One. Million. Lighthouses.

Well, maybe not a million, but almost. Yesterday was the first full day of my fabulous 50th birthday trip, and we saw 18 lighthouses. Today we saw eight!

After yesterday's breakfast in Wentworth, we made our way to the first set of lighthouses, each marked in order in the Lighthouses of New England guidebook that Kef gave me. Technically, the first one we saw was the night before... the Isles of Shoals light, which we saw at night as it rhythmically lit the sky slightly southeast of our bnb. Then we saw:
  • 2. Portsmouth Harbor Light - under construction to repair damage from winter storms, so we saw it from afar.
  • 3. Whaleback Light - we saw this from a couple of different viewpoints... one was the same park where we saw Portsmouth, and the other was a viewpoint from a state park a couple of miles down the road.
  • 4. Cape Neddick Light (aka Nubble) - we were able to get pretty close to this one!
  • 5. Boon Island Light - this one we saw from the same place as Cape Neddick, only through binoculars. Kef's binoculars are great, and I've been practicing trying to take pictures through them.
  • 6. Goat Island Light - this was the last lighthouse in Maine to be automated. We had to view it from afar as well.
  • 7. Wood Island Light - we took a walk past a golf course and through a nature sanctuary to get to this one.
Our next stop was Bath and the Maine Maritime Museum, where Kef had originally planned for us to climb aboard the Merry Meeting for a guided cruise past up to 14 lighthouses (depending on the weather, tide, etc.). A couple of days prior, she had received a call that the cruise had been canceled due to a mechanical issue. They gave her some names of folks who might be able to take us on a private tour, and she arranged with Shawn Mercer of Ripple Smith Sailing to take us out for close-up views of 12 more lighthouses that couldn't be seen from land. He was a great guide, and I didn't even get seasick! The waves were pretty rough at times, though. Over the next four hours, we saw:

  • 8. Doubling Point Light - this one could actually be seen from the marina at the museum
  • 9. and 10. Doubling Point Range Lights (aka Kennebec River Range Lights) - these two lights are used by lining them up to know when to make the turn up the river to avoid the shallows. 
  • 11. Squirrel Point Light - super cute 25-foot wooden light 
  • 12.  Perkins Island Light - Shawn said this was his personal fave because he can see it from his living room window 
  • 13. Pond Island Light - We went across some pretty choppy waters getting to this one. This island is now a bird refuge and the original buildings (except for the light) have been destroyed.
  • 14. Seguin Island Light - This light has been active since 1795! Pronounced segwen, not Seguin, Texas, folks. You can actually go out and camp in the keepers house of this light, but we didn't make arrangements for that. 
  • 15. Cuckolds Light - This one looked a little different than the others because it had a wide red circular roof below the light and it was originally just a fog horn and the light was added later. 
  • 16. Ram Island Light - this one also had some damage from the winter storm, with the walkway that connected the light tower to the keeper's house being destroyed. So it looked a little different in the guidebook photo than it did in present day. 
  • 17. Burnt Island Light - the sun was in just such a place when we got here... most of our pictures were in silhouette with the sun shining brightly right into the lense. The horns were audible on these last couple.
  • 18. Hendricks Head Light - we had to circle back for this one because I missed it in my list on the first go-round, but Shawn knew exactly what to do to get there, and he was excited about the route this would take us on the way back. This light had a square tower (built in 1875), but the original 1829 tower was round and domed, looking a little more like Seguin.

Adding in the Isles of Shoals light we saw at night on the first day, that brought our total to 18 by the end of the first full day! We were pretty tired by the time we said farewell to Shawn. We made our way back to the car (thanks to a kind guy from Shore Tow - aka AAA for boats - who unlocked the gate at the Maritime Museum for us... don't know how we would have gotten out otherwise!) and then stopped at a nice little spot on the Kennebec River for supper. Then we made our way back to Portland for the night.

So... today. I'm tired now and don't have the strength to do it justice. So I'll write about them tomorrow...maybe I'm just perpetually a day behind on this trip!

Also... not adding all the photos to this post, but they are in my Facebook posts.

Kef and I at Cape Neddick Light

Perkins Island Light, which can be seen from Shawn's house

Ram Island Light, missing it's connectivity to the keeper's house

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