Rockland Breakwater at Dusk during 2/25/10 Storm

We've been through a very stormy week in New England -- heavy snow inland and several inches of rain along the coast, along with tropical storm-force winds. I wasn't able to get any photos during the storm, unfortunately. I'm sure there was spectacular surf at many lighthouse locations along the coast.

At the height of the wind and rain on Thursday evening, I gave a lighthouse presentation at South Portland (Maine) City Hall. On the way there in my minivan, I drove through some major flooding and lost my power steering. I made it to city hall and gave my presentation, and I was then towed all the way back to Portsmouth, NH. It was an adventure I'd rather not repeat, but I made it home safe and sound.

The following text and photos come from Bob Trapani, executive director of the American Lighthouse Foundation:

I decided to go back over to Rockland Breakwater this evening to see if I could improve on my storm photos from this morning.

This time I took my tripod with me, which offered more stability for focusing in the face of a good wind, but the benefit of the tripod was offset a tad by the fact that the winds had grown much stronger than in the morning. They were blowing at sustained gale force this evening, which made keeping both myself and the tripod balanced / still a mixed bag :)

I only wish there had been about one more hour of daylight to work with since the tide was on the flood, but with high tide not until 8:00 pm this evening, there wasn't quite enough in volumes of water being driven against the breakwater to create the more dramatic wave explosions.

As it was, the wind-swept spray of the waves was a cool thing to see, wispy and far-reaching as it broke against the wall and carried through the air well over the breakwater....sometimes obscuring the flashing beacon of the lighthouse from land.