Hello and welcome to the Chesapeake Bay Lighthouse Project - a personal website outgrowth of my exploration of the Chesapeake Bay. The site is divided into three sections all of which can be jumped to from anywhere within the site.
The first section attempts to document all of the existing Bay lighthouses in an easy to navigate, informative format. Within "The Lights" section you'll find photographs and a brief history of every Chesapeake Bay area light that is still standing. Also included is information on the evolution of the government bodies that built and managed the lights, from the Lighthouse establishment under the Secretary of the Treasury to the U.S. Coast Guard. The different types of Bay lighthouses are discussed as are lightships and the various lamps and lenses used. The links section will point you to a number of Bay lighthouse-related, not-for-profit sites and also all of the area maritime museums I know of. Many of these organizations survive on a shoestring budget and a handful of people who really care. I love 'em. This is the most developed section of this site. I'm not a historian and all of this was created for no payment, so please excuse any minor errors (and let me know about them so I can fix them).
The next section, titled "Cruising", contains information on our cruising activities with a focus on the Bay. This section isn't as focused as the first. It is more personal in nature, and includes both our current Caliber 35 LRC convertable-cutter sloop Alisios and our prior Hunter 28 sloop Moondance which povided the impetus to learn about the Bay and was the vehicle from which we saw many of the lights. It includes a couple large charts of the Bay, information on circumnavigating the Delmarva Peninsula (which a number of people have thanked me for) and some useful stuff like the Beaufort scale and marine phonetic alphabet. A few years ago I discovered Joshua Slocum and read his various books, so he got a page too. I've tracked down some on-line weather sites including the marine forecast from Sandy Point to Drum Point and live read-outs from Thomas Point (personally useful, though sometimes contradictory).
Finally, as if to complete the blurring of purpose that began in Cruising, I created a final, "Miscellaneous" section which serves as a catch-all. It provides a place to publish background information, a site map, and a contact page. It also contains a few favored poems, some of which hide in links behind the various site images, and a place for me to throw up personal photos (when / if I get around to it). This section suffers from lack of purpose and is pretty disjointed.
Feedback is welcome and I'll try to incorporate any corrections and ideas I like. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy my site and take the time to make your own discoveries of the Chesapeake or your own region, wherever it may be.
Matthew Jenkins
