NELL Beacon 9-2010
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New England Lighthouse Lovers A Chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation NELLNELL BEACONBEACON September 2010 Project H.O.P.E – New London Ledge Lighthouse – April 17, 2010 By Anthony Savino “Believe” as performed by the Trans Siberian Fitzgerald, Wayne Grabner and Mike Senk. Orchestra. Upon arrival at the lighthouse, without the ou may be asking why I would be starting coffee but with the danishes, Todd gave Y the article this way but it will show its everyone a tour of the current conditions of the significance. On April 17, 2010, I jumped into lighthouse. Gone was the blue porta-potty from my car to leave several members of NELL to the outside. Added was a wall within the perform some work at the New basement. The rooms within the London Ledge Lighthouse. I lighthouse were in various turned on the CD player and conditions. Some needed this song started playing. The complete scraping and paint, significance of the song is to some needed bead-board hung, remind me that I need to some needed the window believe that the group will be molding re-hung and some were able to make it out to the in good shape with very little lighthouse. This is coming from work to be performed. One of the the night before with telephone walls within a room on the calls and emails to keep ground floor contains a mural everyone informed on the painted in 1998 by the last progress of the weather. While serving Coast Guard crew. It the song played, I believed that amazed me. It was still in the winds would remain calm excellent shape, and looked like and the mouth of the Thames it was recently repainted but River would be calm. according to Todd, no one had re-touched it. As everyone arrived, I anxiously looked at the wind and the After the tour, it was off to work. waves in the Thames River. Pam, Frank and I headed off to Ledge Light workers, including foundation The wind and waves were the photo gallery room, Wayne members Todd & Marcia Gipstein; NELL calm. This appeared to be a members Anthony Savino, Pam and Frank and Greg headed off to the Ernie nice day to be out on the water DePasquale, Greg Fitzgerald, Wayne room. Mike headed to one of the to scrape the inside walls of the Grabner and Mike Senk; and other friends of other bedrooms on the second New London Ledge Lighthouse. the lighthouse. floor. The years of neglect Shortly after everyone arrived, showed by the amount of paint Todd and Marcia Gipstein from chips collected. As the walls the New London Ledge Lighthouse Foundation were scraped, the paint peeled off in big chips. greeted everyone. Todd discussed some of the After about an hour, the coffee made it to the history and legends of the lighthouse along with lighthouse along with the lunch and some other the various plans for the rooms the NELL group drinks. After the short break, it was back to was to work on. NELL members who attended scraping. The more we scraped, the more paint were Pam and Frank DePasquale, Greg - continued next page NELL Beacon Page 2 came flying off the wall. To I would like to thank everyone from NELL who help with the clean-up attended for all the hard work they put in and process, I began to sweep assisting the New London Ledge Lighthouse up the paint chips. Foundation in the preservation and restoration of the lighthouse. I would like to say I expect As I bagged the chips, the that there will be more requests to assist in the bag got progressively preservation and restoration of the lighthouse. heavier and heavier. There are tons of work to be completed, not only this year but in the years to come. I hope As the day continued almost everyone continued that if any other group of NELL members work to scrape. Frank began the process of spackling as hard as the group that recently worked, the the walls and ceiling of the photo gallery. While lighthouse’s preservation will come easier and Frank spackled, I kept up with the sweeping. we can ensure that the lighthouse will survive Pam moved over to the Ernie room to help another 100 years at least. Wayne and Greg. It was a long but very productive day. In a final note, “NO GREG, I did not break the incinolet." The Lighthouse Hunters Duel 2009 Great Lake Vacations By Christine & Tom Cardaci ur main focus for 2009 was the Great Lakes. had with the crew and passengers during this OFor months prior, we planned and booked terrific lighthouse cruise. boat cruises and private boat charters. We left NJ for our tightly scheduled 21-day trip hours after I The next two busy days were spent shooting the got home from my 25th High School reunion that lights in Minnesota again. The short, inexpensive I helped to plan. harbor tour in Duluth enabled us to see the three lights from the water. The following day, on our Our first stop was in Port Colborne, ON and the way out of MN, we trekked to the ruins of the captain we hired took us closer to the two lights. Minnesota Point Light. We were surrounded by Next, we rented a skiff out to Mohawk Island poison ivy for the three mile round trip. The where there were hundreds of birds and following morning my legs were covered, just cormorants hovering over the lighthouse. what you want on vacation. The next two boats were with the Apostle Island Cruise out of The next day was spent seeing the lights on or Bayfield, WI, and the Pictured Rocks Tour out of around Pelee Island. After returning to Ontario’s Munising, MI. mainland we drove west through MI toward Wisconsin viewing certain repeat and new lights On August 1st, we had a on the way. We had several boat trips in Door scheduled visit of the County, WI booked. A whole day is needed to DeTour Reef light. First see the Pottawatamie lighthouse because one was the De-Tour Village- has to take a total of four ferries. Then, to Drummond Island Ferry photograph the Chambers Island and Eagle Bluff to the island. Then, as the lighthouses, we used Captain Schwaller of wind picked up, Captain Classic Boat Tours out of Fish Creek, WI. Ivan Gable of Sturgeon Bay Charters took us After the fun private charter, we bee-lined it north through choppy four-foot to Houghton, MI. In the morning, we boarded the seas to the light. Each 110-foot Keweenaw Star for our full-day cruise person was put into a full around the peninsula. What a great time we all - continued next page Page 3 NELL Beacon Lighthouse Hunters, cont. ferries and had six border crossings. We ended up seeing 21 new lights and 104 repeats during body harness with a cable and we had to time our 5,858 miles of driving. our leap from the boat to the caisson’s ladder just perfectly. Climbing up the 20 vertical rungs A month later, on Labor Day weekend, we were to the platform was scary in the drizzle. We had back on the Great Lakes and on the 110-foot a great adventure at the light and even had a Keweenaw Star again. This four-day lighthouse storm pass over us while we were in the tower. cruise took us into Lake Superior, Lake Huron, After we all re-boarded the bouncing boat, we and Lake Michigan traveling 353 miles. What a took our shots before I got to feeling seasick. blast with the crew and the other lighthouse hunters. GLLKA’s Terry Pepper was the Part of the next day was with Captain Mike narrator and NELL member, Gary Martin, was Theut out of Rockport, MI. He took us to see also on board. On this fantastic cruise in the Middle Island light and its preservation Michigan, we saw 34 lighthouses, many of progress. While here we saw three different them far from the mainland, and several types of snakes. enormous freighters. The next day was spent on The next morning we shared a boat charter out the other side of the glove of Marquette, MI, with a nice couple we met on of Michigan. We used the the cruise. Captain Tom Gudwer of Fishing Manitou Island Transit Fever Charters took us to see the Stannard passenger ferry to get to Rock Light 50 miles out in Lake Superior. South Manitou Island for That’s five days in a row of flat water on the the lighthouse that also lakes. had poison ivy all around it. The six-foot seas made The next two daytrips were with the Apostle many people sick on the The Lighthouse Islands Lighthouse Celebration out of Bayfield, boat and we were all Hunters at White WI. We have finally seen all of the Apostle trapped inside due to the Shoal Lighthouse Island lights! On our way to Escanaba, MI for massive spray flowing over our next charter we reshot several lights. the bow. During the trip out Captain Gudwer took us out to see the Poverty to the island Tommy and I had to suck it up and Island, St. Martin Island and Minneapolis Shoal get to the upper deck to photograph the North Lights. Manitou Light. The captain passed close by it just for us. It was crazy up there trying to stay The next boat charter upright while shooting the light.