October working week on South Fox

On October 5, 2006, Todd Huck, George Carpenter, John McKinney and Phil von Voigtlander went to the light station. Todd, assisted by Phil on the safety lines, completed the removal of vegetation from the three chimneys of the assistant keepers' quarters, prepared the chimneys for capping and patched a damaged roof area. George and John continued painting the metal work of the lantern room. Todd and George returned to Northport in the evening.

The next few days, John focused on completing the metal work painting, then cleared the walkways and cleaned up the interior of the light tower. Phil patched and primed the roof of the oil house, and John painted it. Then Phil completed excavating the huge overfill along the south wall of the boat house and braced up the north wall with wooden T beams.

The return to the mainland, scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 8, was delayed by two days due to inclement weather. However, there still was enough work. Phil and John assessed the condition of the fog signal building. Phil covered the broken windows and secured the door to the catwalk deck. They entered the family apartment of the keepers' quarters through the attic and found it in better condition than the bachelors' apartments.

On Monday, they installed the shutters including a set of custom-made shutters for the lantern room of the old lighthouse. John continued clearing walkways and revealing their destinations.

On Tuesday, in a brief weather window before the arrival of the next cold front, Andy Thomas and George Carpenter returned to the island. They installed the three chimney caps made by Andy, patched a roof section of the lighthouse office and installed a cap on top of the lantern room to temporarily replace the missing ventilator. John completed the metal painting. Phil closed up all the historic buidlings for the winter and removed two trees that were damaging the roof of the carpenter's shop.  

The crew left the light station in the late afternoon of October 10. Now the structures are sufficiently repaired and secured to stick out another winter without further damage.

To read Phil's complete report please click here.

Hans Joerg Rothenberger, based on Phil von Voigtlander's report
Oct. 15, 2006
 

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