Category: Keepers Log

Lighthouse keeping inevitably involves seamanship skills, knot-tying among them. Knot-tying is an indispensable skill not only for sailors and lighthouse keepers but also for numerous other occupations. There’s a satisfaction in tying the specific knot best suited for a particular task. Even so, most people can get through life with a half-dozen or so basic…

The walk to the lighthouse offers glimpses of creatures at home in the freshwater tidal marsh. During this time of year the marsh is in transition with bursts of spring activity. Get the whole story at Saugerties Times.

Until the river freezes in earnest and the ice holds fast to the shore, it is apt to plow into things while floes continue to drift with the tidal currents. Likewise, during the break up in the spring, the moving ice can leave destruction in its wake. The brute force of the ice floes is…

The Saugerties Lighthouse keepers, like sailors and fishermen, live by the tides. The ups and downs of the tide are a daily reminder that we live on an estuary — an “arm of the sea.” Get the whole story at Saugerties Times.

Last month, we confronted a dilemma. The wooden utility barge used for ferrying supplies to the Lighthouse was in critical condition. Do we repair it, or buy another boat to replace it? Get the whole story at Saugerties Times.

The lighthouse occupants renewed their appreciation for print media last month after the dredging operation knocked out the underwater telephone line, cutting off phone and Internet for several weeks. Read more at Saugerties Times.

Serving as a small harbor, the mouth of the Esopus Creek forms a natural navigation channel sheltered by a sedimentary delta. These natural features of the waterfront shaped the development of Saugerties, which in turn, reshaped the shoreline. Learn more at Saugerties Times.

The Saugerties Lighthouse is one of the few intact examples of a lighthouse design that was once common in the region, fashioned from the particulars of a locality. Read more at Saugerties Times.

An aerial view taken from the Coast Guard ice reconnaissance plane shows the Lighthouse surrounded by ice. The coves are locked in with solid ice sheets, and a narrow channel cut by the Coast Guard ice-breakers bends past the Lighthouse. We haven’t seen this much ice on the river in several years.