We got out on the water of Independence Day, but it was not in a Glastron. Lisa works at a small law firm. One of their clients is a tugboat owner who is contracted to deliver the fireworks barge up the Willamette river to downtown Portland, OR. He invited us along for the ride! Good thing too as I would never venture into such a Charlie-Foxtrot of boaters with my boat.
This is the mass of boats we had to sail in to. The Sheriff and Coast Guard worked to clear the way.
This dumbarse figured he could just stay anchored right in the middle of the channel and we would somehow maneuver the barge around him. We were blowing the horn at him and the Coast Guard boat spent some time with them after they were moved out of the way. Perhaps a bit of an impromptu inspection 'since we are already here' sort of thing.
I definitely got a different perspective about recreational river traffic after riding along! There really are some stupid people out there with expensive boats and no common sense. There is no way from the pilot house to see if anyone is in front of the barge. We had a man with a radio on the bow and moved at 'ahead dead slow', so we were good. But that is the exception. I never see people on the bow during normal commercial operations. They kayaks were the worst as dusk settled, paddling around with no lights.
As for the fireworks...? I have never been close enough to a fireworks show to actually have burning stuff fall down on me. I enjoyed watching the operation on the barge. Two laptops in a plywood control room ran the show. One firefighter in gear walking around next to the mortars putting out fires as they flared up. And surprisingly not very loud compared to what I have heard from shore. Good times!
-Eric
