Category Archives: Lighthouses

Descriptions of different BC lighthouses.

Animated Map of Global Wind Conditions

Aircraft, Boats, Environment, Equipment, Information, Lighthouses, Weather, Worldwide, , , ,

One of the duties of a lighthouse keeper is the reporting of the weather for the boats, aircraft and also for forecasting. One of the things reported is the wind speed. From all around the world the wind speed is recorded and reported from countless weather stations.

Below are two screenshots of a new webpage showing a:

Visualization of global weather conditions as forecast by supercomputers. Weather data, generated from numerical models at Earth.NullSchool.net,…

earth wind map_01
Earth wind map showing winds over the Atlantic Ocean

 

earth wind map_02
Earth wind map showing winds around the Philippines, with special consideration for the Tropical Depression in the lower right (the tight swirl)

The photos above are static screen shots – the website is live! Navigate around just like in Google Earth using your mouse and the scroll wheel. Zoom in, zoom out. Enjoy!

 

Reprint – Sentinels Encased in Ice

Adult Memories, Automation, Construction, Government, History, Hobbies, Incidents, Lighthouses, On The Job, Photos, Reprint, Storms, Weather, Women, , , , ,

Sentinels Encased in Ice by Elinor DeWire

from WeatherWise November-December 2011 

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The ice was here, the ice was there
The ice was all around;
I t cracked and growled, and roared and howled
Like noise in a swound…
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

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Caption: St. Joseph Pierhead in Michigan as it appeared on December 20, 2010. Continue reading Reprint – Sentinels Encased in Ice →

LEGO Does It Again!

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As most of you know I love lighthouses and I have a special attraction for LEGO lighthouses (link1) (link2).

10241_prodWell, as you can see by the photo at the left, this is not a lighthouse, but it is a marine vessel which could very well sail past a lighthouse, and it is the largest ship in the world (right now!) – the record-breaking Maersk ‘Triple-E.’

Built from over 1,500 bricks, the model recreates the real vessel in amazing detail.

Features include rotating gold-colored propeller blades, brick-built twin 8-cylinder engines, viewing window into the engine compartment, adjustable rudders, detachable lifeboats, removable containers, rotating crane arms and a special ‘good luck’ coin.

It includes rare medium azur, dark red, sand blue and sand green colored elements.

Play with the model on carpeted surfaces or mount the model on the display stand

Building instructions also include interesting facts about the real ship.

The model includes 1,516 bricks

The ship (mounted on stand) measures over 8” (21cm) high, 25” (65cm) long and 3” (9cm) wide – more Continue reading LEGO Does It Again! →

Book – Lighthouses of North America – Beacons from Coast to Coast

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Lighthouses of North America – Beacons from Coast to Coast

The majority of lighthouses shown in this book are American, but as a friend of mine wrote:

I received a lighthouse book for Christmas – from an ex -lighthouse keeper and I groaned when I opened the parcel. “Oh yes, forty photos of Portland bloody Head I suppose.”  No, well yes, a couple, but Canadian lights and British Columbia lights –  4 pages on West Vancouver’s Pt. Atkinson, plus photo of Cape Mudge, and for comic relief Brockton Point (Stanley Park). – thanks JDR

So, not all bad news. The book is not coffee table format so it will fit easily on your bookshelf.

9781770852495Lighthouses of North America – Beacons from Coast to Coast

by Sylke Jackson and published by Firefly Books

320 pages, 8 1/2″ X 11″ X 1″
300 color photos, resources, index
EAN: 9781770852495
ISBN: [ 1770852492 ]
plastic-laminated hardcover
$35.00 CDN / $35.00 US Continue reading Book – Lighthouses of North America – Beacons from Coast to Coast →

Mise Tales Thirty-Four

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For an update on what a Mise Tale is then please see Mise Tales One.

Jaw-dropping animated video on overfishing… It’s time for change!

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The Costa Concordia rests on its side on the morning of January 14, 2012.

 The Costa Concordia rests on its side on the morning of January 14, 2012 (click for larger photo)

 Yes, it is a photo of the Costa Concordia, aground on the rocks, but did anyone else notice the lighthouse in the photo under which the lifeboats are all clustered? See my article Lighthouses Visible in the Costa Concordia Disaster.

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Aniva RockAniva rock [private]Sakhalinskaya Oblast, Russia[/private]- A formal penal island used by the Russians, Aniva was once sought after by both the Russia and Japan. This now Russian controlled territory sits uninhabited in the seas between Japan and the eastern coast of Russia.

This photo story appeared on Distractify and was entitled The 38 Most Haunting Abandoned Places On Earth. For Some Reason, I Can’t Look Away… Continue reading Mise Tales Thirty-Four →

Lighthouses of Prince Edward Island

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Prince Edward Island Lighthouse Society

 Click on the partial map for the website.

From the Prince Edward Island Lighthouse Society comes this beautiful descriptive map of ALL the lighthouses (manned and automated) on Prince Edward Island (aka PEI), the smallest of Canada’s provinces. It consists of the main island and 231 minor islands. Altogether the entire province has a land area of 5,685.73 km2 (2,195.27 sq mi). (Wiki) Continue reading Lighthouses of Prince Edward Island →

Oh No! Not Another Accident!

Adult Memories, Coast Guard, Equipment, Helicopters, Information, Lighthouses, Videos, , , , , , ,

 This story could be titled Oh no, not another accident or to be more truthful How to give a helicopter a bath!

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If you keep up with aviation news you may have heard about a Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) helicopter that crashed in the Arctic. Continue reading Oh No! Not Another Accident! →

What a Nice Christmas Present

Adult Memories, British Columbia, Coast Guard, Environment, Equipment, Helicopters, Keepers, Light, Lighthouses, On The Job, Storms, Travel, Videos, Videos, Weather, , , ,

What a nice surprise! Today on Facebook the lighthouse keeper, Colin Toner, who is residing at my old workplace at McInnes Island posted a fantastic video of the lighthouse. Please watch in full screen to get the full effect.

Watch as the MBB105 helicopter approaches the island in the rain. You can see the rain striking the windscreen on the front of the helicopter.

Later get a tour of the light and a walk around the island in the stormy weather. Take note of the heavy seas. That is life in winter on the west coast of Canada.

Thanks Colin for the memories, and special thanks goes to Tineke Veenhoven for creating the film!

For a larger and higher quality version please go to Youtube. I had trouble getting it to embed here.

The British Colonist

British Columbia, Canada, Database, History, Lighthouses, Reprint, Stories, , , , , ,

The British Colonist is the forerunner of the Victoria Daily Colonist newspaper from Victoria, British Columbia (BC) Canada. It is an old newspaper and originated in 1858 in the Gold Rush period of BC history.

The British Colonist has now been digitized and made available online  by the University of Victoria in their Digital Collection.

As this site is mostly interested in BC lighthouses here is a page from May 04, 1913 that will interest you. It is entitled The Lights that Guard our Coast and is on page 25 of the full newspaper listed in PDF format here.

Daily_Colonist_May 04, 1913If you wish to download your own PDF copy of this newspaper, left click your mouse on the large italicized “i” in the upper right menu of the page above and and right click your mouse on PDF and select “Save link as…” and then save it to your computer.