DMA to Celebrate WAtoN Day

The Danish Maritime Authority (DMA) announced that the international Marine Aids to Navigation Day (WAtoN Day) will be held around the world for the first time.

DMA marks the WAtoN Day at Nakkehoved Lighthouse in collaboration with Museum Nordsjælland on July 1, 2019.

The International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (IALA) will together with many national marine administrations including Denmark celebrate the WAtoN Day under the theme "Successful Voyages, Sustainable Planet", and by that draw attention to the work on the development of Aids to Navigation and, not least, to tell about the importance of why we use beacons, buoys etc. to guide our ships safely through the Danish waters.

Nakkehoved Lighthouse was turned on for the first time on April 1, 1772, and originally consisted of two lighthouses, both of which were designed as open coal lighthouses. The lighthouses were named Nakkehoved Vestre Lighthouse and Nakkehoved Østre Fyr.

DMA invites all interested parties to spend a pleasant day at the lighthouse, where the Danish Maritime Authority and the lighthouse museum will tell about Aids to Navigation in a historical and future perspective.

The reason for the establishing of two lighthouses was that it should be possible to know the difference between the lighthouse on the Kullen (Swedish side) and the lighthouse on the north coast of Zealand. In present time we would have chosen two different light characters, but it was not possible at that time with a solid burning light.

The lighthouse has been continuously modernized with up-to-date technology, but the actual major technical breakthrough in recent times came with the phasing out of the mercury system and phasing in the LED light source, respectively in 2013 and 2017.