Sometimes I think people have a hard time believing me when I tell them that I enjoy my time atop the tower because it is often different. Its true, there are not always optimal conditions, certain times of the year staying the duration of your two and a half hour shift can be a chore. However, there are always at least 20-30 minutes that your glad your up there.
Today wind gusts in the high thirties closed the deck to children, and kept the adults allowed onto the bright red observation deck on their toes. Grip your hat, grip the rail, hug the wall, there is no prize for making it all the way around the 360-degree deck without holding on, so why do it. No one dared, not that the tower would ever be open if there were winds nearing speeds that could possibly lift a person of any size off the deck itself. Our restrictions are there because there is no emergency elevator and if someone was to bump their head on the railing there isn’t an expedient way down there is only the staircase.
No one else that spends time with me on top of tower is thinking the same thing, but it’s cool to see someone step out – one step at a time- into the wind. If you don’t believe me when the weather channel goes to its live remotes during the next tropical storm, watch. The reporter isn’t doing their standup from inside a room with their back to a window he/she is standing out in it. I’m not advocating people to dare hurricanes to feel the wind in their hair, but trust us we would not let you go out into the wind if it was to dangerous. So if your lucky enough to come to the lighthouse on a day when it’s a little windy lean into it and imagine your in your very own Weather Channel weather update, live from the top of the St. Augustine Lighthouse.
