Monday, September 19, 2022

Battery Point Lighthouse Keeper's Log

As I write, I am looking out from my rocky top vantage point on a gorgeous band of red on the horizon.  It is the remnants of an unobstructed sunset.  It has been a quiet and relaxed day at the lighthouse.  We did not have tours today.

After morning chores, I returned to the lighthouse to clean interior glass.  Teare vacuumed upstairs and set the dehumidifier.  I reset the evening spotlights in lieu of our earlier sunsets and subsequent darkness.  I also re-wound the "banjo clock" that hangs in the parlor.  It dates to 1856 and was an original gift of the US Lighthouse Establishment when the lighthouse opened that same year.  It was made in Boston by Hayward and Davis, and after 166 years keeps cell phone time! 

We had a fishing boat not far off shore.  It was the large commercial kind with the two arms that serve to raise the nets.  It never came close enough to get a good photo.

We were preparing for lunch.  Since it was a sunny, warmer day, I suggested we eat out on the picnic table.  I made the rookie mistake of taking Teare's plate outside with her sandwich on it and setting it down to return for my plate.  In the scant one minute this took, some gull predator swooped down and took the top half of Teare's bread and winged out over the Pacific!  We looked over at our pet gulls and they looked back with a "It wasn't me" look...

After lunch, we had  a couple kite flyers on the west side of the rock.  It was a good day for that.  

I also had to tell some visitors to get down from climbing the cistern.  Did I mention the enforcement part of the job?  Had fun visiting with a family from Red Bluff, CA.  

It was a very narrow low tide window, so we had the place to ourselves most of the day!  Or as we like to call it; "an island in the Pacific"!

We had a pizza and watched Monday Night Football.   That was our day in the lighthouse.

Yesterday, I failed to mention I saw a sea lion and a seal while out walking the pathway.  I wish I could have provided a photo for you.  The sea lion was huge.

Follow-up on Janice the sea gull after her traumatic incident yesterday: she is putting full weight on her injured  right leg and appears to be OK.

Here's a photo from part way down the rock

Sunset - note Janice the gull on the rock to the left

Thank you for tuning in!  We will bring you more news tomorrow.  This is Bill and Teare signing off from Battery Point Lighthouse.