Quote of the day:

"The life of a lighthouse keeper is characterized by loneliness, monotony and great dangers." - captain of the Vista Jubilee

"Overrated" - Nancy on the life of a lighthouse keeper

Journal of a Sabbatical

October 10, 1998

lighthouses of Narragansett Bay

the book pile

Copyright © 1998, Janet I. Egan

Nancy and I were hoping the weather would clear for our cruise on the Vista Jubilee out of Warren to view RI lighthouses today. In fact we kind of believed the forecast that the rain would end before noon. It didn't. I stayed at Nancy's again last night so we could be up early enough to get a good breakfast and be at the dock 45 minutes before the boat sailed.

We both ordered the Wake Up Warren special at the Center Cafe in the Warren Antiques Center. A woman kept staring at me and finally told me I looked exactly like a friend of hers, a guy, who is the head of the Warren Historical Preservation Commission. I have a double in Warren?

It's still raining when we board the Vista Jubilee for a sampling of the lighthouses of Narragansett Bay.. We're seated at table 7. We're given this cool little map of the lighthouses we might see on this trip. I doodled on it a little, and compulsively checked off each light as we saw it.

Before we even left the dock, Nancy met our new best friend Jerry on the fantail . Jerry enthusiastically told us there are no strangers only friends he hasn't met since his brain operation. He said he felt nautical already because he'd learned that where he was standing was called the fantail and because a yacht captain in the harbor had called out "Ahoy!" to him.

I think this is Conanicut. It was raining pretty hard.

Prudence Island

Lighthouses we saw:	Lighthouses we didn't see:
Bristol Ferry Light	Pomham Rock
Hog Island Light	Castle Hill
Sandy Point Light on Prudence Island	Sakkonet Point
Conanicut Light	Beavertail
Newport Harbor Light	Pt. Judith
Rose Island Light (even has its own home page)	Southeast Light on Block Island
Ida Lewis	North Light on Block Island
Dutch Island	Watch Hill Light
Plum Beach
Conimicut (site of parrot Diaspora)	For more info see:
Warwick	RI lighthouse links
Nayatt Point

Although we were at table 7, we got called for lunch relatively late. The buffet had the best macaroni salad I've had in years. Some of the people at our table said the macaroni salad was the best thing on the menu. For dessert: tiny pieces of cake, one to a customer , about 1 inch square, seriously tiny. They served them again at snack time later in the afternoon and I dared Nancy to go get an extra one for me. She did. I ate my extra one inch square of cake with great relish. Nancy felt like she'd gotten away with some caper.

There was a wedding on the second deck - including the Moose Party candidate for governor, who has a lot of hair. We sat on chairs that had been wiped dry for the "next governor of Rhode Island". I was too polite to say "gee, I didn't know Myrth York was on board". What is the Moose Party anyway? And why would moose want to run Rhode Island? Haven't they heard it's run by quahogs?

The bride and groom and the wedding party posed for photos on the top deck between rain drops. Impressions: bride's veil windblown as she poses for photos on the top deck, she and groom look soooo young, two little boys from the wedding party blowing bubbles.

Clingstone

My favorite sight was not a lighthouse, it was Clingstone (left), somebody's summer home built on this rock. Why would you live there? Can you imagine sitting by the fireplace drinking hot toddies while waves break over the top of your house? Didn't look like anybody was home today.

Nancy and I spent a lot of time up on the third deck despite the rain and the wind. It was much easier to see from up there and if you could find a spot under the canvas that wasn't dripping, you could stay moderately dry. The canvas reminded me of those old tents we used to have that leaked if you touched 'em. Ah, many a night of camping spent blaming Bobby or Kevin or Billy for the dripping instead of sleeping. Anyway, there were a few dry spots on deck if you positioned yourself right. At one point the rain let up a little and I dried off part of a bench with my knees and then sat on it. For some reason, wet denim is less obnoxious on the knees than on the behind. I was glad I'd brought my Icelandic sweater because it kept me dry as well as warm out on deck in the rain. I wouldn't have seen most of the lighthouses from inside on the lower deck 'cause the windows fogged up with the collective breath of everyone on board.

Picking out the green lights in the fog and listening to the captain's obligatory dramatic retelling of the story of the Hurricane of 1938 added quite a bit of drama to the cruise. I'm not sure I'd have enjoyed it as much if we'd had good weather. This felt more like a real adventure.

I couldn't resist pointing out "site 3" when we passed between Prudence and Hog Islands. I then had to describe my experience at the dredging hearing for the table (they asked). Our table mates decided I have interesting hobbies.

One of the guys at our table is a leader in the Sea Cadets, so he was able to put names to the silhouettes of historic warships in the fog as we passed the Newport naval base. The retired warships looked huge and ominous, especially compared to the cruise ships in Newport Harbor.

Jamestown Bridge

We didn't see many birds except the occasional line of cormorants skimming low over the surface and the gulls attracted to smaller fish jumping frantically out of the water, evidence of bluefish. There were a few mallards in Warren Harbor when we got back, but that was about it for birds.

Of all things, we ran into my Aunt Helen and Uncle John on board. What are the odds?

At breakfast in the morning we kept hearing the cafe owner talk about the fabulous pumpkin pie left over from the previous night, so we stopped at the Center Cafe on our return trip and confirmed that the pumpkin pie was indeed fabulous.