12 Lights b

The answer to the question in part a of this series is  . . .   Faro San Giorgio Maggiore, “faro” meaning “light.”  And today, the winter solstice, with only 9 hours and 15 minutes of daylight in the sixth boro,  has to be the best time to do another post about lighthouses.

Before we get to that, how about another question:  Which country hosts the oldest light in continuous use?  And if you get that . . . name, age, etc?

I can’t find my previous use of this photo, which I took just shy of two years ago.  Anyone identify it?  Answer at the end of this post.

Ogdensburg, NY, formerly on a major fault line between New France and New England,  might not be in your backyard, but I hope this photo of Ogdensburg Harbor Light pleases you.

White Shoals Light –the name–always confuses me with its red spiral.

Romer Shoal Light is one of the aids to navigation in Lower New York Bay.  At one time–if I understand the history, this light once stood near the easternmost point of Staten Island, at what is now the National Lighthouse Museum.

Duluth North Pier Light . . . was erected after this wreck in 1905 . . . SS Mataafa.

I’m leaving this one in;  I erroneously thought it was an unusual lighthouse, lens opening facing the lake only, but it was actually the Whiskey Island Coast Guard station, now being repurposed by Cleveland Metro Parks.

In the foreground here is Round Passage Light, a structure that went into service in 1948, rendering Round Island Light–in the background–then obsolete.  The channel lies between the two lights.  If I make it here again, I hope to get close-up shots of the 4′ bronze relief head representation of residents of this area before the Europeans came.  Nowhere online have I found such photos.

Some lighthouses are built of wood, most are stone or cement, but Belle Isle’s  Livingstone Memorial Light is the only one in the world built of marble from Georgia.

Here’s the same structure in different time of year and sunlight.  It was designed by Albert Kahn. 

Given the vivid hue at sunrise, it’s no surprise Holland Harbor Light is commonly known as Big Red.  

Milwaukee’s Breakwater Light occupies the foreground;  in the distance is the red Milwaukee Pierhead Light and the bridge between Third Ward and Jones Island.

Where, we leave Grays Reef Light to the left and likely that’s Hog Island in the distance.

And southeast of Mackinac area, this one’s Poe Reef.  

I believe I’ve really never used the top photo;  it’s the unusual Faro del Cayo Guano del Este, off the southern coast of Cuba. 

And the title of oldest light in the world seems to belong to Spain’s Tower of Hercules.  Ruins of an even older light could some day be seen here.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

270 nmi to Rendezvous with Kings Pointer

This is day 8 of the GHP&W series, so let me break pattern a bit.  If you missed the beginning, GHP&W is not a law firm; it’s abbrev for “gunk holes, harbors, ports, and wharves.”  I haven’t dusted off any wharves yet, but two-thirds of the months still lie ahead.

The story here is that TS Kings Pointer was out serving as a training platform and not at Kings Point, although there was a potential meeting somewhere south along our track to Portsmouth, VA.

Mile 1, 0738 Wednesday, heading for the Throg’s Neck Bridge.

0756.  Passing SUNY Maritime and TS Empire State. Click here for photos from her summer sea term 2015.

0804, Robert Burton, a Norfolk boat.

0907, Mary Gellatly with a sand scow at the southern tip of Governors Island.

1010, passing the northern tip of Sandy Hook but looking back at Naval Weapons Station Earle, with USNS Medgar Evers at the wharf.

1017, Romer Shoal Light and Coney Island.

1517, Capt. Willie Landers northbound off Beach Haven, I think.

1612, FV Jonathan Ryan and tug Pops in the distance.

1618, entering a grid marked “numerous scientific buoys.”

1657 off Atlantic City, with unidentified tug and barge

1740 and about to switch watch.

Thursday, 0852, looking north into the Chesapeake after going wide around Fisherman Island.

0910 . . . it’s the current  TS Kings Pointer, ex-Liberty Star. . .

 

. . . heading along Virginia Beach

before turning northward toward Long Island Sound.  Her former sister ship–Freedom Star–was in the area but we did not see her.

Meanwhile, we head north into the Thimble Shoal Channel Tunnel and into port, which you can follow tomorrow.  And that tug and crane barge in the distance . . . survey work for new infrastructure or maintenance dredging?

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp, with thanks to the USMMA Sailing Foundation for inviting me to crew in winter relocation for Tortuga.  It was a smooth trip.