Lively Evening
July 4, 2013
Today is the Birthday of our nation. We have celebrated it in some weird places and this might be one of them. We got here yesterday in mid afternoon. That was early enough to watch many others arrive. The town had a normal seacoast appearance with the exception of the prominent monument on the hill. As the day and evening wore on, things started to change. We were pre-warned that this might be similar to Key West in several ways. It did not seem so on arrival. As with any mooring field, anchorage or harbor, the later a boat arrives the more apt the crew is to be tired and maybe a bit inattentive. Right at dark last evening, a large, noisy (music) motor yacht arrived. They missed us by a few inches and almost ran over our mooring ball. That got my attention since they were assigned a ball directly upwind of us. The thing was lit up like the Titanic and the crew might have been a bit "over served". The first approach was at about our hull speed and they promptly ran over their ball. Then they applied full reverse and backed over it. I am amazed that they did not foul on the ball lines or chain. For the next forty five minutes they worked at trying to dip the pendant from the water by approaching it from all directions. All maneuvers were at high power settings. The helmsman was yelling at the dark figure on deck and said person was suggesting things he might do with and to himself. The mooring service finally came out to assist and by midnight the boat was dark and all asleep. Scurv and I retired thereafter.
While we watched the day turn to night the town started to change. Large high speed ferries arrived with ready-to-party folks. The fog started to come in as the lights on shore took the old settlement from quiet to party. Lights on the monument made a most impressive sight, as did the party spots on shore. One building turned very bright purple and lasers were bounding off surrounding buildings. Another down the street was changing to bright colors with a new one every twenty seconds or so. Large passenger vessels came with many flash cameras. In short, this may be a bit like Key West.
At first light, with the exception of a few of us old dawgs, the town is asleep. The commercial fisherpersons left long before daylight. The wind is down and it may be a mild day in which to celebrate our 237th year as the great experiment. The Mayflower passengers would be looking for wood to burn us all at stake if they saw this place now.