The Maritime Heritage Project

The Fyddeye Guide to America’s Lighthouses
The Fyddeye Guide to America’s Lighthouses makes your travel planning easier by showing you hundreds of fascinating lighthouses you can visit today on the east coast, Great Lakes, Gulf Coast, and the west coast, including Alaska and Hawaii. From remote islands in Maine to the metropolises of southern California, you’ll discover the towering historic structures that have inspired travelers for millennia. You can get close to virtually all America’s lighthouses, and many allow you to climb to the top and stay as long as a month in historic buildings.

• More than 750 lighthouses, conveniently organized by coastal region and state
• Brief histories and complete contact information, including website, email address, and phone
• Three maps with suggested itineraries for discovering lighthouses in New England, Michigan, and California
• Notes on whether you can stay overnight on the lighthouse grounds, possibly in the keepers’ historic quarters
• Chapters on lightships and historic life-saving stations, including availability of overnight accommodations
• More than 40 images of lighthouses from coast to coast

With a foreword by leading New England lighthouse photographer Jeremy D’Entremont.

(including instructional videos relating to boating)

Avalon Dive Mask

Three window design enhances peripheral vision, while easy-adjusting swivel buckle allows a versatile fit. One-size-fits-all face skirt fits a wide variety of faces, while super soft, Siltech construction provides excellent comfort.

Don’t travel without your own mask and snorkel. On a recent trip to the Caribbean, we were surprised to note that the snorkels being handed out had not been sterilized! It’s not worth the health risk . . . also, if you have a wide or quite narrow face, lots of masks will leak and that can ruin your snorkeling and diving! While in Australia some years ago, I picked up a Blue Tusa Serene Dive Mask and still have it.

Ship’s Medical Kit (Priority)

West Marine’s take-anywhere first aid kit in-a-bottle keeps you prepared for minor injuries: Contains a first aid and CPR guide, first aid and burn cream, whistle, scissors, tweezers, tape, gauze, non-aspirin tablets, towelettes, alcohol pads, bandages of various sizes, reusable ziplock bag, tissue pack and sting relief pads. Rugged polycarbonate bottle comes in assorted colors and stows easily in a glove box or dry bag.

They have medical kits that are partitioned into smaller “bags” of gear, each one of which will treat a particular class of injury. West Marine Medical Kits are made by Adventure Medical Kits, a respected outdoor supplier, and they come with an excellent instructional manual “Medicine for Mariners” by Drs. Eric Weiss and Michael Jacobs. Also consider having a kit that’s easily available to the crew so they can find common painkillers, bandages, sunscreen, tweezers, etc. This will keep your crew from rummaging around in your neatly organized Ship’s Medical Kit.

Wetsuite Hanger

‘Super’ Hanger-Dive Access, 13 inch x 20 inch. Allows proper drying of wetsuits, dive gloves, fins, BC and regulator. One piece I-beam construction supports up to 20lbs. From $6.29

Sabre Dive Knife

This traditional, all-purpose dive knife comes complete with a one-button quick-release sheath that is easy to open even with a gloved hand. The 4.5″ stainless steel blade has a serrated top edge and line cutter for safety. $39.99 (Prices subject to change.)

Flags and Floats Dive Flag – 20×24

Rugged Nylon Flags and Floats Tough construction for years of hard use!

Foul Weather (Priority Gear)

Cruising Sailors live in FWG like a corporate lawyer lives in a three-piece suit. Buy quality gear that fits loosely enough to allow insulating garments beneath. Best brands are Henri Lloyd, West Marine, Douglas Gill, and Musto. Breathable fabrics are dependable and recommended for additional comfort.

The first record of boats large enough to carry goods for trade is around 3500 B.C. and this would mark the birth of the art of navigation. Early navigators generaly stayed close to shore and navigated by sight of landmarks or visible land characteristics. Usually they traveled by day and sought a calm harbor or anchorage at night. They did not have charts but lists of directions, similar to today’s cruising guides.

Navigation of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and the China and Australian Seas: With an Account of the Winds, Weather, and Currents Found therein … Extensive Extracts from the Nautical Magazine

The first ocean voyages were dramatic – a vessel blown off course by a sudden storm or error by the helmsman could destroy the ship and crew. However, Vikings regularly sailed to Iceland and Greenland between 900 and 1000AD, apparently using only the sun, stars and wind as their guide.

Early navigators had to be creative in compensating for their lack of technology. Viking explorer Floki Vilgjerdarsson, credited with the discovery of Iceland, carried aboard a cage of ravens. When he thought land should be near, he would release one of the birds. If it circled the boat without purpose, land was not near, but if it took off in a certain direction, the boat followed, knowing the bird was headed toward land.

One of the earliest man-made navigation tools was the mariner’s compass, an early form of the magnetic compass (c.13th Century). Initially used only when the weather obscured the sun or the North Star, these first compasses were very crude. The navigator would rub an iron needle against a lodestone, stick it in a piece of straw and float it in a bowl of water. The needle would point in a northerly direction. Early mariners found the compass inconsistent – most likely because they did not understand that it pointed to the magnetic north pole, not true north. At the time, they could not explain these variations and could not put much trust in the readings when navigating an unknown area.

At this time, mariners began to realize that maps would be helpful and began keeping detailed records of their voyages that land-based mapmakers used to create the first nautical charts called Portolan Charts (c. 13th Century).

The charts, created on sheepskin or goatskin, were rare and expensive and often kept secret so that competing mariners would not have access to this knowledge. What they lacked in accuracy they made up for in beauty, which you can review by visiting Geographicus. Lands and ports on the chart were highly decorated with depictions of buildings and flags.

The size of lands on charts were more a reflection of their importance to trade routes than their actual geographical size and, of course were not very accurate. The charts did not have latitude or longitude lines but did have compass roses indicating bearings between major ports.

West Marine is one of those Great American Success Stories that we all dream about. The company was founded in 1968 by Randy Repass in Sunnyvale, California with the name West Coast Ropes. Randy started by selling nylon rope from his garage.

The first retail West Coast Ropes store opened in 1975 in Palo Alto, California. With the acquisition of assets from West Products in 1977, the company changed its name to West Marine Products, Inc.

West Marine now operates a chain of boating supply and fishing retail stores, with an estimated 300 stores in North America.

In 1978 West Marine established a wholesale division called Port Supply and in 1991, the first West Marine stores opened on the East Coast of the United States in Miami and Annapolis and in 1993 the company went public on NASDAQ. West Marine currently provides over 100,000 products online, in stores, and via mail-order catalog. In July of 2008, West Marine opened its first franchise store in Istanbul, Turkey.

West Marine knows what sailors want. Their experts stay on top of what sells and have recommended the following as priority and/or popular items for sailors.

WestMarine features discounts throughout the year for special occasions (Father’s Day!) and to introduce new products.

Look through their thousands of products for boating, sailing, fishing and watersports. Click here to view their offers, or click on any of the items below!

• U.S. Flags
• Sunglasses
• Shoes and Boots
• Shop all Hats
• Binoculars
• Top selling GPS Devices
• Shimano Fishing Gear
• Foul Weather Gear
• BBQ’s and Grills
• Anchor and Docking Products
• Engine Parts Selector
• eGift Cards
• Life Jackets and PFD’s
• Nautica Multi-Function Men’s Watch
• Galley Products
• Raymarine Products
• VHF Radios
• Something you need to learn about your boat or boating?
  Try West Marine’s Video Library