Hope Town is famous for its beaches, history, protected harbor, brightly colored cottages, but mostly for its red and white striped lighthouse. It was built in 1863, is 120 feet tall, and there are 101 steps to the top. It is actually still run on kerosene and at dusk you can see the lighthouse keepers lighting it. Every night they have to keep the light burning, going up and down all those steps with their containers of kerosene.
Each Christmas holiday season, it is a tradition for the Hope Town Sailing Club members, who live on their boats in the harbor (we are officially known as the Harbour Rats)to decorate the lighthouse. This is quite a feat and takes several hours. There is a crew at the bottom that has to check all the lights to make sure that they work and tie two strands of them together. Then the crew at the top lowers down a weighted line that the long strands of lights are attached to, and hauls the line back up to the top, attaching them to the railing while the bottom crew secures them to posts in the ground. This is done 12 different times, around the lighthouse, finishing with lights around the top railing. At night it looks fantastic and when the wind blows, the lights sway and indicate the wind direction. With the storms we have been having it is amazing that they are still working and secured. What a sight it would be if one got loose and was whipping around. As we await our other Harbour Rats to arrive we always wish them fair winds and remind them that "we'll leave the light on for you!"
Nice pictures. What a tradition to keep going! The wind blowing the leads of lights at night must be a pretty sight, all in motion.
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