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It was just a few hours into her day-long excursion to 16 of Maine’s mid-coast lighthouses when Linda Williams realized she had booked passage on a time machine.
“It’s amazing to me what these lighthouses have done over hundreds of years of service to the mariners, all the lives they have saved,” she said. “Every lighthouse we are visiting today looks different, and each one has its own unique history.”
Since 1973, when she and her husband bought a Chesapeake Bay cabin cruiser, the now-retired public school librarian from Crofton, Maryland has visited 400-plus lighthouses throughout the world, including lights on and off the coastlines of Canada, Mexico, Scotland, Germany, and the United States. Nine of those lighthouses were live-in, overnight destinations.
Her travels in 2018 saw the notches on her lighthouse trail belt jump to 436, including her 10 hours at sea as one of the many lighthouse enthusiasts aboard an ambitious, 16-light August 25, 2018 excursion out of Bar Harbor, Maine.
“I love it. This is the best,” she said mid-day as the Friendship V jet-powered catamaran made its way along the 30-mile stretch of the Gulf of Maine open water between the Matinicus Rock and Mt. Desert Rock lights. “This is among the best – no, it is the best – lighthouse tour I’ve been on, and I’ve been on many.”
In perfect weather with only the slightest hint of swells, the trip covered almost 200 miles, the ship at times cruising between lighthouse destinations at 31 knots. While the three-deck, Australian-designed aluminum ship is rated by the U.S. Coast Guard to safely carry 350 passengers, tickets for lighthouse photography tours are limited to 180 to afford those onboard elbow room for shooting photos. The fact that the Friendship V draws not quite four feet allows those on board to get as up close to these elusive island lights as nautically possible, given tidal conditions.
The 2018 schedule of lighthouse adventures planned and meticulously executed by the Bar Harbor Whale Watch Company was structured to include three lighthouse cruises. However, sometimes Mother Nature can alter the best laid plans. The sold-out July 28th and most popular Grand Slam Tour was scheduled to take in 18 lights in Downeast Maine and Atlantic Canada, but it had to be scuttled because of storms and high seas, as was the next-day rain date. All who signed on for the excursion received full refunds.
Among those on other lighthouse tours were Lionel and Linda Beliveau of Raymond, New Hampshire, whose fascination with lighthouses began 20 years ago. “It’s a good time, and not only in terms of photographing the lighthouse and coastal scenery,” said Lionel, who shoots digital photos with a lens as long as his forearm. “It’s also all the information that the experts on board share along the way.”
Linda Williams agrees. “That’s what’s made this trip for me,” she said. “These lighthouse historians, who all day are on mic, sharing their insights into the lights and the families that tended them, made the trip for me.”
The onboard experts for the August 25th photography tour who shared a running narrative were Jeremy D’ Entremont, who is a lighthouse historian and author of 21 books, and Bob Trapani, Jr. the executive director of the American Lighthouse Foundation. Between them, those on board were treated to endless information and insights touching on the historical, geological, political, social, architectural, and mechanical nuances of each light. “I just love that stuff,” Linda Williams said.
The time machine aspects of the adventure were both endless and abundant, not only in terms of informed perspectives on lighthouses with centuries-old histories, but general history not commonly known. See that little uninhabited sandy spit of an island just off the starboard side, toward Stonington? That’s where an archeological dig for Native American artifacts resulted in finding a Norse coin that dated to 1,000 A.D., long before known Viking North America settlements. See that schooner under sail to port? That’s the Lewis R. French, an 1871 gaff-rigged topsail schooner out of Camden. It’s the oldest operational commercial sailing vessel in the United States.
Time spent bobbing at each of the 16 lighthouses afforded great light for photographers, some of whom were shooting 35mm film with antique cameras. The stops also created opportunities for the Friendship V’s on-board brain trust to share the unique histories of the families of the lighthouse keepers who kept the sixteen lighthouses for so many years.
More than a few keepers, they said, had “fog dogs” that sensed oncoming fog and barked incessantly until the mechanical fog bells were rung. Approaching sailors said the dogs’ barks could be heard miles before the sounds of the lights’ crudely automated fog warnings. There were ghost stories, too. Many of the lighthouses have histories involving tragedy and the reputation of reportedly being haunted by those souls involved.
Maine’s typography includes 3,000-plus miles of rugged granite coastline and 4,000 islands. It is also home to 66 coastal and island lighthouses, some operational, others privately owned. See that light and keepers’ home on Mark Island, just off Winter Harbor? It can be yours for $2.3 million. See that giant house way up on the hill above Seal Cove? That’s “Skyland,” the 63-acre property built for Edsel Ford but now owned by Martha Stewart. See that little cottage to starboard near Bass Harbor? That’s where Julia Child summered for many years.
Although the voyage is not billed as a “nature cruise,” there’s no extra charge for sightings, including minke whales, seals, sea birds, and white-sided Atlantic dolphins. See those gannets hovering above those dolphins off the port side? The dolphins are feeding on a school of fish that they have driven to the surface, and the gannets are feeding on the leftovers. It’s a case of one species helping another to survive.
Given on-board amenities, clearly no one went hungry. A breakfast buffet of fresh fruit was followed mid-morning by complimentary cups of warming clam chowder. Lunch served by the cabin crew involved an endless array of deli sandwiches: tuna, egg and chicken salads, crab, roast beef, turkey, and ham and cheese. Vegetarians and the gluten-sensitive were served spring rolls, wraps, and quiche. And it was all followed by bottomless cookies. The Friendship V’s galley offers an eclectic food menu and craft beers, wine, and mixed drinks. The galley even stocks motion sickness remedies and rents binoculars.
This story appeared in the
Jan/Feb 2019 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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