A Visit to Cape Race

The road out to Cape Race is only about 15 miles long. Because it is hard to go over 10 miles an hour, it takes a long time to traverse it. After our whale watch trip, we headed down to Portugal Cove South and, at about 4:00 in the afternoon, started down the road to Cape Race.

It was a foggy day, and we stopped a few times to peer at foggy rocks on the edge of the foggy sea.

By the time we reached the lighthouse, it was 10 minutes of 6:00. The small visitor's center looked closed, but immediately a black car pulled up and a woman, two teenage boys and a black dog hopped out, unlocked the door and hustled into the building. This was Viola, her son, his friend and their dog Ringo. We were their first visitors of the day. They had spent the afternoon at the lighthouse keeper's house a short distance down the road and had hurried over when they saw us pull up. A sign in the visitor's center listed two options: a tour of the telegraph room (this was the location that had first received the Titanic's distress calls on it's fateful voyage 96 years ago) or a tour of the lighthouse. At the bottom of the sign the visitor's center's hours were listed: 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Viola asked what we'd like to do. I said, "Well, I'd like to see the lighthouse, but it's 4 minutes to 6, I guess there's no time."

Now, if this had been a tourist spot in Maine or probably anywhere else in the US or Canada, Viola would have replied, "Yup, you're right, please come back tomorrow." Instead, this being Newfoundland, she said "Oh don't let that worry ye dear! You've driven all the way out here and I can't let you leave disappointed!"

Shortly, Viola was unlocking the door at the base of the tower. As we stepped in she asked "Ye aren't afraid of heights are ye? It's 86 steps to the top." The stairs spiral upward along the inside wall of the tower with no visible means of support.

Going up the stairs one concentrates on the next step without noticing the height. However, once you reach the top and look down, it's hard not to get a little vertigo.

At the top of the stairs we entire a low-ceiling room and climb a short, steep red staircase to the light room above. Above us, the giant fresnel lens of Cape Race Light rotates slowly. It's surprisingly quiet with only a small electric motor humming beneath the lens structure. "The whole lens mechanism is floating in a channel filled with mercury - so there are no bearings to wear out." Viola informs us.

I ask if I can climb up on the catwalk that circles the inside wall of the light room. "Of course!" replies Viola. As I climb to the catwalk, Viola turns to Jude "And ye can climb up this ladder and stand inside the light if ye like. Just be careful, some people get dizzy with the lens rotating round them."

Jude, somewhat prone to motion sickness, tentatively climbs up into the light.

After admiring the view from the catwalk, Jude and I switch locations and I climb up into the light. I comment that the actual bulb doesn't seem all that bright. "The lens do all the brightening" Viola informs me.

As we get ready to start our descent, I notice a short red door on the outer wall of the light room held shut by a large turnbuckle. A length of rope is tied to it's handle. "That leads to the outside catwalk." Viola tells us "I can't let ye go out there today, because it's too windy. But since you've come so far, I'll open if ye like so you can get a photo." It takes a few minutes for the three of us to un-crank the turnbuckle and release the door handle. As we open the door a crack, the wind catches it and it suddenly swings open with a bang. After I snap a few pictures, we use the rope to pull the door shut and hold it while Viola tightens the turnbuckle.

As we descend the tower stairs, we ask Viola if there is anyplace to camp back in Portugal Cove. "Oh, ye can camp anyplace" she opines "even out here. No one will bother ye!" And so we select a small grassy gravel pit a short distance from the lighthouse, and its foghorn.

When we wake the next morning, the sky is still foggy and gray, but by the time we've prepared breakfast, a few fleeting patches of blue sky are visible through the thinning fog. By the time we're packed, the the sun is shining and we finally get a good view of Cape Race Light.