prize8-1, Exercise 2: An approach at night

Model answer (an imaginary scene):

The master of the coaster had been watching for the light since dusk. At last, low on the horizon, he saw the characteristic he was waiting for: two flashes every fifteen seconds, the identity of the lighthouse on the headland. He checked it against the chart and the list of lights, and knew the rocks lay to the north-east, inside the range of the beam.

The keeper in the lantern room had trimmed the lamp and cleaned the lens that afternoon, and wrote the visibility in the log. On the rock station beyond the headland a second light showed red, and a buoy with a bell marked the channel. The ship passed between them without a sound but the clang of the bell, and the keeper entered the passing in the log.

Terms used: characteristic, lighthouse, range, keeper, lantern, lens, log (the keeper's record), rock station, buoy (nine, so more than six).

Care: the scene is invented; real lights have their own characteristics, which should be taken from current lists of lights.