Daniel R. May graduated with a degree in ocean engineering from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, in the class of 1979. During his time as the ocean engineer for the Fifth Coast Guard District, Dan worked on lighthouse projects from Delaware Bay to the Carolinas. Dan eventually moved to Civil Engineering… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 254 – Laurie Perkins, Tawas Point, MI; Dan May’s new book “Preserving America’s Lighthouses”

The entrance to Stamford Harbor in Connecticut, on Long Island Sound, is obstructed by treacherous ledges. One of them is known as Chatham Ledge. The construction of a lighthouse to mark the dangerous location was completed in 1882. The finished tower, 3,600 feet from shore, was a fairly typical cast-iron “sparkplug” style lighthouse of the… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 253: Gary Kalan, Stamford Harbor, CT; Judianne Point, Pomham Rocks, RI

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse on North Carolina’s Outer Banks is one of the most visited lighthouses in the world. Offshore from Cape Hatteras is a dangerous twelve-mile long sandbar called Diamond Shoals. Countless shipwrecks there led to the nickname “Graveyard of the Atlantic.” A lighthouse was first authorized at Cape Hatteras in 1794, and the station… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 252 – Alysa Hardin-Lapp and John Havel: Cape Hatteras, NC

Bodie Island (pronounced “body”) is a long, narrow peninsula at the northern part of the Outer Banks in North Carolina. The original Bodie Island Lighthouse was built in 1847 in a location that is now underwater. That tower was abandoned in 1859 due to its poor condition. The second lighthouse was an 80-foot tower built… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 251 – Carolyn Wellman, Bodie Island, NC; travels with Guinevere

There are two lighthouses at Cape Henry in Virginia, marking the south side of the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay. The older of the two lighthouses was built in 1792, and it was the first federally funded public works project of the newly formed United States government. It was authorized by President George Washington and… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 250 – Rachel Balderson, Old Cape Henry, VA; “Lighthouse Keeper Wars”

This episode is dedicated to the simple pleasure of visiting lighthouses. The guests in the first interview are Anna Povyshevs (also known as Anna Fox) and her daughter Valeriia (Val). Anna is originally from Ukraine and Val was born there. Along with Anna’s husband and another younger daughter, the family has been sailing from their… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 249 – A family sails to lighthouses in Long Island Sound; a Florida lighthouse historian’s journey in Maine

The collection of the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia, includes a vast art collection, boats from around the world, a first-order Fresnel lens from Cape Charles Lighthouse, and much more. Among the museum’s projects has been the conservation of archaeological material from the USS Monitor, the famous ironclad warship built for the Union Navy… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 248 – Jennifer Anielski, Mariners’ Museum of Newport News, VA; Ghosts of St. Augustine, FL

The historic twin light station on Thacher Island, off the east side of Cape Ann in Massachusetts. is one of the small number of lighthouse sites in the U.S. that are designated National Historic Landmarks. In 1771, there were nine lighthouses in operation in North America. The original twin lighthouses built on Thacher Island in… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 247 – The Twin Lights of Thacher Island, Massachusetts