Lights Out at Pigeon Point Lighthouse
By Sue Clark on May 1, 2009 in Opinion 
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No One Tells the Coast Guard?
The backup (and only) light at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse near Pescadero CA has been down for over a week, and no one has called the Coast Guard? A letter posted online at the Coastsider by Rob Johnson, a Pigeon Point Light Station Docent, answers a question that had apparently been posed to the community driven site. “Some folks have been wondering why the beacon at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse has been out recently. We received the following answer from a docent at the lighthouse.”
His answer follows.
Pigeon Point is still an active aid to navigation but has been operating in backup mode since October 2008. It has been dark during the daytime because the aerobeacon that the Coast Guard has used since 1972 failed. There is a smaller fixed backup light of much reduced intensity that flashes one time every ten seconds, but only when it is dark. You have to be on the ocean side to see the light - it’s not like the rotating aerobeacon that you can normally see up and down the coast for quite a distance (the aerobeacon is rated at 24 miles visibility in the Coast Guard’s Light List).
However, about a week ago, the backup light also stopped lighting! Since I haven’t been at the point at night since the last annual Fresnel Lens lighting in November 2008, I called the hostel to confirm that the backup is lighting and learned that it too has been down for about a week. People from the hostel are going to call to notify the Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard is replacing the aerobeacon with a new one - in fact, both Point Arena and Pigeon Point are slated for replacement beacons because both failed in last year. We (the docents for State Parks) are not sure about when the replacement will take place, but we know it will.
If you look up at the tower from the ocean side, you can see the backup light beneath the now-still aerobeacon. And inside the lantern room, behind the curtains, our original first order Fresnel Lens is still there and we are still able to light that lens, but only on special occasions.
We look forward to seeing Pigeon Point back at full power.
Back to Full Power?
Maybe the light will be back to full power, but apparently the dim bulbs aren’t always the ones inside the backup light!
I cannot for the life of me figure out why no one at the hostel bothered to either inform the Coast Guard when it was noticed that the backup light was not functioning, or to let someone at the State Park know. Well, wait, maybe I can, but I’m sure no one wants to hear my rant.
So thank you, Mr. Johnson, for getting the word to the people at the hostel that they need to call, but my unsolicited advice is to follow up and make sure that someone actually does make the call. Because there’s no guarantee that someone who didn’t think to call in the first place would know how or to whom to make the call.
The housing at the station is run by Hostelling International USA, Golden Gate Council, and they should be the ones who take the blame for this. Either because the did not adequately train their employees, or possibly by not adequately hiring the help.
Shaking my head at this whole situation…
Photo credit: Pigeon Point by John Curley. Some rights reserved.
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2 Comment(s)
By Ching Ya on May 2, 2009 | Reply
Hi Sue,
Glad I got directed in here via Twitter. I was never too ‘focus’ on the lighthouse news (maybe because we have none around where I live), but your post really reminds me about local fascilities that require attention from the people and local authorities. It’s funny at times when people are ranting about the prob, and no one bother to make the complaint (even myself at times!shameful). One of the possible reasons just might be ‘Don’t Know How to/Who to talk to’. We all hope somebody would.. sigh.. time to repent! ^^
@wchingya
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By Sue Clark on May 2, 2009 | Reply
Hi Chingya.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It’s a case, I think, like you said, of not knowing who to call, and perhaps not even thinking they should. But it’s a sad commentary on our society that no one wants to take the responsibility to even find out, and that is so sad.
Once the Coast Guard knows about a light out, they’re usually right on it. And it would have been nice if they’d known about it, so they could broadcast in their daily updates that the light is out.
Well, I hope the docent Rob follows through and makes sure the Coast Guard was called, or even better, call them himself.