I've Got Writes: July 4th

The 4th of July celebration in Anacortes was pretty decent! We missed the parade. We were upside down in the engine compartment flushing engine coolant. Because that's how we celebrate. But around 5pm the "Rock The Dock" concert began. It was at Mariner's Memorial Park, about half a mile away. But we could still hear it. Especially when "Cherry, Cherry" the Neil Diamond tribute band started playing. It sounded okay from here. Not sure I would have moved in any closer. About 10:15 the fireworks started and they were good! We could sit on our stern perch seats and watch everything from the comfort of home. With our fuzzy socks and blankets on our legs. But that's late for us, so once it was over it wasn't long before we were curled up in our cozy bed.

Which means we missed the real excitement.

This morning we learned that one of our neighbors up the dock got hit around 11:30pm. Apparently a guy in a speedboat was motoring up the fairway (the "back alley" behind our row of boats), running his motor full out. He couldn't get his boat to really move and didn't have steerage (the ability to steer the boat which requires forward momentum). Our neighbors were returning from having driven over closer to the fireworks display and were just boarding their boat when this guy careens into them, hitting their outboard motor. He had been anchored out in the bay to watch the fireworks and it seems he forgot to pull up his anchor when he headed back to the marina. So he dragged it about half a mile into the marina. Hence his inability to gain speed or steerage. He bounced off a couple of boats. Clad only in his underpants. I guess he got to spend the evening at the police station. Fortunately our Missouri neighbors sustained no damage.

Meanwhile here are a few observations