Front page · Cosyford Lighthouse
Nothing sinks on her watch: a night at the top of the lighthouse
Polish the lens at dusk, switch on, and when the fog rolls in, lead the lost boats home with the beam. Gwen Trevose has kept this light for forty years.
The shift starts at dusk, and the great glass lens is all salt from the sea air. Rub it clean, then switch on and watch the light go round, sweeping over the headland and out across the bay.
Then the fog comes in, and out in the grey there is a little question mark: a boat that has lost its way. Drag to put the beam on it, and it follows the light. Lead it in between the red and green lights at the harbour mouth and it is home. If a boat drifts towards the rocks and stops (watch for the !), sound the foghorn and it backs off and goes round. Nothing ever sinks here.
At dawn the light goes off and you fill in the logbook: boats home safe, the weather, and whatever the seagull did this time. It usually involves a sandwich.
You will not be working in silence, either. The Cosyford Harbour Shanty Crew practise down by the lighthouse, so it is hornpipes and sea songs all night: an accordion, a fiddle, a double bass, a bodhrán played sitting on a fish crate, and Albert on an old upright piano on castors.
