Point Judith Lighthouse — Attraction in Narragansett

It was a calm, warm Summer day. I was age five, ... and I had never been to the Ocean before. My mum showed me little tiny, baby crabs walking on the wet sand at the water's edge, I stopped and watched the baby crabs for a long time. My dad walked out into the gentle waves up to his shoulders; he was holding my little sister in one arm, & me in his other arm. After a while, my dad set me down in the shallower water so I could try to walk back in towards the beach and the Lighthouse. Suddenly, to my great surprise, a small breaking wave crashed over my shoulders from behind; the next thing I knew, my face was being pushed into the small gravel under the water, and Seawater was flooding into my nose, sinuses, and down my throat. When I stood up to exit the water, my Mum on the dry sand was laughing, but I wasn't. In later years, the very loud Lighthouse fog-horn and its rotating elevated Light would guide us back to Galilee, RI from summer journeys over the water from the Cape Cod area. We were always grateful for the presence of this USCG...

Point Judith Lighthouse in of itself is a stunning Lighthouse, and is analogous to Nauset Light with the red/white color scheme. It is quite a charming lighthouse and I appreciate the beautiful park and touching memorial for those who have lost their lives to the sea. What is upsetting about this lighthouse is that it is fenced off and not accessible to the public due to the Coast Guard presence there. That being said, there are other Coast Guard lighthouses that don't have a full, combatant-like perimeter for the lighthouse (Chatham Light comes to mind). It is deeply a shame that the public cannot access this amazing piece of living history that has shaped this community. Instead, it is blocked off by the military unnecessarily. Even if the Coast Guard does not want to allow people inside the lighthouse itself is one thing, but to build a fully fenced perimeter around the entire premises is both degrading and disappointing. This lighthouse is a 5/5 but the way the public are denied access to public maritime...

On a business trip to Grotton, Connecticut, I had a few hours one afternoon to drive to Point Judith, Rhode Island to view the lighthouse. I knocked on the door of the Coast Guard station while they were having dinner. I explained that I was an instructor in the United States Power Squadrons from my squadron in Lima, Ohio and had taught the Advanced Piloting course for many years. The Point Judith lighthouse was on the 1210 training chart that I used throughout this course every year. The Coast Guard allowed me to walk to the lighthouse. The loud foghorn was blowing on this very foggy day. In all subsequent classes that I taught, I was able to identify the Point Judith lighthouse on the chart for my students in Ohio and tell them that I stood at this point on the chart. This happened thanks to the Coast Guard personnel that allowed me to visit the lighthouse while they were eating dinner. I taught this Advanced Piloting course on coastal navigation for 26 years before relocating to Nevada...