Summer's best laid plans

You can’t always tell... We anticipated it would take four-to-five-years to raise the funds to repaint Harbor Light. In fact, 80% of what we needed—approximately $450,000—came in one fell swoop less than 24 hours after the campaign was announced: a single call from Lisa Gorman at

the Carpenters Union offered us carpenters, painters, and enough scaffolding to surmount the tip of the lighthouse lantern. You

—the community— followed suite with $165,000 in donations.

It was a fantastic surprise, and again we say: thank you.

The entire restoration, from announcing the campaign to completing the work, took just 18 months, from June 2013 to September 2014.

At the same time, we used Super Storm Sandy/FEMA funding to rebuild storm-damaged masonry at Harbor Lighthouse. Our property survey revealed we had room for a three-foot wide, grade-level sidewalk

across the ledge along our north border allowing us direct access to the lighthouse, entirely on our own property; so we started building. This should have taken two months to complete, but we were stopped

in our tracks. Here we now are, 18 months on, mired in a lawsuit, having had to cancel our fall Open House.

On the brighter side, we benefitted from two unanticipated ‘gifts’ this summer , as well as one we’d worked towards for many months. First, the

Amistad moored here, in New London, from May through September. This visit allowed Custom House volunteers to work with historian Marcus

Rediker to revamp our telling of the story and revitalize our work with school groups. A second gift was that we briefly became local host to

el Galeon, a massive, Spanish reproduction 16th-c. galleon.

Working with Barbara Neff and New London Port Authority, we sold tickets for visitors to board the ship and Partied with the Pirates,

raising a respectable bonus of $1,000 to support the museum.

The much-anticipated transfer of ownership of Ledge Lighthouse to New London Maritime Society was our third gift this summer—and true cause for celebration.

This was not the summer we’d anticipated. It was a true mix of good and bad. But summer’s over and looking beyond the immediate issues, we need to rethink what the Maritime Society can do with its now enviable assets. We have a terrific museum, excellent programming and partners, three lighthouses (and as co-plaintiffs in the suit to prevent the sale of Plum Island, we may be considering a 4th). We welcome your suggestions. It’s time to take a fresh look around us and re-envision whatour brightest future might be.