Robbins Reef Trip Report, Thursday, July 19, 2018

Crew: Megan Beck, Michael Parise, Leslie Petosa, Nan Smith, Erin Urban

Weather: Sunny, 80’s

Access: We left Miller’s at 9:15 AM on the Nicholas Miller piloted by Michael Sabatino and came back at 3:20 on the Emily Miller with Ryan Novak-Smith as pilot. Phil Tobin came along to assess the solar batteries and take them back to Miller’s.

Purpose of the trip: We had to continue to scrape the interior ladders and Watch Gallery hatch, remove the flange from the operable window in Jacob’s room, work on the stairwell and dog door, take up the Ram Board on the Lantern Gallery and Watch Gallery floors and put new board down, and start addressing the deteriorating polyurethane on the windows and doors.

Task accomplished: Michael scraped the remaining Smart Strip off the Watch Gallery ladder; it was still gooey. We decided to forgo putting epoxy on it for another week. Leslie and Megan put ramboard on the Lantern Gallery floor; Erin sanded and primed the dog door. Megan and Nan put the second coat of paint on the stairwell from the sitting room up to Kate’s bedroom and started on the last flight, from the bedroom to the fourth floor. Erin took up the ramboard in the Watch Gallery, and she and Leslie replaced it with new board. Michael got the flange off the operable window in Jacob’s room with a sawzall. After he and Phil got the web camera batteries out—they are toast—he disconnected the remaining equipment from the web camera. Erin worked on the Watch Gallery hatch cover and realized she had to bring it back home; the old Peel Away was still gooey; it is too moist and humid out there this season. (Last year, when we did ten interior doors, we did not have this problem.) Leslie worked on two windowsills, one in the stairwell and one in Kate’s bedroom, which were dried out and flaking because we used polyurethane on them; she sanded them and then varnished them with Man o’ War marine spar varnish.

Erin organized the equipment room; John Tretout had again given us eight gallons of paint, and Michael stored the many tools he donated to the cause, including the sawzall and a sander, a tool box with a variety of pliers, hammers, screwdrivers et cetera, and a drill in that equipment room. Great stuff—all necessary. Michael brought the hatch cover down to the launch, along with Peel Away and scraping tools. We had a lot of stuff to bring back, and we cleaned up and got it organized and down to the platform.

Next steps: We are working on addressing the port lights that open on the fourth floor. We will continue putting a second coat of paint on the stairwell brick and cast iron walls and ceilings. We have to get two rims for the operable windows on the fourth floor, fit them with glass and install them. We have to clean up the round ventilation disks in the Lantern Gallery and paint the beadboard. We’ll make sure the dog door is tight, put in new molding around it and paint it, and install the threshold. We have to clean up the Lantern Gallery hatch cover and put it back, and finish stripping and then epoxy and paint the interior ladders. We have to procure new hinges for the exterior door to the cellar, grind off the rusted ones, and weld on replacement hinges. We have to grind the casements on the kitchen windows so that we can paint them and make shutters for them. Terry DeMeo at Miller’s is overseeing retrieving a block of granite from the original lighthouse for the museum—not an easy task. At some point this season we will paint the exterior wall around the Watch Gallery balcony.

Steve Kalil has completed the cover for the hole in the kitchen wall caused by Superstorm Sandy and he will meet with and Scott Van Campen to discuss installing it next week. Miller’s will get it out to the lighthouse along with any welding equipment needed.