The light has seen better days. Boy do the birds love the reef lights.



Notice the ladder runs down one side, not the middle.



Notice the walk way around the lantern room is a grate, not solid.



Boy did I want to climb, but the water was too rough to get close enough to the tower and no dock.

Thanks for posting them, is there an optic?

Amazingly it looks in pretty good shape?

Most of these types of reef lights are like that (sans lantern, that is), Just rust. This one, Hen & Chickens Shoal, & Molasses Reef are all that remain though, the others have been replaced.

All but one of these lights are still listed on navigation charts, so they should be lit.

By the way I have a long distance shot of Pulaski, but it only a large dot on the picture. Hope to go to some of the others in the future.

Eric,

I'm not familiar with Tennessee Reef Light, where is it located?

I've come to understand that all the other ones were replaced by modern beacons. Is that not true?

Gee, one page with images by both Eric and Zachary...

Stephanie, it is located between Sombrero Reef and Alligator Reef, about 4 miles south of Long Key.

Zachary, as far as I know they were NOT replaced with modern lights, but the lantern room was taken off all BUT Tennessee Reef (One of the reasons I wanted to go to it before the others, in case the Coast Guard decided to remove that one too!)

Dave ???

Follow Paul's link to Rowlett's site - your picture of Hen and Chickens and Zachary's picture of the Pacific Reef lantern.

I looked at the Light List and it seems I was mistaken, if the descriptions are right then they are all still there.

That is cool Dave.

Paul-Glad you posted the link. I didn't know some of those reef lights even existed-had never heard of them until today.

Those light's bring back the good old days. Pulaski Shoals was always a rough one to work. Hen's & Chicken's Reef was replaced by a buoy many years ago. I used to scrape 8" thick quano off it once a year in the early 80's.

Sean

Sthompson, did you used to work with Florida's reef lights?

I'm sure you miss those chipping days, Sean. Too bad they never developed some kind of spray that the environmentalists would allow them to use, one that would dissolve all the deposits. Gee, today they probably have to bag it all and dispose of it properly......

Zachary, Sean is a retired USCG BMC. He spent a number of years works Aids to Navigation.

My photo of Hen and Chickens was taken in 2004. The lantern room had been removed but the tower was still there.

HACS has been decapitated for a while. It looks like it's in rough condition