geraldo Rivera opened Al Capone’s crypt to much fanfare, I eagerly anticipated opening the privy (outhouse) on the Craighill light. It had been sealed shut for more years than I’m aware. Of course, unlike Rivera, I expected to find nothing inside, only hoping for a stable floor. I was delighted to find the full bench seat still intact after Hobie and Tony, volunteers with the Chesapeake Chapter of the US Lighthouse Society, pried the boarded up doorway open. I held my breath and waited as the last nail came out and the ‘door’ was wiggled out. “There’s a skeleton in there!” they joked! Nope, nothing - just a bunch of paint dust. With a couple upward whacks of the hammer, the seat even lifted up, revealing the drop to the water below. Too cool!

Memorial Day weekend got kicked off with a great volunteer effort provided by the Chesapeake Chapter of the US Lighthouse Society. We accomplished a ton in 7 hours time. I’ve nominated the lighthouse for a donation of windows and doors through JELD-WEN’s lighthouse program and as part of a follow-up questionnaire, needed to provide detailed measurements of all the windows and the door. Hobie and Tony set to work doing that before the task of opening the privy. Meanwhile, other volunteers set to work scrubbing and scraping in prep for painting the keeper’s quarters with the paint my husband and I hauled up the day before after moving the ladder that had been hanging under the inaccessible hatch (shown in the dead osprey picture in the previous post) to the platform in order to provide a stable boarding system.

The guys managed to wiggle and work the hatch until it was able to close. One of the hinges rusted through the strap and will need to be re-welded or replaced, but it’s functional and I was able to install a lock clasp finally with some help cutting a notch for the hinge to fit through the gap. Security - check! I also secured the ladder to the platform and reorganized cables which will be useful for pulling boats along the outer diameter of the lighthouse - at least on one side. Next time, I’ll add loops to the cable to make clicking the boat in quickly easier.

Al, Jeff, Sherry, Anne, and Donna painted the keeper’s quarters and part of the railing and she looks beautiful with her new facelift! Cathy (not me - Captain Howard’s wife) scrubbed and cleaned out the extremely full gutter trap. An amazing effort by all that accomplished a ton in one day! Huge thanks to Captain Howard and his boat, Audacious, for safely transporting the volunteers and getting them on and off the lighthouse. Nobody fell in!

Of course, I left with a list of things still needing to be done and things to buy to keep out there (like face masks). The day was perfect except for the ants, which are as bad as ever. I was attacked just prior to disembarking after I slung my son’s backpack around my shoulder forgetting he had left a banana in the front pocket. I wondered what was poking out of the backpack all over and pricking my arm. I looked down to find my arm covered in those tiny ants! Pest control… absolutely necessary next time!

Thanks crew for a job well done! I’m impressed some of them came all the way from Pennsylvania and New Jersey for the day of exhausting manual labor, but hopefully found it well worth it. Everyone was impressed that the lighthouse had a basement.

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Gradually, bluish light began appearing over the horizon and the meteors appeared less and less. I walked around the deck to look toward the west, but stopped short when I spotted a fat seagull sitting up on one of the davits. Good, maybe they don’t like the fishing line on the railings after all, I thought. Just then, an osprey flew off the roof directly over my head like he’d been sitting there watching me. He startled me so much, I gasped out loud and jumped back. I think he may have tried poop-bombing me and narrowly missed my face as I found splotches down the lapel of my jacket once the sun rose further. I wonder if he sat glaring down at me from a perch on the dwelling roof the whole time I sat in my chair counting meteors? Spooky. Tyler stayed in bed for a while playing with the wind-up radio and flashlight. I brought out the lemon muffins for us, noting there were tons of ants all over the floor of the kitchen, crawling into our bags, and running single file between all the floorboards. How in the world do so many ants get two miles off-shore? I’d really like to know! We ate breakfast and then Tyler stole my chair to do some early morning ship spotting with the binoculars while I cleaned up and stored all the sleeping stuff away. Eventually, we hopped in the boat to head back to the marina where Capt. McBride had promised to have some real coffee waiting for me. Mmmm! I wanted to get there early enough to savor the coffee and relax a bit before heading back out. The water was finally calm (calmed around 8 AM) and I figured we could zip back pretty easily without getting too wet. As we dropped down into the boat, the temperature was warming enough to not require a jacket. I knew I’d be changing out of my long-johns and jeans into shorts and a t-shirt when we returned. I also happily noticed the black dock line was in fact still intact and holding up fine. For the first time, I hadn’t lost a thing from the boat/lines. Woo!

We pulled into the marina and I made a wide u-turn so the bow of the boat was facing back out and wouldn’t require ‘reverse’ to turn around when we departed. Since the motorshaft isn’t quite long enough for the height of the boat fully inflated, it tends to stop sucking water through after I use reverse for some strange reason. Three impellers later (not to mention all the time lost while the boat was in the shop), I’ve learned to just avoid using reverse at all costs unless absolutely necessary. It also means I have to keep the motor tilted as far down as possible at all times underway. Terrence met us at the pier with coffee and hot chocolate. Woohoo! My elation over coffee turned to embarrassment as Terrence pointed out I had an ant in my teeth. Ewwww! Tyler giggled and relayed how I had pulled one out of my ear earlier in the morning! As we walked up to shore, I saw Marty from Chesapeake Bay Magazine was already there and her photographer joined her shortly with her gear. So we were back on the water after “real” bathroom breaks and headed out. The chop started picking up a little and we got splashed a bit along the way. Tamzin kept her camera snapping most of the ride out as the lighthouse became larger in view, with the silhouette of the Bay Bridge in the distant background. I sported my goofy bicycling “Ride Like A Girl” skull cap that I like to wear to keep my hair from blowing in my face and since it doesn’t have a bill, I don’t risk it flying off like the visor I lost last time out. I can’t wait to see how those photos turned out!

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Ah another weekend down. My routine is to head to the lighthouse on a late afternoon/early evening, haul all the supplies and bags up, eat dinner, and veg for the night to prepare for a long day of work the next day. The energy required to tie the boat up, haul the supplies up, and secure the boat better is enormous, leaving me wrecked. This way, that part’s done and the next day will be fresh. The problem is I can’t sleep out there knowing the boat is being yanked around. I had not had a trip yet where I hadn’t lost something off the boat. A ring ripped off the side, a fender attached to said ring sent adrift, the railing on the old boat ripped out, etc. etc. The Bay and boats attached to open-water lighthouses just don’t seem to get along well for me. I am eagerly awaiting the boat lift proposal… In the meantime, the scrubbing and maintenance can’t wait for a lift so my little assistant and I headed out again Saturday with plans to pick up Marty and Tamsyn (? I hope I spelled that right) from Chesapeake Bay Magazine at the dock the next morning. I skipped my son’s baseball game so I could fix the stabilizer V piece that fell off the boat on our last trip out (causing us to idle back up the Patapsco to Pasadena for hours…). It was a tricky booger - you can’t get to the screw holes because the pontoons are in the way inflated, so I had to get this goofy little ratchet screwdriver tool since even the Phillips head on the ratchet went down too far and couldn’t reach. Eventually, I got several screws put back in and hoped for the best. The flaw in the plan was that a front had just passed through (but thanks for the rain!!!) and the winds that followed were still going strong. The forecast called for them to die down overnight, so we decided to put the boat in the water and wait til the last second to head out while we still had daylight or for the winds to calm - whichever came first (that last glimpses of the sun came first).

The afternoon at the marina was pretty exciting all by itself! We met Jesse the dog and Capt. Terrrence McBride of the sailboat Shibumi, having the distinction of being the only sailboat I have ever seen in that marina! More on that later.

I had just put the boat in the water (hey, I’m getting better at backing the trailer up - I managed to get it squeezed around someone’s truck that was partially blocking the ramp entrance) and was standing chatting with Capt. McBride and one of the marina owners when the sound of emergency sirens wailing in the distance became louder. Rob said it was probably EMS coming to put their boat in, so we scrambled down and moved my boat further down the dock and then I moved my Jeep/trailer into the center so it was relatively out of the way. Sure enough, a boat was trailered down to the water and launched quickly, followed by an ambulance, fire truck, and another emergency vehicle. I squeezed my rig through to park across the street and then we sat in the boat picking up pieces of conversation. Someone had gone overboard near Hart-Miller Island and needed a rescue, possibly two people. The water looked pretty rough, so I held my breath waiting to hear what was going on. I’ve heard plenty of rescue calls while listening to the VHF up on the lighthouse, but this was the first time I was witnessing one. Scary stuff! My other thought was, “Man, I hope they never have to rush in here to rescue ME!” Although, I used the action-time as a learning experience for my son, explaining this is why he always hears me preaching ’safety first!’ and make him wear a life vest. One of these days, I’m going to have to teach him how to start and drive the boat Just In Case. One thing at a time - right now he’s learning how to work the lines and tie/untie it.

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[Full Photoset] I think that photo would make a great advertisement for Custom Boatlifts, Inc., who paid a visit to the Craighill Lower Range Front Lighthouse yesterday to survey the feasibility of retrofitting a boat lift onto the existing davits (click for larger image showing their company name on the boat). The work barge was awesome out there. The whole crew was also very helpful in fitting the ladder that’s been sitting inside under the hatch on the southwest side, which seems a more leeward place to tie the boat up. I’m not sure the ladder will actually remain there as it doesn’t quite fit right. Although, the platform does seem to be closer to the water level than the steel grate on the other side.

Chris and I met for lunch in Pasadena, where I was surprised to find a house on my short-list of possibilities about 9 months ago on Stoney Creek is STILL for sale! Wow. We discussed board items over lunch, then headed over to Scott’s (of Custom Boatlifts) house, where we were treated to a boat ride on mostly calm waters out to the light. When I initially mentioned the boat lift idea to Chris, I joked that it’d need to be easy to drop down as well as secure so that I was the only one who could drop it without having to hold the boat in one place to work a crank or something. I wrote, “remote control?!” half-jokingly, particularly since there’s no power at the lighthouse (yet). So I giggled out loud when Scott lowered his boat into the water off his dock using a remote! Seemed a promising sign!

This circa 1950s or 1960s photo depicts the davits/lifts in use on both sides of the lighthouse. The pair on the left are the ones we are looking at as the pair on the right are now missing a davit. I still haven’t uncovered what happened to it. You can see a board mounted across the tops of the ends of the davits and now there is quite a bit of rust and erosion where the board was, so the structural integrity of the davits will need to be determined before we sink money into a lift system. I think it will be awesome to lift the boat out in the same way keepers did back in the day. It’s historically accurate. However, aside from the coolness factor of replicating how keepers manned the light into the 1960s, I’ve found lifting the boat to be an absolute necessity out there. The waters are far too rough to tie my boat up with glued-on rings and the tide and winds change unpredictably. I’d like to be able to sleep restfully through the night so I have enough energy to actually do maintenance work two days in a row rather than being drained from babysitting the lines and boat all night and rearranging as needed.

Planning on using solar power to drive the motors needed, we started out discussing overhauling the existing winch, but deeming that too large and expensive of a project for now (it appears to be missing some parts that would require a machinist and I want something as quickly as possible), we turned to discussing placement of mounting motor boxes and how to wire cables through the davits. The Custom Boatlifts crew continued measuring and brainstorming while Chris and I headed up to the gallery deck around the lantern. I had noted water is still leaking through in places, likely where the seams have split in the roof paneling, so we used up the rest of the roll of Ice & Water Shield to cover a large area. I’ll bring another roll out next time and finish the entire thing.

Meanwhile, with a bunch of strong guys out there offering to help, I asked them to try to fit the big ladder that’s been sitting inside the lighthouse since we acquired it under the hatch that opens and closes easily on the leeward side, but has too short of a ladder to use as an entrance. The guys were awesome and I owe them a huge thanks for their help! We placed a lock on the top of the hatch, but once the ladder was in place, realized it wouldn’t close all the way. Plus, the ladder doesn’t fit in the way I envisioned it would. I thought it would hook in backward from the inside out on the bar, thus fitting behind the shorter ladder. A brace attached to the caisson from the existing short ladder blocks that since the other ladder is wider. So it fit platform facing in, and seems a bit awkward. Oh well, it was worth a shot! But I’ll probably end up hauling it back up next time out as it seems a little unstable and I’d like to close that hatch so it doesn’t warp. Bummer. It’d be nice to be able to tie up on that side until we get a lift. Ah well, you don’t know til you try, right?!

So keep fingers crossed that the lift idea is viable! Even if it’s a little awkward to work, anything is better than tying up out there for any length of time. If there’s anything I’m learning about being a Keeper, it’s that you have to be creative and adaptable! I’m also learning that while lighthouses stir romantic notions in most lighthouse lovers, reality is that as a keeper, particularly of an off-shore light, they take a ton of exhausting body-numbing work. Whew! I’m up for the challenge, though. Thanks to everyone for their help and expertise yesterday!

Scott joked that he and his son River will bring me coffee in the mornings in a couple years. Boy would I love that, but hopefully I have a coffee solution next time I’m there that early. Must get a single-burner stove or something. That grill just doesn’t boil the water in the percolator like I had hoped it would!

I was disappointed to receive an email from a company I ordered industrial metal primer paint from matching the color of the lighthouse stating they no longer carry what I ordered. Back to the drawing board as I’m fairly certain the “Safety Red” Rustoleum I currently have is going to be way too bright. I’m picturing fire-engine red, but I’ll probably try a swatch to confirm my doubts. Speaking of fire engines, I arrived home to a bunch of flashing lights right in front of my house; a sight that can stop the heart beating for a few seconds since I knew my family was home. While thoughts of “Is someone hurt? Is the house on fire?..” raced through my head, I was relieved to see them in the front yard spectating. Turns out a motorcyclist was hit. Eesh, hope he’s ok.

Ah, and finally I can write about our final leg of the trip a week ago - the visit to the Craighill Channel Lower Range Front Light Station. Maybe I’ll just call it Craighill 1 for short from now on! On the way in, I managed to snap a shot of the two range lights together. I sure wish Craighill 1 (ok, that name’s a bit laboratory-ish - I’ll keep thinking) looked a bit freshened up for her new visitors, but in good time. I think she still made a good impression. We all stepped on the roof of Howard’s boat cabin to get on the ladder platform, which worked out pretty well, but I felt bad for all the footprints left behind up there! I guess we didn’t need the step ladder we borrowed from Thomas Point after all!

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Monday, October 30, 2006 (continued)

Our next stop on our lighthouse adventure after passing under the Bay Bridge was the Baltimore Light at the mouth of the Magothy River. One new owner, Mark, was already working inside and Jane arrived with us. I was very curious about this lighthouse since it was also built on a caisson. I wanted to compare design, styles, plans, and accessibility. The access is nearly as tricky as Craighill, although the ladder hangs down closer to the water. Up close, I realized the lighthouse is very different from Craighill. For one, it’s a lot larger and has a concrete deck on the main level, but the inside really blew me away! Especially when I found out they got it sight unseen! Wow, talk about lucking out! I have to admit to feeling a twinge of lighthouse envy during our visit and lunch hour there.

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…Is by far better than a warm day at the office! Actually, the weather wasn’t too bad on Monday, thankfully. The day before Halloween had so many highlights, I don’t even know where to begin. Our fair lighthouse finally got its official visit from Cullen Chambers, the legend of Tybee Island and St. Augustine lighthouses. I happily re-acquainted with ‘lighthousemon’, a future famous author and already famous lighthouse restorer (Bird Rock Lighthouse in the Bahamas and Rose Island Lighthouse in Newport, RI). I twisted his arm to come down for the occasion, but it wasn’t too hard! I also got a tour of our neighbor to the south, Baltimore Harbor Light, and met some the “new kids on the block” - two of the new owners, Mark and Jane. What a hoot! They unintentionally even had the Baltimore Light decorated for Halloween with an innovative bird repellent (an innovation I plan to copy).

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First off, I have to offer up a HUGE amount of appreciation and thanks to Henry from the Chesapeake Chapter of the US Lighthouse Society. I’d be flailing about lost at sea (pardon the bad pun) without him and his help and contacts. Henry arranged a trip out to Craighill over the summer, piloted by his friend and his gracious offering up of his boat (ours was still dead at the time), to take a few people out to assess the (lack of) docking situation at the lighthouse. We had a fun trip and I felt great being back in the lighthouse finally - in fact it was my first time in as the owner! They were all wonderful friendly people, the sort you feel comfortable around.

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