Frying pan shoal light

[mrb]

I see quite a few folks on site are from the Carolinas and wonder if any of you have ever sailed out to Frying Pan Light.  If you have how does it look.

Reason for asking is I was lucky enough to work with crew that turned it over to Coast Guard.  The light ship was still on station while we were there.  We delivered mail to them a few times and watched them ride a few storms. They earned their money the hard way.

I was also lucky enough to see a huge whale shark slowly drift up, coast along top of water then sink under.  A very surreal experience.

A nice long broad reach to you all
melvin

[Paul]

How very cool.  I'm guessing you were in the military.

I'm on the western side of the state, so I haven't sailed the coast yet.  I don't expect to sail that far off shore in my 16.  I'm reminded of that expectation each time I pass by my "Graveyard of the Atlantic" chart published by National Geographic.  The entire coast of NC is littered with shipwrecks.  Hence the light so far off shore.  But, what an adventure for those who dare to ply those waters! 

I've never seen a whale shark in real life, but I did see a giant manta ray soar into an abyss off the big island of Hawaii.  That left me speechless for a while.

Here are a couple of interesting web sites regarding the light and the light ship.

Here's one.

Here's another.

Enjoy.

[mrb]

Thanks for the ref. site.  That one where they say the light house was to be demolished and made into a fishing reef was like a kick in the stomach.  Less than 43 years old and gone.  Funny how we think what we make is going to be around longer than us.

I was working for J.Ray McDermott at the time, before I joined the Navy.  I personally painted those legs and most of the cross members under house level with tar mastic. I would sit on a bosun seat and friends I trusted on the crew would lower me as I painted.  One night I notice I was being lowered faster than I could paint, guy on line was dozing off. 

There was a boat on davits which would be for the Coast Guard crew to use when they took over.  We thought it was funny because when first Coasty inspection crew came aboard for acceptance inspection they could not come out on decks or cat walks without life vests.  We had been hanging all over that thing without any vests or lifelines. Just doing our jobs without thinking about it. 

The shiny strips on light tower are stainless steel.  We found out quickly that stainless rusts.  The Coast Guard wouldn't accept the structure with any rust so we rigged planks like window washers and started at the top and and went to work.  Took two times before they said OK.  First pay check for over a thousand dollars I made was because of that job,  all at $1.00 an hour.  Good overtime.

I'm with you, I don't think I would take a 16 out there either.  We had to use Helicopter to get in and out a few times and did fly over some pretty islands with palm trees in close to South Port that looked like it would be fun to sail around.

Thanks again for update
melvin

[Paul]

Cool.