You couldn't have asked for better weather Saturday, October 14, 2006 as over 90 NELL members were warmly greeted by Chief Heath Jones, USCG, and his family at the Lynde Point Lighthouse at the mouth of the Connecticut River in Old Saybrook, CT. They are new to New England and are soooo fortunate to reside at this beautiful location. Nichole Sands from the New Haven CG Aids to Navigation Team joined Heath and used her "day off" to escort our members up to the lantern rooms at both this tower and New London Harbor Light in the afternoon. But that is getting ahead of myself. :)

Chief Jones walked the long walk with us out the 3/4 mile long breakwater to the Old Saybrook Lighthouse. Although the forecast was for near record cold this AM, it was sunny and quite warm, with little breeze, and low tide with calm seas. We kept shedding our layers of clothing as we went. Actually the trek was not bad with only one small section where the rocks had shifted and required a little agility to climb through. Alas we were scrambling to the lantern room and out on the catwalk for great photos back along the breakwater from on high. SPECTACULAR

All kinds of boats and sailing craft passed by, all waving to us, but none stopped to pick us up for the return trip to shore. :( We walked back past the second NELL group who had climbed the tall 65 foot tower as we switched positions. The spiral wooden stairs of the Lynde Point tower were different than the usual steel steps, and the functioning 5th order Fresnel lens is one of only two operating Fresnel lenses in CT.

The other is in the tallest at 89 feet, the oldest in CT from 1801, and contains an operating 4th order Fresnel Lens at New London Harbor Light on Pequot Avenue. NELL received a permit from the USCG to access this site and we climbed to the lantern room that same afternoon. What a special treat to access this rarely opened lighthouse, but that is what you get when you're "on the road with NELL". The stairs into the lantern room are very small and tight, and the catwalk narrow and with a short railing so we stayed inside.

We traveled to this site in small groups of about 20 members so as not to overwhelm Alice Dimock who is quite old and lives in the old keeper's house. The CG had not alerted her of our tour and although startled at first we had quite a nice chat as she sat at her back door a while. Members shared lighthouse stories with her, including new member, Gladys Grabner, and the Kerbers who recently got married in the lantern room at Race Point Light Labor Day weekend. :) Later at the NELL meeting we approved sending Alice a floral bouquet as a thank you for hosting us, and hope she appreciated our love for her little corner of the world. :)

The Saturday night buffet dinner was quite good and plentiful once our hotel friend, Thurston, got the AC turned on, put on extra help and ordered up more food from the kitchen. For our inconvenience he also provided coffee and Danish for the Sunday AM meeting. THANK YOU, THURSTON.

After dinner, Jim Streeter, APLS Co-Chair and the driving force behind the preservation of the historic Avery Point Lighthouse, provided a most interesting and entertaining look at the light's history and restoration. His nearly hour long presentation kept everyone's attention and there were many questions. GREAT JOB, JIM !!   NELL donated $450 to APLS for their continued preservation of that light, and Jim donated his speaker's fee to NELL preservation.

The NELL meeting was a huge success raising over $2,000 plus merchandise sales, which was further enhanced by additional sales at the relighting event. As always I defer to the Secretary's report of the business meeting but offer the following highlights:

A number of board members retired and others took office. I assumed the office as NELL President and Tom Kenworthy started his term as Vice President. Arlene Winkleman retired from her Sunshine position and Hilari Seery assumed that office. Certificates of appreciation were awarded to Shirin Pagels and to Arlene.  Lee Hall became Co-Chair of Fundraising and Eileen Thomas retired from Merchandise. Tom K. also indicated he is retiring from merchandise as soon as he finds a replacement and received a huge standing ovation for bringing that program to the smashing success that it is today.

We look forward to the offer of help from John and Nancy Satkowski toward assuming Co-Chair positions in that program, and to Lynne Kerber for her interest in working on the Beacon newsletter.

Thank you to all for your years of service and to the replacements for stepping up.

To send a little sunshine to our seriously injured NELL friend, Marguerite MacDonald, who has been hospitalized since a Labor Day plane crash, many of us signed a NELL chambray shirt which John and Noreen Waters delivered to her a few days later. GET WELL SOON, MARGUERITE !

Norm and Cynthia Bosse ended their reign as Mr. & Ms. NELL naming a well deserving Anthony Savino and Pat Bandock to succeed them. A really big CONGRATULATIONS to you both. :)

Our second very long day in a row went well into the evening at the Avery Point relighting event. In the early afternoon NELL climbed that essentially vertical steel ladder to the lantern room and got an up-close look at the lantern that would be lighted at the days end.

A huge THANK YOU to all of the NELL "volunteers" who gracefully accepted assignments for the various tasks to work the relighting event for APLS, whether as coordinators, greeting the public or the VIPs, locating bricks, doing limited lighthouse tours, selling merchandise and commemoratives, handling crowd control, setting out luminaria, or picking up the trash. The event was a big success and we played a major part in that. WELL DONE, NELL !

The CG band played as the sun set. A silhouetted submarine silently glided past the silhouetted New London Ledge Lighthouse. Various local, state, and federal officials addressed the gathering as darkness fell. The spotlighted and bunting-draped Avery Point tower brightly glowed in the background. Mr. Lighthouse, Ken Black, retiring Director of the National Park Service, Fran Mainella, and future lightkeeper, Lexis Foster, pushed the magic plunger and the lighthouse once again flashed
its green light off Avery Point.

CONGRATULATIONS APLS !!!

I'm Tom Pregman and I approve this message.

Hope to see you at LHHC&Y, January 13-14 on Cape Cod.