Last month, Erin Urban and her Noble Crew finally completed preparations for the long-awaited exterior painting, rigging the equipment loaned to us by Caddell Dry Dock and Repair Company and the Lilac Preservation Project.

Early in October, with Carmen Campo’s assistance, Angus McCamy, our foreman for the exterior painting, made a platform that we will suspend from the top of the lighthouse so he can paint. They then tested the platform, returned it to the caisson and stored it inside. Meanwhile Erin continued removing glue from the floors with a powerful solvent.

On the next trip out, Carmen showed his grandson Gabriel Winters and Stefan D-W how to build a duplicate of Angus’s platform so two people can work on the exterior simultaneously.

Erin continued removing glue off the floors.

One trip in October was canceled on the approach to Robbins Reef when the launch captain determined that the waves were too big and the tide too low for a safe approach.

In the final trip of the month, Angus and Nan Smith set up the rigging and Angus went aloft in a harness. After adjusting the falls, he went up a second time with a chipping hammer and scraped two panels under the watch gallery with Nan manning the lines on the caisson.

Meanwhile, Erin prepared surfaces closer to the ground and tested the red oxide paint that John Tretout and Lou Deblasi of Armorica Sales prepared for the lower half of the exterior.

— Stefan Dreisbach-Williams