The 1999 East End Seaport Lighthouse Cruise

Each year the East End Seaport Museum and Marine Foundation organizes a lighthouse cruise. This cruise takes about 300 people to visit the Orient Point, Plum Island, Little Gull Island, Race Rock, North Dumpling, Gardiner's Point, Cedar Island and Long Beach Bar (Bug) sites. I was fortunate enough to be invited along this year to provide some narration on this cruise.

This year, we had sun, pleasant temperatures and calm seas. There was free food and drink, gifts for sale, a raffle with many exciting prizes and - at least in my opinion - interesting narration. In all, it was a wonderful day on the water seeing lighthouses we don't often get to see up close. Below are some digital images and comments from this year's cruise on Satuday, June 5th.

For 300 people a ferry does just nice. Are you in these pics?

The Orient Point light celebrates 100 years; The Plum Island light struggles to survive erosion.

The 1868 Little Gull Island light; A whaling ship from Mystic Seaport passes the North Dumpling light.

The whaler passes close by so that we can a look; West Harbor, on the north side of Fisher's Island.

North Dumpling; The infamous Race Rock light, one of the most difficult US lights to build.

The ruins of Ft. Tyler are all that remain at Gardiner's Point; The Cedar Island light still awaits restoration.

The Long Beach Bar (Bug) Light; Returning to the dock at the end of the day.

After the cruise, several folks joined me in visiting the Horton Point light, where we discussed the history of that light and that of some of the lights we had seen earlier that day.

For more information on any of these lights, return to the home page and use the hyperlinks there to visit the various pages. Keep in mind that these pages are updated over time, so be sure to stop back and check for new information.

I would be horribly remiss if I didn't mention that this successful cruise was the result of the efforts of many people. I'll mention some of them here. My apologies to any I miss. Dr. Merle Wiggin and his wife Isabelle work hard to arrange this every year and make it the success it is. And the East End Seaport volunteers help things go smoothly and keep everyone happy. The Cross Sound Ferry company, which operates the Orient,NY-New London,CT ferry service, donates the ferry, its crew and all expenses for the operation of the boat (If you're going to travel between Long Island and Connecticut, remember that this company supports lighthouse preservation). The captain and crew of the North Star which made the trip enjoyable, giving us smooth sailing and great views of all the lights. And, of course, many thanks to all of the people who came a long on the cruise. The group was great all day long, as lighthouse groups tend to be, and the money raised will help to make Long Island's lighthouse heritage a bit more secure.

Thank you, everyone. The slide photos I got will make my future lighthouse presentations better and the memories will last a lifetime. :-)

Return to the Long Island Lighthouses Home Page

All the text, code and photographs on this page Copyright ©  1999 Robert G. (Bird) Muller. Please don't copy any text, code or photographs from this site without my written permission. Thanks for understanding and respecting my work. :-)