Ok, I know that was a bit of a pun. Current as in ocean currents or in the case of our last trip to the tower, electrical current! We were able to start the large 40KW Detroit diesel generator and ran it just enough to make sure it was mechanically sound! And speaking of sound, one of our concerns was that it would be too loud to let anyone enjoy the tower when it was running but not so! With it running and being on the other side of the tower only 70′ away, it was barely noticeable which is a good thing. 
We used another portable generator as well which one of our volunteers, Mike Hamby, provided and connected it to several of the circuits to provide lighting and electricity to a few of the rooms. It was pretty strange to have the lights on and play a game of pool by the same fluorescents that the original Coast Guard crew were using. I just wish I could have blamed my poor shots on the lighting but nope. Another of our volunteers, Rob Whitney came from behind and whipped me in a game sinking the eight ball with ease after my flubbing several ‘easy’ shots. I would like to say that the tower must have swayed during my shots but the waves were only 2′ while we were there and it was just bad shooting.
We also had some other interesting news while there. We found that when we were looking at the square floor plates in the main living quarters into what we first thought were the holding tanks, we were actually looking down into a subsection and the holding tanks were actually a few feet below. This was a great find since we could see light through the peep holes in the plates and thought our large water and fuel holding tanks must have been breached by rust. NOT SO! The actual holding tanks for two 11,000 gallon water tanks were solid! This is very significant since the entire 70′ by 70′ helipad is designed to capture rainwater into these tanks. They were empty because the valves on the bottom had been removed and when we were there it rained lightly but enough for us to see that they did hold water. Of the two large 7,000 gallon diesel fuel tanks, one of them was still sealed and held pressure in the test line. There’s repairs to do to all the tanks and we’ll improve their structural integrity but it’s a huge benefit to still be able to use them! Hauling supplies out to the tower would be significantly more challenging if we couldn’t capture the ‘free’ rainwater from the helipad. So in summary, we can start the generator though it needs some maintenance. We can turn on the lights and will setup a backup smaller generator when we locate a 10kw diesel generator donation and soon, the toilets will flush and there will be hot showers available.
Rather amazing how simple pleasures like flushing toilets and a hot shower can make a facility habitable!
After we get the secondary generator up and tied into the minor circuits, we’ll verify the refrigerator and freezer are functioning. With fresh water, and electricity, we should be able to also make ice which if you’re a fisherman, you know is paramount to keeping your fresh catch fresh! Speaking of fresh catch, you can see from the tower what you would never be able to view from a boat and that is clearly seeing schools of fish that are milling around the tower. They included tens of thousands of smaller bait fish as well as some enormous schools of what I (duh) thought were yellow fin tuna. They were actually Yellowtail Jacks but were still enormous!
Also, one of the test items we tried were some temporary docking area walkways. We used some simple plywood with curved braces to make ‘walking the pipes’ a much easier task. Now, I have always had good balance and very little fear of heights, other than the normal if I fall from here I will die so uh, better be careful stomach flutter but these ‘test’ boards proved to me that a rather narrow walkway would suffice as long as you have a decent handrail to stabilize your walk. We are now pursuing a Charlotte supplier of some industrial fiberglass grating to see if we can surround the lower section with some better access while we wait until we locate a set of stairs.
There’s both a benefit and detriment to not having the stairs and lower section of the tower repaired quite yet. Benefit since the access can be removed and the tower is locked up tight to help prevent access by adventurous but illegal boarders and negative since our workers are being roped off and must climb 65′ up using hand holds on one leg! We are using btw, safety harnesses and using rope climbing safety as best as we know how! Did we mention that this is dangerous work?!
Well, I’ll close with these details and hopes for the next few weeks of effort. First, ALL our review and examination of the tower has proven we are indeed very lucky people and have purchased an amazing structure that is VERY able to be returned to active service to the many people who want to use it and secondly, it will take many people like YOU who are reading this blog and facebook updates to make it happen!
If you can help, please visit and fill out our volunteer form here: http://www.fptower.com/volunteer.html
Together we will get it done!
The Frying Pan Tower Facebook page has received many new friends over the last few months. One of those friends is a character who calls himself, Hiding In Anonymity. He says ‘he’ is a computer program from the future and is a program that runs on a quantum computer system. Ok, that’s a pretty tall stretch to buy and then HIA as he calls himself says that I’m going to write a book. In the future. And that the book causes us (everyone) to create him.
