I'd Like to be a Lighthouse
- Rachel Lyman Field
I'd like to be a lighthouse
All scrubbed and painted white.
I'd like to be a lighthouse
And stay awake all night
To keep my eye on everything
That sails my patch of sea;
I'd like to be a lighthouse
With the ships all watching me.
Lighthouses were built to mark dangerous coastlines, hazardous shoals, and safe entries to harbors. Due to modern electronic navigational aids, the number of operational lighthouses has declined. This lighthouse is currently maintained thanks to the Vashon parks department and The Keepers of Point Robinson Lighthouse. The cache is being placed for my caching buddy “lighthouselady” who used to be able to see this lighthouse from her home across the water. It had an attached two-story lighthouse.
Is it Tide? Or is it Current?
Marine waters in Puget Sound are constantly flowing through the inland passages with the exception of the few seconds of slack tide either before flood (near the time of low tide) or before ebb (near the time of high tide.) Flood current occurs when water moves into the inland passages from the ocean; ebb current occurs when water moves out of the inland passages toward the ocean.
In the middle of the Puget Sound passage, it is possible for these periods of slack water to coincide with the high or low tide. In other areas such as closer to shore, on one side or the other of a “points”, or on the “back” side of a small island, slack water rarely occurs at the same time as high or low tide.
Remember that high and low tide are measures of the vertical movement of the water whereas current is a measure of the horizontal movement of the water.
Standing at this lighthouse, note how the land recedes away from you both to the north and to the south. As you face the water, ebb tide flows from you right to your left and flood tide flows from your left to your right.
Now create a mental image of the land and water to you right during an ebb tide: The water is rushing out of Puget Sound. As it hits the land at the point where you are standing, the water that hits the land curls back the opposite direction. This creates a swirling pattern. Sometimes when the water is rushing out of the sound during a high tidal exchange, the water south of this point is hardly moving at all due to this. The opposite thing will be true on the other side of the point when the tide is rushing into the sound. Sailors have long known about and taken advantage of this phenomenon.
So why is there a lighthouse here? Imagine that you are piloting a ship in the days before GPS-type technology. You are surrounded by thick fog and have no idea where the land is. In addition to a strong light that might penetrate through the fog, lighthouses used to have foghorns that sounded as a warning. These horns sounded in specified patterns that allowed mariners to identify which lighthouse they were approaching so that they could keep their vessel safe from points of land. Many lighthouse locations still have foghorns that operate as needed in the dark or fog.
!!! CACHE REQUIREMENTS TO CLAIM A FIND !!!
FIRST: E-mail the answers to the questions to me. Copy the following questions, paste them into your e-mail and add your answers/observations:
a.) Look at the shoreline at this site. How much beach is exposed between the water and the logs? Do you think it is high or low tide?
b.) Look at the water flow in the middle of the channel.
- what movement are you able to observe?
- Which direction is the current flowing and how fast?
c.) Look at a tide table and let me know if your estimates were correct.
d.) A photo of you at the lighthouse with your found log. Alternative - can get creative and write your geocaching name in the sand and send a photo of that.
SECOND: Write your log immediately after sending the answers. Do not wait for a reply from me, as I may be on traveling. I will respond once I have returned.
THIRD: Yes, a photo as described above is required - this is now a permitted requirement from geocaching.com.