On Saturday morning 6 of us met over at Oak Beach for a 9:00am set off. An easy channel crossing, with all the powerboaters seemingly sleeping in & favorable currents going our way, got us over to our destination at Fire Island Light ahead of schedule. Plenty of time to take a nice tour to the top of the lighthouse, getting a history lesson every step of the way up the winding 156 year old staircase. Just amazing.

Built in 1858 in less than a year for just $40,000!! Double walled and constructed from the inside out using the steel stairs as scaffolding, the 11’ base walls tapered off to 2½’ wide up at the top (167’ high). Once we had reached the top, the incredible 360˚ views were just awesome. We couldn’t have asked for a better day… After some photo-opping on the balcony we made our descent back down the 17 story structure & spend a little time & money at the gift shop.

A nice little lunch break back by our boats and we were on our way again. An easygoing leisurely pace back (with the current once again in our favor) made it a totally enjoyable 2nd half of the trip. With a little wave riding off of the boat wakes, a little dipping off a neighboring bow for some instant cooldown and a few squirrelly tidal swirls to go through made this anything BUT some boring flatwater bay paddle.

So, to wrap it up let me just say good luck to Bob with his brand new boat, congrats to MaryAnne on her first ever bay crossing and special thanks to Steve for planning and leading us on such a wonderful outing. Thanks also to John, who as our backup tripleader was tasked with keeping an eye out for rogue powerboaters heading our way. (there were plenty of them!) The TripPics are all linked here. –Alan M.