#lighthouses
The I love you lighthouse, by Juergen Roth
The I Love You lighthouse is perched facing out into the Atlantic and was build 1855 and sends the first light 1860, on the exposed Minot’s Ledge — named after George Minot, an 18th-Century Boston Merchant who lost a valuable ship on the rocks prior to construction of the lighthouse. The ledge is part of the Cohasset Rocks, off Massachusetts, USA.
When, in 1894, a new flashing lantern was installed in the 34-year-old lighthouse it had a 1-4-3 sequence and very soon the number sequence was taken to represent I Love You (I /1 flash, Love /4 flashes, You /3 flashes). Over the years this simple lighthouse code has been a comfort to sailors from the area, their sweethearts and families.
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Yaquina Lighthouse, Oregon Coast.
https://society6.com/product/yaquina-lighthouse_print#s6-6500078p4a1v45
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The rest of the Long Beach Island NJ trip pics (sequel to yesterday’s post).
Top: my friend Bill’s great shot of the Barnegat Lighthouse. Love the sun illuminating the top like that.
Sunset on the second day – more delicate, more varied. Just as pretty. (The other days it was overcast, no sunsets; and the last day was the sunset at the lighthouse.)
Perfect beach-walking at low tide, my favorite thing. Water was still so lovely and warm.
Barnegat Lighthouse; Old Barney. Fall foliage and juniper. Terribly framed pic of a new (to me) statue of a Lighthouse Keeper, dedicated to “the Lighthouse Keepers of the world”. (I thought I had it set on a different aspect ratio, so a bunch of my nicer sunset pics at the end got cut off like this, and I was mad.) Barnegat Light dates from 1859; it’s 172 feet tall. You can climb to the top; but not on the day we were there. (217 steps; finally climbing it by yourself as a kid was a rite of passage.)
At bottom, reflection of the sunset, looking east across the Barnegat Inlet to the ocean. You can clearly see the long jetty built WAY out there, on the LBI side; there is one north of the inlet as well, on the Island Beach side. They help keep the channel open. Located just within Barnegat bay is a port for commercial fishing vessels, plus a Coast Guard station, so it’s an important inlet.
Not pictured: got to watch a whole bunch of dolphins taking advantage of the fish runs just offshore in the mornings, from the deck. And I mean like… 10 yards offshore. REALLY close. I have come to realize that, not being a morning person, and our family house not having a view of the ocean, I never knew dolphins were such a regular sight! It was very cool to watch them fishing, and occasionally body-surfing the waves. But I didn’t have a good camera with me and my phone’s zoom wasn’t up to the task. (I have some pics where *I* know that dark blotch there is a dolphin, but you know.)
Anyway, it was lovely to be in familiar places again. We’re already talking about going back next year.
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Had a Small Adventure today, driving up to Ogunquit, Maine. There I discovered the cutest little lighthouse (Lobster Point Lighthouse, top), overlooking Ogunquit beach in the distance (2nd pic). Had a lobster roll in Perkins Cove (lower two) and walked around a bit.
Talked to some birdwatchers, who had a scope, and got to see some hooded mergansers, a red-breasted merganser, and some Harlequin ducks. It’s really great when birdwatchers who have a scope are so welcoming to all of the people walking up to them asking what they’re looking at. This couple was very generous with their time, urging folks to take a look and talking about the birds.
While I was chatting with the guy (his wife was busy talking to another couple who’d wandered up), a couple of young men came from the bar next door, and looked through the scope at the red-breasted merganser, a male that was preening not far away (visible with the naked eye, but better through the scope of course). One of the guys exclaimed that he had NEVER seen one of those before, even though he lived just across the cove, and takes out charters in good weather (but not really during the winter).
He was just so excited to see a bird he wasn’t familiar with, and like many people, was also excited to talk about other birds he’d seen (like a bald eagle that comes and sits on the rocks around the cove for about a week each year in late summer). It’s so much fun to see people who aren’t “birders” get excited about seeing and identifying birds. (The other guy with him was pretty excited by it too. They both kept calling over other people, saying, “You gotta see this!”)
Most businesses weren’t open yet, though. So I’ll have to go back up later in the spring. I really want to go take a walk on that beach.
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Le Four Lighthouse is a lighthouse in Brittany, south of Grand Château.
Holyhead Breakwater Lighthouse, Holyhead, Salt Island, Anglesey, Wales - Author Talsarnau Times - License CC BY-SA 3.0
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Here are the lighthouses of Europe. The map is even better than it might seem at first glance: the colors are the real colors, the patterns are the real patterns, and the size of the dots is the distance at which each light is visible.
Interactive map: https://geodienst.github.io/lighthousemap/
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