After 45 years being responsible for the safety of mariners around Bermuda, Brighton Simons is getting ready to bow out from the job he has known nearly all his working life.

If you were looking for someone who can pinpoint the exact location of all the buoys and navigational aids around Bermuda then Mr. Simons would be that man ? after all he probably put them out there in the first place.

Every so often he sails around the coast to make sure the buoys are still in the right place.

And just lately he has been helping pick up some of the mystery floating logs that have drifted onto the coastline.

When he hangs up his working clothes for the last time at the end of this month it will mark the end of an era.

Since January 1961 he has been a mainstay in the Marine and Ports Service. Amongst his first jobs was working on a 110-foot rock breaker barge that was towed around the Island to lay navigational buoys.

It had a 30-ton A-frame called to assist in placing the buoys.

But it hasn?t all been plain sailing, during his career there have been a few hairy moments such as in 1971 when he suffered second-degree burns after the boiler on a tug blew up.

Mr. Simons had stoked up the boiler at the end of the day so there would be plenty of steam for the next day?s work. He then went off swimming but was called back because the tug was unexpectedly needed again.

Still dripping wet from his swimming he opened up the boiler plates to the tug?s furnace having momentarily forgotten that he?d earlier stoked it up with coal flakes for the evening.

A sudden blast of heat threw him backwards. The burns he suffered were enough to keep him in hospital for weeks, but the fact that his body was wet from the swimming probably saved him from far worse injury.

Over the years bosun/pilot Mr. Simons has experienced major storms while skippering the department?s various vessels. He was safely at home when Hurricane Fabian struck in 2003 but had plenty of work to do in the aftermath.

?We lost two buoys as a result of Fabian, although we did manage to find one of them eventually,? he said.

And he and his team once had to pilot a tug to assist the stricken freighter Sea Urchin some 700 miles east of Bermuda, taking five-and-a-half days to return to port with the freighter which had lost its rudder.

As he approaches his 65th birthday, Mr. Simons is looking forward to spending more time with his wife Barbara and pursuing his hobbies, including diving around the Island.

He said: ?I?ve loved this job and I?m sort of missing it now already. I grew up with boats and loved being able to go out on the boats.

?The work is not hard, you just have to make time and do what you have to do. The gang here are working pretty good. I?ve seen a lot of people come and go.?

Mr. Simons, who has two sons Kenneth and Eugene, a daughter Cindyann, five grandchildren and a great grandchild, added: ?My father taught me never to be afraid of any kind of work. Just go ahead and do it.?

His boss, Marine Services Officer Leonard DeSilva said: ?I keep telling the rest of the staff they should pick his brains as he has a lot of knowledge and that will go when he leaves.

?I found him here 19 years ago when I arrived. Brighton is old school, he is very hands-on and usually will do something himself rather than rely on anyone else.

?He?s steady and keeps going and will give anyone his time as long as they are willing to listen and learn. He?s been my right-hand man.?