Had an opportunity to travel to Faulkner’s Island in Connecticut Sunday aboard the Sans Souci, a 36' yacht piloted by Les, a new-found friend. Les invited us to join him, his wife Louise, and their friend, Elizabeth on what has become for them, an annual excursion to Faulkner’s Island to climb the lighthouse on the only weekend it’s open to the public. We left the Branford, CT marina at 11:30 AM and returned at 5 PM. Faulkner’s Island is the only CT lighthouse we’ve been unable to photograph up close and it became my obsession to find a way to get to it. This is the one (and probably only) time I’m thankful that someone failed to pull information off or update a website, as it was an outdated site that got me in contact with Les and eventually got us to Faulkner’s Island.
And you thought it was only Stan who took chances at my behest. . . . Saturday’s weather was awful and the Coast Guard wouldn’t allow anyone at the site. Sunday was a different story altogether. We had an absolutely marvelous day on the LI Sound with super nice people and Stan took some great pictures of a great old light. Located about 3½ miles offshore of Guilford, CT, this 40' octagonal tower was erected using cut sandstone laid in lime mortar in 1802. Originally, a spiral wooden staircase lead to the lantern room. The station originally had 12 lamps and reflectors that showed a fixed light and were arranged on 2 separate tables, one above the other. In 1866 a 4th-Order Fresnel lens was installed.
There were a total of 3 keeper’s dwellings–1802, 1858, and 1871. The wooden spiral staircase in the tower was replaced by an iron spiral staircase in 1871.
A fire destroyed everything except the tower and the fog signal building in 1976. Minor damage to the tower was repaired and the light was automated. It continues to flash a white light every 10 seconds, but the fog signal has been discontinued. The dedicated efforts of Faulkner’s Light Brigade (FLB), a volunteer preservation group, has made this site one of LI Sound’s brightest lighthouse preservation stories. The island is a nesting place for a large colony of roseate terns.
I stayed on board the yacht (knee problems), but Stan, my friend Amy, Les, Louise, and Elizabeth took the water taxi (a service provided for the open house by the FLB) to the island and they climbed the staircase. The short, external spiral staircase that leads to the lantern room gallery (a feature thought to be unique to this light) is not used (thankfully), and the narrow, steel rung verticle ladder on the inside leading to a very small hatchway into the lantern room is obviously built for very slender people. They had to wait about an hour to get to the interior of the tower and there must have been 50 boats anchored around the island. Happy to say we were among the crowd this year. Equally happy to say we spent a gorgeous day with four delightful people and a grand old lighthouse.
We’re off to Maine next week–have 34 lights we haven’t seen in that state and hoping to take a big bite out of those that remain. Here’s hoping the weather behaves; Maine’s September/October fogs are what they write books about. . . .
