The United States last lighthouse keeper retires today. She is 72 year old Sally Snowman who has been the keeper of Boston Light, the U.S.’s oldest lighthouse, shown above. Mrs. Snowman has had an almost life long affinity for the lighthouse and was even married there.
I had read of her retirement in brief articles and thank Larry who sent me a link to this most informative piece from THE DAILY MAIL. I found it interesting and perhaps you will too.
Carol and I lived in Boston for several years and we often sailed past Boston Light as we are in my only magazine cover. There is a story behind that photo.
Carol and I met and were married in 1994. Two years later we formulated what was my second five year plan, this one to go sailing on what was intended to be an open ended voyage. We completed that plan early in 2001 and were preparing to depart around June 1. Carol resigned her position as the joint number two in a firm of more than fifty architects, behind only the two founding partners. We had savings, but the income from my writing was going to be important.
When I completed my first circumnavigation in October of 1976 I had about $2000 left. I just checked an inflation calculator and that would be about $10,600 now. So I had some time before starvation and I had completed the book that would become STORM PASSAGE and sent the manuscript to my literary agent in New York. I also put EGREGIOUS up for sale. Both book and boat sold at about the same time which pushed starvation beyond the horizon.
I turned two episodes from STORM PASSAGE into magazine articles. One about the day of the rounding of Cape Horn I sent to YACHTING. Another about the capsize in cyclone Colin in the Tasman I sent to SAIL. Both magazines bought the articles, but Patience Wales, the editor of SAIL, included a request that I call her. I did and so ended up publishing in the United States primarily in SAIL for the next twenty-five years. However in 2001 when I wanted an agreement from a magazine to buy four articles a year at an agreed upon price, Patience Wales was retiring and her replacement had not been appointed, so no one at SAIL could make that commitment. I contacted the then editor of CRUISING WORLD, for which I had occasionally written, and when he learned that I was soon to be off sailing the world again, he immediately agreed.
He sent a professional photographer to Boston to get some shots that the magazine would eventually use. The above is one of them, but not their first choice.
Carol and I sailed as planned around June 1–I don’t remember the exact date. Our first stop was in the Azores, then on to Lisbon. I wrote an article about that first passage and it was published in the above issue. I don’t know that you will be able to read the date on the cover but it was November 2001 and would have been released a month earlier, and I know you will remember what happened in September 2001.
The photo that had been intended to be on the cover of the November issue showed THE HAWKE OF TUONELA sailing in front of the towers of downtown Boston. After 9-11 the editors felt it was insensitive to show a skyline, so we have THE HAWKE OF TUONELA off Boston Light.
There are small boats and there are small boats. Most people think GANNET is small and they are right. Almost all would think CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE or Steve Earley’s SPARTINA small and they too are right. But Matt’s John Welsford designed Scamp is decidedly smaller. Less than 12’ overall. The New Zealander, John Welsford, who designed the Scamp also designed Steve Earley’s Pathfinder, SPARTINA.
Matt lives in Tasmania. We have communicated by email for a few years and he sent me a link to a video he made of his circumnavigating Bruny Island. I enjoyed it and am impressed by some of the speeds he and the tiny boat achieved in part current aided, but still faster than I would have expected. Well done, Matt, both the sail and the video.
Here’s the link for your possible new year’s enjoyment. A lovely part of the world. I have passed and seen Tasmania north and south but never stopped.
1 comment:
Great post today Webb! Love the video, nice shout out to you about going fast in a small boat! ;-)
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