July 18, 2021

Trip 6 today. This one day trip included frequent volunteers Pete & Karen and first time island volunteers Nicole, Rick, Cia, Bob and Lakota aboard Lightkeeper, captained by Joerg as usual. We’d set a meeting time of 8 a.m. for an 8:15 departure. When Joerg & I arrived at 7:50 EVERYONE was already there and waiting for us. Seemed like a good sign. It was! What a hard working and enjoyable team to work with.

Most of us got to work clearing brush around the boathouse and scraping the north and west sides preparatory to priming. Three hours of hard work later, we had the west side primed and the north side well along. Whew! The lack of wind was great for travel, but warm for painting. We suggested a walk to the wreck for newbies, followed by a tour of the lights and grounds by resident keeper Bruce.

Meanwhile, Pete continued with his project to replace missing glass in the Fog Signal storeroom. This nice storage area has otherwise been completely dark due to plywood over the windows. We hope to store bulky items like totes of painting supplies, tarps, gloves, chaps, etc. here rather than using the lighthouse itself as a warehouse. What progress just one window can allow!

Kathy (one of the resident keepers here for 3 weeks) had earlier fixed the door going up to the cupola. She reviewed their plans for improved window covers on the Assistant Keeper’s and strategy to reinforce and protect the boathouse doors. They have been incredibly busy between all their projects and the demand for tours. When we arrived today, there were four jet skis, three sailboats and two powerboats there ahead of us. The good weather and good press we’ve been getting lately are having an impact.

After a long but fun day, we day-trippers arrived back in Northport around 7 p.m.