"When he was transferred there, I knew I simply had to live the life, more than the visits we had been able to have while he learned the ropes as a relief keeper. “Lennard Island…is the reason I bowed out of my interesting publishing job to join my husband as a lighthouse keeper," said Woodward.
While she and Jeff had whetted their whistles as relief keepers, Woodward jumped at the chance to take on a permanent position as a lightkeeper. She recounts her adventures in her book "Light Years: Memoir of a Modern Lighthouse Keeper."Ī helicopter view of the Cape Beale Lightstation. It was the adventure of a lifetime and I loved the work and the environment and getting to ride in helicopters and all kinds of boats!” “I eventually worked at 12 different lighthouses as a relief and permanent lighthouse keeper between 20. “The Coast Guard motto is: ‘Safety first, Service always,’ and that motto guided a lot of what was prioritized when the two lightkeepers, principal and assistant, sat down to decide what tasks to tackle in the day ahead,” Woodward said. Of course, lighthouse keepers must be able to get along with solitude and all types of wet weather, but they must also always keep their wits about them being attentive to ever shifting weather conditions, punctual with weather reports every three hours, and be generally handy.Ĭaroline Woodward checks the salinity and temperature of sea water twice a day. The initial conversation with the amiable relief keeper anchored her expectations about the daily realities that were woven into this romantic notion. Woodward had been itching for a change, for a return to the sense of adventure that had once populated her life and to her creative pursuits as a writer. I emailed my husband that evening and said I had found our next adventure … and his fingers immediately flew over the Canadian Coast Guard website.” “I rescued the relief lighthouse keeper’s little Jack Russell who was running loose as vehicles were boarding the ferry and we struck up a conversation. ferry while I was working as a publishers’ sales rep,” said Woodward in a recent interview with Kinute.
Their experience as lighthouse keepers began with a twist of fate. Woodward and her husband Jeff George called Lennard Island home for nearly 13 years before retiring in March 2021. Here, at the end of the Earth, Woodward had found her new beginning. Lennard Island is situated off the west coast of Vancouver Island - a rugged and remote expanse of rock and evergreens whose long gaze stretches to Hawaii and Japan. The light spray collects on her cheeks before streaming down like tears of joy for the opportunity to return to herself and her writing, on a new island home at the Lennard Island Lighthouse. Told with eloquent introspection and an eye for detail, Light Years is the personal account of a lighthouse keeper in twenty-first century British Columbia-an account that details Caroline's endurance of 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.A gentle mist falls upon Caroline Woodward as she looks out over the seemingly endless Pacific Ocean. Yet Caroline is exhilarated by the scenic coastline with its drizzle and fog, seabirds and whales, and finds time to grow a garden and, as anticipated, write. "So far the only life I know I've saved is my own," she says, with her trademark dry wit. As for dangerous rescue missions or dramatic shipwrecks-that kind of excitement is rare. weather report, the days are filled with maintaining the light station buildings, sea sampling, radio communication, beach cleanup, wildlife encounters and everything in between. The reality is hard physical labour, long stretches of isolation and the constant threat of de-staffing. When a permanent position for a lighthouse keeper became available, Caroline quit her job and joined Jeff on the lights.Ĭaroline soon learned that the lighthouse-keeping life does not consist of long, empty hours in which to write. 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. 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. 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. In 2007, Caroline Woodward was itching for a change. Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award - BC Book Prize (2016)
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