posted 08-28-2000 11:24 PM            

Bob drove us out to Fire Island Lighthouse. He had called the lighthouse earlier to see if anyone could keep the lighthouse open after the usual closing time of 5 PM. That wasn't necessary, however, as they were having a special evening for the volunteers who work at the lighthouse.

Bob Scroope (left) talks with Bob LaRosa. In the background is the entry to the Fire Island lighthouse.

Meeting us there was Bob Muller (Wildbird). The three of us climbed the tower and got what I hope are some great photos from the top. Unfortunately during the climb up, I discovered that the battery in my camera went dead. Wildbird offered me his Nikon to shoot my photos with. This was his second visit to Fire Island in the day. He had led a pre-dawn climb to watch the sun rise from the top of the tower.

After picking up a new battery, Long Island Bob dropped me at the Holiday Inn Express near Stony Brook. Next morning at 8:00 AM, we started a blitz tour of the eight lighthouses in 11 hours!

Stop #1 - Old Field Point. Just after we pulled into the driveway, the Constable came out in uniform and hopped into his car and began pulling out while we were getting out of Bob's parked car. Bob mentioned Mike Seewald's name (worked like magic) introduced us and asked if it was OK to take photos - 'Absolutely' he said! And we had the run of the grounds.

Bob talks with the constable about viewing Old Field from the grounds.

Old Field Point Lighthouse

A closer fiew of the tower dated 1868. This building and tower are very much like several other New England lighthouses.

Stop #2 - Horton Point. It is open weekends and so we could not visit the gift shop or climb the tower. But the lighthouse is in a park and the grounds were open.

Stop #3 - Bob had called Merle Wiggins Sunday and made arrangements for us to see several North Fork lighthouses by boat. We met Merle at his office and had lunch. We then drove to the marina where Carol & Jim House made their charter fishing boat available for a 2 and a half hour tour that included close views of 4 more lighthouses.

Carol & Jim House aboard Coyote.

Lighthouse #3 - Long Beach Bar (Bug) Light. This unique lighthouse exists today because the community came together to restore it -- almost from the water line up. The original building had been burned by vandals. The replacement lighthouse was built on shore in three pieces that could be taken apart, and loaded on a barge, floated back out to the original foundation and restacked like Lego pieces. Quite an engineering feature. I'm sure it helped that Merle is a mechanical engineer by trade. He says much of the materials and labor to rebuild and set up the lighthouse were donated.

Lighthouse #5 - Plum Island - almost a 'twin' of Old Field (which also looks much like Great Captain's Island).

Plum Island Light sits very close to the bluff.

Lighthouse #6 - Cedar Island - (or Cedar Point?) This lighthouse was gutted by a fire many years ago and all the windows and doors have been sealed up with cindar blocks. The building itself appears to be constructed of large granite blocks. A very impressive lighthouse.

Lighthouse #7 - Orient Point (also known as "Coffee Pot Light". It's a caisson type lighthouse.

From the North Fork of Long Island we took two short car ferry rides and arrived near East Hampton. A relatively short drive took us to the 'end' of Long Island and...

Lighthouse #8 ...beautiful Montauk Point Lighthouse. This one we also climbed. We left the grounds at closing time (6:00) and stopped at the town of Montauk for a great lobster dinner enjoyed on a patio over-looking the water.

Wow! Thanks so much to Bob Scroope, Bob Muller, Merle Wiggins and Jim & Carol House for making this all possible for a guy from Arizona (the land of NO lighthouses) to view so many lighthouses in so short a time!

I've got about 8 rolls of film to get processed and I'll post the best here next weekend.

I'll add some more images later today.

[This message has been edited by JChidester (edited 09-03-2000).]

[This message has been edited by JChidester (edited 09-03-2000).]

posted 08-29-2000 10:51 AM            

ps We kept looking for Art's $15 sandwich
but only found a $13 veal parmigian dinner, $12 blackened catfish and a $13.95 twin lobster culls. (lol. yes, yes - local knowledge)

posted 08-29-2000 09:53 PM            

So glad you had this wonderful world of HLs to bring all of you together in Long Island, John.

posted 08-29-2000 10:34 PM            

Tim - Keeping the flame lit...