Pat's Boating in Canada: Lighthouses

It's easy to see why the CCG is phasing out manned lighthouses in favor of electronic navigation using GPS and electronic charts. It costs $126,000 to maintain a manned lighthouse and $26,000 for a solar-powered automated lighthouse. Few commercial mariners use foghorns or radio direction beacons in determining position. The loss of lighthouse keepers to assist and save lives is lost. Tankers in Canadian waters use mandatory electronic chart systems (1997). Other ships will voluntarily use electronic charting. The need for visual aids has almost disappeared for commercial traffic.

The Coast Guard is implementing an Alternative Use Program for lighthouses that are no longer needed for CCG operations. This is an in an attempt to maintain their heritage value, by transferring them (and their maintenance to local or provincial authorities. The CCG will consult with local groups before any decisions.

[They are not putting any hamburger chains in them quite yet, but if you wish to open a Bed & Breakfast, tourist bureau, library, town hall, or basically anything you can come up with, contact the CCG right away! -Pat]

A post (Sep/2005) on bookcrossing.com made me want to read "Stargazing: Memoirs of a Lighthouse Keeper BOOKRING" by Peter Hill.

Of his first night on the job at the lighthouse, Hill writes, “I lay in my bed thinking about the wind, trying to visualize its different nuances and strengths. I curled up in a tight foetal position, gripping Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman, and drifted towards sleep: ‘There are four winds and eight sub-winds, each with its own color. The wind from the east is a deep purple, from the south a fine shining silver. the north wind is a hard black and the west is amber. People in the old days had the power of perceiving these colors…’” Stargazing gives the reader the ability to capture -- however momentarily -- the magic of perceiving the colors of the wind. Hill writes indulgently of his coming-of-age summer on the lighthouses. One can see both the distance that he has gained from his earlier perspective and, just as importantly, his fondness for his younger self...

Lighthouses in Canada