The rain is horizontal, and the wind is howling. It is the worst storm of the British winter. The BBC reports motorways blocked by overturned trucks and bridges closed because of dangerous crosswinds.
And here we are, 300 feet up, atop the White Cliffs of Dover, overlooking the English Chan-nel, across whose white-capped waves the regular ferries to and from France and Belgium dare not venture.
We are alone, and we're in our element.
More accurately, we're in the keeper's cottage of the 149-year-old South Foreland Lighthouse, snug behind its thick stone walls and locked windows, designed and built by the Victorians to withstand the worst nature can throw its way.
It may seem strange to rent such a remote and exposed abode in February, always the cruelest of months in northern Europe. But this is what staying in a lighthouse is all about -- storms.
A glance at the visitors' instruction book says it all: "The wind and rain whistle up the channel and can be very dangerous. Winds in excess of 100 miles per hour are not unusual."
Then, a list of stormy-day advice: Stay away from the cliffs. Gusting winds have been known to suck or blow people off the cliffs; make sure all windows are closed and securely fastened; park your car in the lee of the building in case of objects being wind-driven and striking the car.
So the windows are closed, the car is protected and we are enjoying sitting out the raging storm, just as past generations of lighthouse keepers have.
The lighthouse was built in 1853 on the instructions of Trinity House, the organization that oversees Britain's coastal beacons. Until 1989, its light helped guide ships in and out of the south-coast port of Dover, past the treacherous Goodwin Sands beneath the White Cliffs, graveyard for dozens of careless or hapless vessels.
The age of satellites and new navigational lights around Dover harbor rendered South Fore-land's flashing white tower redundant. The building -- perhaps the most familiar of English lighthouses, seen by many of the 16 million tourists who sail between Dover and Europe yearly -- is now run by the National Trust, an organization that protects threatened English buildings, coastline and countryside.
The lighthouse tower has been preserved as a national monument, and the keeper's cottage converted to a vacation rental.
Historic rentals
Rysetz Landa is one of the many ferry passengers who looked at the gleaming lighthouse every time she crossed the channel to England, never thinking that, one day, she might stay in it.
Then, looking through the National Trust's glossy brochure one day at home in Holland, she saw the familiar tower. "I didn't think for another moment," she recalls in the visitor's book at the cottage. "So here we are, having wonderful days."
The lighthouse cottage is one of dozens of properties, from medieval farm cottages to stately homes, offered as vacation homes by the National Trust.
The annual ritual of thumbing through the National Trust's latest brochure becomes one of the rites of spring for thousands of English and overseas vacationers. Here, though, a word of warning: Some of the most popular properties have to be booked a year in advance.
The previous summer we rented a medieval, thatched farm cottage in Devon. We had initially tried to get the South Foreland Lighthouse keeper's cottage, but it was fully booked for the warm months. That is why we opted for February. Friends thought us mad to seek such wintry solitude. It turned out to be inspired.
It was from here, on Christ-mas Eve 1898, that Marconi transmitted the world's first ship-to-shore radio message, and it was here, a few months later, that the first international wireless message came through loud and clear from Wimereux, France, 32 miles away.
More recently, the BBC added to the lighthouse's history by focusing its cameras on the first English dawn of the new millennium from here.
As David Slade, from Birmingham, writes in the visitors' book: "Enough inspiration from the surroundings to get my novel started, even though I fell quite well short of the 100-page target I had set myself."
We didn't even start typing -- there was too much to do.
Nearby attractions
We whiled away a week of diversion and relaxation with early-morning walks along the cliffs (on galeless days, of course), daily trips into nearby St. Margaret's at Cliffe for milk and the morning papers, the occasional pub lunch at Smugglers or the Coastguard, the mandatory trip to Canterbury with its cathedral, and the occasional drive through the pretty, rolling countryside.
One oddity: in St. Margaret's Bay, below the lighthouse, is the former home of the late Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond novels. It sits alone, smack on the beach at the foot of the cliffs, defying rock falls and tidal surges, and inviting imaginings of danger and adventure.
Local lore has it that Bond's digital identity was taken from the 007 Dover-Deal bus route that used to pass Fleming's home, imputing the most mundane of origins to the most exciting of identities.
Just getting to the lighthouse is real-life adventure enough. The National Trust gives these directions: Go through St. Margaret's village, pass the Post Office, proceed up the hill to beyond the phone box, take the second right, then follow a potholed track for half a mile through the bush.
The lighthouse emerges through the hedgerows, tall, white, gleaming and, above all, solid.
As you drive along its short gravel path, the coastline of France is visible on a clear day to your left.
The cottage is as simple as it is comfortable. It has two double bedrooms, a bathroom, a sitting room with twin sofas and a TV set, and a well-equipped kitchen with dining table. It is warmed by adjustable electric heaters, which proved adequate on the coldest days.
"We arrived in dense fog," Elizabeth and Stephen Gandell, who brought their two young sons here for a winter's break, report in the visitors' book. "The cottage was a welcome, warm and cosey shelter."
It also offers a wonderful base for touring southeastern England, taking a day-trip into London or hopping on the almost-hourly ferries across the Channel to France for a gourmet lunch in the walled port of Calais, or a spot of continental shopping. Nearby Dover Castle and Canterbury Cathedral are both musts on any tourist itinerary.
Between March and Novem-ber, you can tour the lighthouse tower, examine its workings and gaze from its ramparts across one of the busiest seaways in the world. One guest notes in the visitors' book that he counted 31 vessels plying the channel at one time. We saw no more than 15, perhaps because it was February.
But that was the only shortfall of choosing an out-of-season stay in an out-of-the-ordinary cottage in an out-of-the-way place.
When you go
Getting there: British Airways flies directly from BWI to London's Heathrow Airport. Other airlines, including Icelandair, United, Northwest and American, offer connecting service.
* The easiest way to get to South Foreland lighthouse from the airport is to rent a car, drive to Dover and then follow the National Trust directions. There is regular London-Dover train service, but the area is remote, and without a car, you will be confined.
South Foreland Lighthouse, St. Margaret's at Cliffe, Kent, England
011-44-870-458-4422
www.nationaltrust.org.uk /
cottages
* The keeper's cottage, also known as the East Cottage, can be booked through the National Trust. Weekly rent for the cottage in 2002, which accommodates four people, ranged from $450 to $900, depending on the season.
Dining: The local pubs serve hearty bar food -- fish and chips, steak pies -- in winter, and lighter salads and sandwiches in summer.
* The Cliffe Tavern, a 16th- century clapboard house on High Street at St. Margaret's at Cliffe (011-44-1304-852-400), has plenty of Old English atmosphere. It offers homemade pies, curries and pasta.
* Wallet's Court, a medieval building in St. Margaret's at Cliffe (011-44-1304 852-424), with its exposed beams, bare brick walls and open fires, offers the village's most elegant dining.
Activities:
Canterbury Cathedral, Cathedral House, 11, the Precincts, Canterbury
011-44-1227-762-862
www.canterbury-cathedral. org
* The cathedral has been a place of worship since Pope Gregory the Great dispatched St. Augustine to convert the English in A.D. 597. Among other attractions, it has the most important collection of 12th-century stained glass in the world.
Dover Castle, Dover, Kent
011-44-1304-211-067
www.english-heritage.org.uk
* The castle has dominated the local skyline since the 12th century. It has the longest recorded history of any English castle.
Bodiam Castle, near Robertsbridge, East Sussex
011-44-1580-830-436
www.nationaltrust.org.uk /
places / bodiamcastle
* A 14th-century fortress, with ramparts and moat, in the neighboring county of East Sussex. It offers a museum and videos, and has inviting grounds. The drive there is through some of the prettiest countryside in England.
Chartwell, Chartwell, Westerham, Kent
011-44-1732-866-368
www.nationaltrust.org.uk /
places / chartwell
* Home of Winston Churchill. Dozens of Churchill's paintings are on view, and the rooms are much as he left them, complete with scattered daily newspapers and his supply of cigars.
Information:
* The National Trust brochure "Escape for a Day in Kent and East Sussex" lists all the properties it owns in the area, with opening times and admission fees. Its "Holiday Cottages" brochure details all the properties it offers for vacation rental. To obtain the brochures, contact the trust: 011-44-1892 890-651; www.nationaltrust. org.uk.
* For more information about visiting England, contact the British Tourist Authority: 800-462-2748; www.visitbritain.com