Orientation

Tuesday was 'orientation' day at Cape Blanco Lighthouse Station......last year we arrived in a cloud of dust, so to speak, quickly unloaded the Beetle, backed our 62' rig into site #1, and then raced over to the lighthouse in the VW for our orientation meeting with Ranger Greg.  It was a little dis-orienting to say the least.....just two days before we had been at Tahoe Valley Campground, and 6,000' feet higher in elevation.  This year we arrived 2 days prior to orientation, had time to get settled into our site, and meet our co-workers before orientation.  

'She' still looks the same, although a little the worse for wear

The meeting started at 1230 hours.....we covered the usual stuff....code of conduct, a violence free workplace (I'm for that), don't harass anyone sexually, or otherwise (never have, never will), be respectful (usually), don't talk about sex, religion, or politics (okay, I added sex), then settled into our responsibilities as lighthouse hosts.  Things have changed a little since last year.....a few weeks ago we received an e-mail from Ranger Greg with the following information regarding the lighthouse......

"For those who have been here before you may recall the tape being used to monitor cracks occurring along the cast iron apron (trim) on the watch room windows. On July 8^th, 2015 one section of the apron detached and rolled down several steps. Thankful no one was injured during this process.

The piece that separated from the lighthouse happened by a natural effect called “rust jacking”. This is very common with cast iron, but an unfortunate process of that occurs with this material with age and moisture. The Cape Blanco Lighthouse has had this problem before and was last repaired between 2000 and 2004.

With other windows having similar effects a decision has been made not to allow visitors up the tower. At this time we feel the lighthouse is safe for visitors to be in,  but as mentioned only at the ground floor."

My favorite part of being a lighthouse host was spending hours up in the 'lantern' room where the Fresnel lens is......this year we cannot take groups up there until the damage is repaired, and the danger has been mitigated.  Fortunately there is a maintenance fund that has been building over the years, and a plan is being developed to make it safe once again to take visitors up to the top of the lighthouse, but most likely that will not happen until after the tourist season is over the end of October.  I will post pictures in my next blog of the 'rust jacking' at the 'Watch Level'.....

 The view northward has not changed.....

.....but the Greeting Center has.....

 ....the new Greeting Center (under construction last season) is open for business, although there is still some decorating to be finished....

 .....Myrtle wood was donated, and used to build these cool benches, as well as  the window aprons,  trim around the doors (see below), base boards, molding around the ceiling, cashier station, etc......all this work was done by Ranger Greg.....

We were done with 'orientation' by 1530 and home before 1600 hours.......we had missed the sunset the evening before (I took an unplanned nap and didn't wake up in time), so we decided to walk down to the 'phone booth' (affectionately so named as it is the only place in the campground where you can make, and received cellular phone calls) to see if the sunset would be visible, but, alas, it was not due to the heavy cloud cover preceding the forecast rain for later that night.....this is what we saw instead.....

........walls of approaching rain......we stood watching as the rain approached for about 10 minutes before heading back to the dry, warm comfort of our home on wheels......so good to be back on the Oregon Coast.

Thanks for stopping by!