We lived in Belle Haven [Connecticut] and when I was 1o, my dad gave me a rowboat. I used to row out past the Captain Island lighthouse and think to myself, ‘I'd like to live there one day,” Jason Pilalas recalls.
Decommissioned in 1970, the Great Captain Island lighthouse was too dilapidated for use by the early 2000s. But further east along the Long Island Sound lay a near-identical lighthouse. Several decades later, this twin came up for sale. The Morgan Point light was deactivated in 1919, and its lantern was removed. The old tower became leaky and uninhabitable, but a ranch style addition served for many years as a summer residence for a couple from New York. In 1991 they offered it for sale and Jason and Rena Pilalas became the lighthouse's third owners. Meticulously restored, the property is the jewel in the couple's impressive collection of nautical memorabilia – along with a 145ft motor yacht named Rena.
After 55 years of marriage, Jason and Rena Pilalas finish each other's sentences. The stories
