Thursday, September 3, 2015

"Rust Jacking"

Wednesday morning we woke up to a drizzle, which turned to a downpour, which got us thinking that it might rain for a long time, which meant we dressed for rain, wind and cold......which meant we were completely wrong.....hmmmmm.....just like the weather guessers?



This is how it looked when we arrived at 1000 hours.......and by 1030 we began to shed clothing as it got warmer.......

Getting ready to shed the 'volunteer' jacket....

As promised in yesterday's blog the following are pictures of the 'rust jacking' that is occurring to the cast iron window aprons on the 'Watch Level'......there are four windows on the 'Watch Level' facing the points of the compass (north, south, east, west) and all of them have very similar fractures.....below is the picture of the window apron nearest the final stairway that takes one up to the 'Lantern Room'......


......note the crack pattern along the bottom and side trim........


.......this is the window that had the lower part completely break away and tumble down the stairs........


......and this is the reason that the upper part of the lighthouse tower is closed to the public until the window aprons have been repaired.

Now, on a positive note the three extremely faded pictorial displays located in the 'Work Room'  have been replaced with fresh new ones as Greg promised last year..........




TLE and I had what is known as the 'middle shift' Wednesday which means we work from 1000 hours to 1515 hours (including a 30 minute lunch break).  There are three shifts here at Cape Blanco Lighthouse.....'top shift' (1000 to 1300), 'middle shift' (see above), and 'bottom shift (1230 to 1515).  These three shifts are rotated among the four host couples over five days....Wednesday through Sunday.


Since no one is stationed up in the 'Lantern Room' this year, and the 'Greeting Center' have been moved the four people on duty are positioned a little differently.......one person is stationed near the parking lot entrance, a second is inside the 'Greeting Center', or just outside, a third (moi on this day) between the 'Greeting Center' and the lighthouse, and the fourth in the 'Work Room' (ground floor of the lighthouse).  We're still kind of working out the details of our new configuration, but I used my position to spend time talking with visitors about my expertise, the Fresnel lens.

This is as close as one can get to the Fresnel lens for the near future

The day passed quickly and we were home by 1600 hours relaxing......I walked down to the "phone booth" to see if we were going to get a sunset, and we did!  A nice way to end our first volunteer day at Cape Blanco Lighthouse Station.......


Thanks for stopping by!

1 comment:

  1. During the winter of 1976-77 I was stationed at Light Station Pt Robinson, on Vashon/Maury island in Puget Sound & my winter project was to take off the paint in the lens room & repaint it.

    http://www.stayatawashingtonlighthouse.org/point-robinson/

    That light house looked just like yours, not as tall. The top was probably the same kit.
    I don't think the paint had been stripped off the cast(?) iron since they put it together in the late 1800's.

    Anyway, under the paint the lighthouse was made of individually marked iron pieces held together with brass screws.
    That winter I wondered how many lighthouses they shipped to the west coast all at once...

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