Lighthouses and Lightheaded

6/30/12: This June was one of the rainiest Junes in the history of Maine. So, of course, it poured on June 23^rd, the first day of the Midcoast Maine Lighthouse Challenge, which was offering free admission to seven area lighthouses.  The next day was clear and I went to two lighthouses.  Both of the lighthouses I visited were quite small. Each had a home for the lightkeeper to live in, but the actual lighthouse was a small building at the end of a walkway some distance from the home.

Marshall Point Lighthouse at the end of a long, wooden ramp, and the Keeper's House

The Marshall Point Lighthouse is at the end of a long wooden ramp, which begins just steps away from the lightkeeper's house. If you've seen “Forrest Gump,” you've seen the lighthouse - it's where Forrest ends the eastern segment of his cross-country run.

Marshall Point Lightkeeper's House

The original Marshall Point Lighthouse was built in 1858 and had seven lard (oink, oink) oil lamps serving as the light.  Now it's all automated and electric – boring.  In the late 1800's, there was also a bell tower with a bronze bell weighing over a thousand pounds.  Inside the tower was a weight mechanism, somewhat like the one in a grandfather clock, and a hammer that went through the tower wall.  When it was foggy the lightkeeper wound the mechanism, just like he would for a grandfather clock.  One winding lasted 4½ hours with the hammer striking the bell every 20 seconds.  Now that's replaced by a boring automated foghorn. 

The original 1832 lightkeeper's house had one and a half foot thick, stone walls.  Lightning destroyed the house in 1893 – that must have been one huge thunder and lightning show!  The current two-story, white clapboard, Colonial Revival house replaced the stone one.  It must have a lightning rod on it....

The keeper's house contains a museum with lighthouse and lobstering memorabilia, including a large collection of lobster buoys.  It is amazing how many unique markings the lobstermen have come up with to paint the buoys that mark where their lobster pots lie on the ocean floor.- each lobsterman (there aren't very many lobsterwomen) has his own design and color scheme. 

An old stone quarry

Near the lighthouse there are a number of quarries that used to ship stone by sea to many places.  All the stone was cut by hand, and the museum has an exhibit of old stone cutting tools and photos of the stone cutters and the quarries.  In the days of horses and carriages, the quarries supplied most of the cobblestones for New York City.  The first ones cut and shipped were too large for the horses' hoofs, and they slipped on them and were often injured.  They tried cutting smaller cobblestones and those worked.

Fresnel lense light at Owl's Head

Next, I went to the Owl's Head Lighthouse. The lightkeeper's house there is at the base of a hill and I climbed steep stairs up the hill to the lighthouse, which sits on a cliff overlooking Rockland Harbor (where our boat is). The lighthouse was built in 1852, and still uses its original, beautiful fresnel lense.

Ships did founder at Owl's Head, and the lighthouse was necessary.  The most dramatic tale is of the “two frozen lovers” who were shipwrecked on the point during a blizzard in the 1850's.  A small schooner was anchored at a point not far from Owl's Head one stormy night, and the captain went ashore leaving the first mate, and a seaman aboard, along with the one passenger – the first mate's fiancee, Lydia. 

Around midnight, as the storm intensified, the cables holding the ship snapped and it drifted across the bay and smashed onto the rocky ledges south of Owl's Head.  The three on board huddled on the deck of the ship under blankets, and as the schooner was breaking up, the seaman managed to climb over the ice-covered rocks to shore.  He was saved by the lighthousekeeper who just happened to be driving by in a sleigh.  A dozen men were rounded up to rescue the remaining pair and managed to get aboard the remnants of the ship, only to find the two lovers frozen inside a block of ice.

Steep stairs to Owl's Head Lighthouse, which sits perched on the edge of a cliff

Leaving nothing to chance, the rescuers wrestled the block of ice to the keeper's house and started thawing it out in the kitchen.  They chipped away the ice around the two lovers and kept them in cold water, slowly raising the temperature.  As the water warmed, the rescuers were able to move and massage the limbs of the pair.  Amazingly, after two hours of exercising and massaging, Lydia showed signs of life.  And, after another hour, the first mate opened his eyes and asked where he was.  The next day both were able to eat and drink.  All three miraculously recovered, and the two frozen lovers married to live happily ever after.

Meanwhile, back at the boat, work is slowed by rain and health problems.  Conrad has been having bad back and neck problems.  Having to replace the starter on the Tracker wasn't very good for his neck.  Without the hydraulic lift that he uses in his shop at home, he had to contort his tall body to reach everything.  Three visits to a chiropracter have helped, but our bodies are not as forgiving as they once were.  Yes, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.


As if that isn't enough, he is having lots of dizzy spells during which he cannot even stay standing.  Since dizziness is one of the side effects of his blood pressure medicine, he asked his doctor to prescribe a new medication, and the dizzy spells got worse!   Recently he tried cutting back on the amount of the medication while monitoring his blood pressure levels, and things seem to be improving.  But, it's raining again....


I think our three year plan of boat renovation and travel before we ship the Flussmaus to Europe is becoming a four year plan!  The boat isn't close to ready, but we are having fun and in a beautiful place.  It's hard to complain about having to be in Maine longer than expected.