Life in a Tofino Lighthouse
Light Years is the personal account of a lighthouse keeper in twenty-first century British ColumbiaLennard Island emerges from the Pacific Ocean from a cluster of dangerous shoals and problematic passages – potentially deadly for mariners unfamiliar with the waters four miles north to Clayoquot Sound and Tofino.
To protect, warn and offer guidance, Lennard Island Lighthouse was built and then began operations on November 1, 1904.
Tending to this crucial beacon, ensuring it remains lit in some of the most furious oceans and during the most ferocious storms the Pacific Ocean has to offer, there has been a succession of lighthouse keepers. For over a century, individuals and families have lived on the isolated and windy rocky island making sure the enormous beacon shines and the fog horn warns ocean-going craft of the danger present and the promise of safe harbour a short distance away in Tofino.
The remarkable history of Lennard Island’s lighthouse and the adventure and the isolation keepers face has been memorialized in Light Years: Memoir of a Modern Lighthouse Keeper, a 2015 book by Caroline Woodward,
In 2007, Caroline was itching for a change. With an established career in book-selling and promotion, four books of her own and having raised a son with her husband, Jeff, she yearned for adventure and to re-ignite her passion for writing. Jeff was tired of piecing together low-paying part-time jobs and, with Caroline’s encouragement, applied for a position as a relief lightkeeper on a remote North Pacific island. They endured lonely months of living apart, but the way of life rejuvenated Jeff and inspired Caroline to contemplate serious shifts in order to accompany him. When a permanent position for a lighthouse keeper became available, Caroline quit her job and joined Jeff on the lights.
Isolation and hard work
Caroline soon learned that the lighthouse-keeping life does not consist of long, empty hours in which to write. The reality is hard physical labour, long stretches of isolation and the constant threat of de-staffing. Beginning with a 3:30 a.m. weather report, the days are filled with maintaining the light station buildings, sea sampling, radio communication, beach cleanup, wildlife encounters and everything in between.As for dangerous rescue missions or dramatic shipwrecks—that kind of excitement is rare. “So far the only life I know I’ve saved is my own,” she says. Yet Caroline is exhilarated by the scenic coastline with its drizzle and fog, seabirds and whales.
Light Years is the personal account of a lighthouse keeper in twenty-first century British Columbia. Caroline shares tales of endurance, extreme climatic, interpersonal and medical challenges, as well as the practical and psychological aspects of living a happy, healthy, useful and creative life in isolation.
Light Years is published by Harbour Books and can be purchased online
