Well it looks like we'll be going to visit our friends in Sun City, SC every year in March while I have off from my job at the local community college for it's Spring Break.

We drove there last year and combined it with visitng my brother in Roanoke. This year we flew and combined it with parts of FL.

I did not expect to get to very many lighthouses on this trip- the only one I was counting on was the Hilton Head Rear Range. We had missed out last year because we left it to the last day and got to the gate of the community it's in too late to be let in.

Esther and I spent our first day, Saturday, in SC going our seperate ways. She and our friends Phyllis and sherry went to tea and I went to the Rear Range lighthouse.

I used the directions on the Lighthouse Friends website and they worked just perfectly. The lighthouse is on a golf course in the middle of a upscale housing area. It's very difficult to get a clear shot of the whole lighthouse due to the trees that have grown up all around it.

Here's the best I could manage-

Hilton Head Rear Range Light



Here's one with some of the problem trees-



I decided since I was on Hilton Head I might as well drive down to Sea Pines and see the Harbourtown Light which was the catalyst that started me down the road to Wacko status.

The light is open to climb but my knee has been bothering me so I opted to not climb it- or any other lights i went to that I could climb. I had climbed this one- and all the others I got to this trip that could be climbed - at some point in the past.

I figured i'd just go to the gift shops on the ground and see the same things.

Here's a shot of Sea Pines Harbortown light. It looks like it could stand to be repainted shortly.

Sea Pines Harbortown Light



Sunday was spent in the Charleston, SC area. Believe it or not our first stop - and most important for some - was the closest Dunkin donuts store to Sun City, SC. It's on the outskirts of charleston and we stopped for some coffee- and yeah we had some donuts as well.

We were discussing what to do and since it was still before noon I suggested we drive down to folly Beach for Morris Island Lighthouse. The people we were visiting with are not Lighthouse Wackos but they enjoyed the trip we took last year to hunting Island so I figured they would enjoy this one as well. They said sure let's go.

We programmed the lady- what the crew took to calling the portable gps system I brought because it spoke with a woman's voice- and off we went.

The weather was gorgeous- high 70's with very few clouds and medium humidity.

The group raising money to save Morris Island has this marker at it's driveway which is just before you cross onto the roadway that leads you to the light-



We continued past the foundations of the buildings that were part of the coast guard base that used to be here. You have paved right up to where the beach starts.

Here's some shots of Morris Island - as well as one of both Morris Island and Sullivan's Island (it's replacement) across the Charleston Harbor and one of just Sullivan's Island LH.

Morris Island



Morris Island & Sullivan's Island (it's there , really)



Sullivan's Island



We left there and had the "lady" take us to Charles Towne Landing which is the original site of charlestown. Here's a website about it-

http://www.charlestowne.org/

We spent a good part of the afternoon here. We then took a drive down to the Battery in charlestown and then took our leave of charleston and drove back to Sun City.

Dennis

The next day Esther and I did different things again for part of the day- some of our friends had things to do for part of the day so I took Esther and Cathy (a visitor from Denver and the sister of one of our friends) to one of the local towns to shop at the crafty stores there.

I chose to do a drop and run- over to Hunting Island LH while they did thier shopping. We had all been to Hunting Island last year so nobody minded missing it this time.

Here's a couple of shots of the Hunting Island LH. the first one is taken from the trail leading from the parking area. the second one includes the Oil house and another out building.

Hunting Island Light





Hunting Island State Park is very nice. There is a great beach, camping areas, a fishing dock and the piece de resistance the Hunting Island LH.

They've done a great job of restoring the light and the outbuildings. There's even a bonus in the base of the LH- the Fresnel Lens from Morris Island. I thought I had a photo of it from last year but I can't find it right now.

The next day Esther, Sherry, Cathy and I drove over to Tybee Island. We had gone to Savannah last year so we didn't stop in town as we drove there.

Unfortunately it was Tuesday and the Tybee Island LighthStation is closed on Tuesdays. This wasn't a big deal becaue we had all been to it before- still a small disapointment. Here's some photos I took while there.

I like the effect of this first one.

Tybee Island Lighthouse





We took a walk on the beach here and I got several shots from that angle. i liked this one the best.

Tybee Island Lighthouse From the Beach



We left there and I dropped the ladies off at some little shops (do we sense a pattern here? ) and drove over to take some photos of cockspur Island LH.

There was a post on another lighthouse website that right after we were there that there was a ceremonial relighthing of the Cockspur Lighthouse. the photos were taken from a road leading to some docks on the Tybee Island side of the bridge .

Cockspur Island



Here's a couple with what I believe may actually be the replacement for Cockspur Island Lighthouse. Please enlighten me if I'm mistaken.

Cockspur Island LH & Aid to Navigation





I went back and picked up the ladies and we drove on back to Sun City.

Dennis

Here's a photo of the Savannah River Rear Range light that I took in 2002 on our first trip to Savannah




Dennis

We fly to FL the next day to spend some time with my aunt who lives in Englewood, FL.

The morning we left there we drove down to Boca Grande, FL on our way to Orlando.

We stopped to take some photos of the Boca Grande Entrance Rear Range Light on our way to Boca Grande Lighthouse. This light was built in Trenton, NJ (where I'm from) and was originally placed on Cape Henlopen, DE until 1918. It arrived in FL in 1927 and was lit in 1931.

Boca Grande Entrance Rear Range Light



Here's one from the beach side-



We continued on to the Port Boca Grande Lighthouse. I had a nice conversation with the lady who runs the place- again. the subject was the same thing we talked about several years ago- the fact that she couldn't get nay more of the replicas that HL made of the light. She remembered my previous explanation but still wanted more. :-)

I told her maybe HL would make a LLOM of the LH.

Here's several views of the LH-

Port Boca Grande Lighthouse








We took our leave of Boca Grande and drove over to Orlando. We stayed here a couple of days- and actually got to spend more time than we usually do in NJ with our son, Douglas. He happened to be in Orlando on business and spent some time with us there.

We spent Saturday at Sea World with a friend of mine who lives near Orlando- Doug. Douglas went to a trade show, though.

We got to see a faux LH at Sea world. Here's a photo of myself (right) and my friend Doug (left)in front of it-

Sea World Faux LH



We left Orlando on sunday morning and drove to Jacksonville, FL with a stop in Mount Dora, FL so Esther could do some more shopping and I'd get a chance to see the LH there again.

I did manage to get a t-shirt with the Mount dora LH on it, though at the I "Heart" Mt Dora shop.

The LH is an actual aid to navigation for the Marina in the town on Lake Dora. It even has a "connection" to one of my other passions- Poco. The LH is located on Grantham Point and the original drummer in Poco was George Grantham. I no of no actual connection between the two - it's just one of those strange little coincidences in life.

Here's a shot of the LH.

Mount Dora Lighthouse



We continued on our way to Jacksonville.

Dennis

We drove right past Jacksonville and kept on going to Amelia Island to get a look at the lighthouse there.

Unfortunately we got a bit lost- the directions on the Lighthouse Friends site say to get off at Exit 375 unfortunately it should read Exit 373. There is no Exit 375.

No big deal- just a bit time consuming.

We drove on down to Ft Clinch State Park which is listed as the best place to view the light. This also has been refuted here on the forums- I didn't try and get closer to it because the site said access was problematic due to it being in an area with private homes.

I did get a photo of part of the LH from the park

Amelia Island Lighthouse



We drove further into the park because the sign at the spot where you can see Amelia Island Lighthouse speaks of the ruins of the Oil house of one of the other 3 beacons that served the area.

We actually drove by it twice before we stopped at it- the signs for it aren't very good.

Here are some photos of the signs at the Oil House site.







North Range Beacon House




Map Showing Locations Of The 4 Beacons




One Of The Original Beacons




Oil House Then

Here are some photos of the ruins of the Oil House itself-













We left here and drove to our hotel and leftFL the next day.

I didn't try and get to the other 2 LH's in the Jacksonville area because of comments made about the hassles of getting photos of them due to them being on base.

All in all not a bad trip- good weather, good friends (and relatives) made for a nice time.

We got to more lighthouses than I expected- and added 2 new ones to my personal list and 3 if you count the ruins of the oils house and the outline of the beacon's spot.

Dennis

Quite the report and travelogue. Thanks for sharing your trip and pictures with us, Dennis. Glad you were able to sneak in a few extra lighthouses on the trip.

Enjoyed your photos and reading about your trip Dennis, thanks!

Dave & mombo,

Hope I didn't ramble on too much. I find it hard to stop once I start typing sometimes.

It's tough choosing one or two photos from each lighthouse visited. I have about 300 photos in total- although many are similar to each other.

I've tried to always do what Paul Brady says- move your feet.

By the way haven't heard from Paul recently.

Hope all is well with you these days Paul.

Dennis

Quite the contrary, Dennis! I found your photos very enjoyable to view, and your narration quite interesting. We need more of this at the CF. It gets our members pumped up to get out there and take pictures and share their stories.

If you have more, please share it!

Bob

Dennis, I enjoyed your trip commentary very much. Thanks for sharing with us. Love the beach shot of Tybee.

You really covered a lot of ground, and I bet you were happy to have the portable "lady" on board. I think those were invented specifically with lighthousers in mind.

Judy

I prefer commentary with posted pictures. Gives a little more dept to what where looking at.

Thanks for posting them, there great shots!!!

Thanks for sharing all the great pictures. I love that area. Of course I'm a little biased since I lived in SC for 4 years.

Thanks. Glad I wasn't boring anybody.

I always try and mix it up a bit- it can be difficult to say something different about a photo of a lighthouse that has been posted by literally dozens of other people sometimes.

It's boring to me personally to see just photos without any narrative- although I like the photos it's also nice to get a feel for what the person thought about thier visit to the LH as well.

Dennis

You're doing just fine Dennis! Everyone loves to go along on a shared lighthousing trip.
thanks,
Bob

Can any of you boaters out there confirm or deny my thought that the item in the picture with Cockspur Island LH is the replacement for it or just an additional aid to navigation?

Dennis

Dennis,

The ATON looks like a daymark for the Intra-costal waterway. Red triangles on one side and green squares on the other. They mark the edges of the "safe" channel. There is so much shoaling on the ICW that you need to be careful, especially in a sailboat.

It does not look to me like an ICW daymark. It is just an ordinary daymark of the channel. If it were an ICW daymark - at least for the east coast - it would have a yellow triangle or square in it.

My computer froze up on me when I was posting that, but this is a picture of the green side of the channel with the yellow square.



They do this so that if you are going south, but going out the river, the regular ATONs are on the reverse side.

That's not clear - lets try that again

Normally when you exit a river, creek or whatever, the red is on the left, and when you enter the river, the red is on the right.

But on the ICW, If you go in one river (red on right), and then go through a canal and link to another river, you are now going OUT of the river and the red markers will be on the left. BUt the ICW is still going the same direction, so the red markers will have the little yellow square on them, and the green markers will have the triangle shape.

Thanks for the feedback- I'm not well versed in these type of things.

Dennis

Thanks Rosalie, I only did the ditch once and that was a while ago.

Dan

This is another one of the ICW markers (I seem to take photos mostly of the green side)

... absolutely NOT Dennis! Love the pictures and like the comments. That way we can learn some about lighthouses we will possibly never see.
Thanks for taking the time!!!

And I still love the photographs of the "differnt" aids to navigation Rosalie!

Margret

Great photos! I enjoyed the narrative that goes with them. It helps some of us who have never been to some of these lights to have information about them and encourages to get to visit them.
Thanks for sharing Dennis!

Great report, Dennis. I only learned about Mt. Dora light a few weeks ago when the locals were starting a restoration program.

I was in Mt. Dora a few months ago and of course, had I known there was a lighthouse there, faux or real, I would have gotten a photo at least.

For others, several years back when I visited Amelia, it was and probably still is possible to drive right up to the gate outside the lighthouse - perhaps 30 yards from the light. You are in a neighborhood of homes, but the driveway back to the lighthouse is perhaps 100 yards long.

I believe the city now owns the lighthouse and has plans to open it.

John,

You should pay closer attention to my reports- I posted photos of the Mount Dora Lighthouse about this same time in 2004 after visitng my friend in Eustis, FL and touring "downtown" Mount Dora.

I knew I should have tried driving over to the neighborhood Amelia Island was in- I misinterpreted what was written to mean access was difficult- actually only getting a good photo is difficult apparently.

Next time I'm in the area I'll get a closer look for sure.

Dennis

Dennis and others, you can get a picture from the gate, however, tree branches cover at least 1/2 of your picture.

FLA will be meeting there April 21, I will try to get some new pictures of the restored tower.

Thanks Eric.

I should have driven over there but i was under the mistaken impression that there were problems with getting a view or hassles from security to get photos.

Next time.

Dennis