Rose Island Lighthouse, September 27 - October 4, 2008
It was dreary, rainy and overcast when we landed at the Quonset Airport south of Providence, RI on Saturday,
September 27th. Hurricane Kyle was not too far off the Massachusetts coast, and Rhode Island was getting some of its effects. Newport was a 30 minute drive away, over both the Jamestown and the majestic Newport bridges. As we crested the latter, we did our best to look to the south through the mist, trying to see what we knew was beneath us, the Rose Island Lighthouse, but to no avail.
The next morning, I took the courtesy car back to the airport with half our gear, and Claire and the kids crammed the remaining supplies into a taxi; as I got a ride back from the airport, they made a strategic stop for fishing bait, and we all met up at the Fort Adams State Park dock. There we boarded the Starfish, a converted lobster boat, for the ten minute ride north to Rose Island.
Via the benefits of Google Earth, we somewhat knew what to expect, and namely that the lighthouse was not the typical tall cylinder with a light atop, but rather a house with a light. However, the charm of this rocky outcrop washed over us as we walked around the island and received our instructions from Dave, the foundation’s Executive Director. We were the lighthouse keepers for a week, and were charged with completing a number of daily chores, along with whatever cleaning, sorting and organizing that we chose to undertake. The weekly keepers stay in the second story apartment, and are the hosts for the nightly visitors that stay in the (living) lighthouse museum below, made to resemble the time of the early 1900’s when this facility was in use.
The island is 18 acres in total. The main structure and a number of out buildings sit on approximately 2 acres, with the interior of the island impassable due to debris, overgrowth, poison ivy and the like. Looking at our curious kids, Dave emphasized the roughness of the overgrowth, hoping to discourage wayward wanderings. As soon as possible, Scott and Carson took off (mostly staying on the main paths) and were able to be our tour guides when we all explored the island a few hours later.
Later that afternoon, we welcomed our first nightly guests, a mother and daughter from Minnesota. The foundation staff typically visits the island via the Starfish each day at 10 AM and 3 PM, taking the nightly visitors off the island in the morning, and delivering the next group in the afternoon.
That evening, we settled into our apartment; a very quaint collection of leftovers from many years of keeper stays – why we thought we needed to bring our own puzzle is in hindsight pretty funny. We began what became our nightly ritual of dinner, heated card games (the “Old” versus the “Young” in Spades) and watching the many-hour miniseries “John Adams” on Claire’s computer – studying U.S. history can be entertaining, courtesy of HBO’s version of David McCullough’s book, especially as we sit north of, and look out upon, Fort Adams.
In the morning, windows with no curtains assured that we arose in time for our chores:
- Turning off the lighthouse beacon (that we turned on the previous night; what we had highly anticipated was pretty anticlimactic – flipping a circuit breaker switch in the electrical box)
- Raising the US flag precisely at 8 AM (no flag is a symbol that something is amiss) along with the NC flag, to proudly fly over Narragansett Bay and make visitors scratch their heads
- Checking the outdoor bathrooms
- Filling up the Sun Shower bags (bags left out to be heated in the sun, and then hung in an outdoor shower stall; the theory may work in the summer, but in October, the shower is quite refreshing)
- Recording our weather station duties (max, min and current temps, and daily rainfall)
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Checking the power room; we have a windmill on the island to make electricity, and each morning, we compare the electricity produced versus the amount used by the lighthouse. If the voltage in the batteries falls too low (below 24) we run the diesel generator in the power room for an hour or two. On windy days, the windmill isenough. On windless days, we ran the generator twice per day.
- Heading downstairs to the water room. In the basement, there is a 3,000 gallon cistern supplied by rainwater. We checked the levels each day, recorded the gallons used per day in the house (25-30 gallons per day), checked the chlorine levels, and added a few cups of good old Clorox bleach as needed.
After 45 minutes or so of these chores, we would head up for breakfast, very civilized at 9 AM or so. The rest of each day was a mixture of a little work and a lot of play. For the former, we cleaned the foghorn building, thoroughly cleaned the water room, did some odds and ends type of chores, etc. For the latter, we walked the island, kayaked around the island, fished, harvested mussels for dinner, checked our lobster traps (we caught quite a few, and decided to try “Joe”, the largest one to enter
one of our traps), joyfully broke colored wine bottles on the rocks (so that the surf and the rocks could create “sea glass”), collected sea shells, skipped stones, viewed the bay from the top of the lighthouse, and generally enjoyed some unplugged downtime (with Scott mainly reading and Carson cross-stitching). This was the week that Wachovia bank disappeared, and that the Dow had its largest daily drop in 20+ years, both events wiping away lots of wealth in our home of Winston Salem. It was either the best or worst of times to be on an island without computer or television, and I am sure that with the
passage of time, the latter will hold true (although for a few days we were active using the internet on our phone, trying to see if there was going to be a systemic crash of our country’s financial system).
Twice we took the 10 AM boat ride into Newport. On the first day, we mainly walked around town, primarily along the famous “Cliff Walk” between the mansions of the Newport and the Atlantic Ocean. The second day we visited the Peterson’s, who used to live in Winston Salem and now reside in Newport. They work at St. George’s School, a wonderful boarding school set upon an absolutely stunning campus overlooking Second Beach. Krista and Eric walked us around the campus as we marveled at facilities nicer than many colleges.
Throughout the week, we realized that the member of our family having the most fun was Champ. Essentially leash-less for the week, he took it upon himself to roam the grounds, protecting our fortress from the “evil” soaring sea gulls hovering overhead. Champ was unhappy even when they were just in our airspace, and did his best to constantly patrol his post keeping the intruders at bay.
Saturday was the most stunningly beautiful day of our stay, but we made the melancholy decision to leave a day earlier than scheduled. Studying U.S. history, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to visit Plymouth, MA since we were so close. So we boarded the Starfish for the last time, and made our way back to the airport. Flying low over the harbor on our way out, we got some fantastic views of the bridge, the island, and the many white sails on the background of the deep blue water. Circling to the east, we flew by Martha’s Vineyard before heading for Plymouth, just 15 minutes away.
In Plymouth, we were somewhat constrained by having the family dog. At Plimoth Plantation, Claire waited outside with Champ as the kids and I toured the site (complete with the Wampanoag (Native American) home site and the 1627 English Village). The kids then showed Claire around the same as Champ and I walked to the Mayflower II, meeting the rest of the family there after their taxi ride from the Plantation. The day was beautiful up and down the east coast, and as we enjoyed an early dinner outside near Plymouth Rock, the temperature on that October evening in the northeast began to fall. We caught a cab back to the airport, and took off right before sunset, and enjoyed a gorgeous sunset and early evening flight home.
