Fireworks On The Boat!
We went for a nice long sail on Long Island Sound during the day on Saturday. We are really liking this "boat thing"! When we returned at about three in the afternoon, the owner of our marina was going by in a skiff, and told us that Branford's 4th of July fireworks were TONIGHT! He said that naturally, we should come down and see them from the boat, as there is no public parking allowed on any of the local roads for this event. Kathy and I immediately decided that we had to be there.
We drove home to pack a dinner and some warmer clothes. When we returned at about 7, we found that some of the other marinas had set up gates and were charging people to park in their boatyards! Our little marina was different in that respect. It was open and free, but only to boat owners and their guests. That kept things a lot quieter, and we sure appreciated it! The harbor was abuzz with lots of activity as boats ranging from little inflatables with tiny engines to 60 foot yachts, both sail and power, cruised up and down the channel, just like people would cruise their cars up and down main street. Some of the boats were decorated, and all were loaded with revelers. We laughed at one guy with a big sailboat who had a harem of about 10 giggling girls on his sailboat, and NO other guys!
We could hear an orchestra off in the distance blasting out patriotic tunes as a sound track for all this fun. We ate our dinner and waited for it to get dark. The fireworks themselves were really done well, and it was a pretty long show. Afterwards, we hung out on the boat for awhile to wait for the traffic to thin out. Since we are out at the end of the point, we knew that there were thousands of cars between us and the way home. I was really wishing that we had thought to bring some blankets and stuff so we could have just slept on the boat. We'll know better next year! The traffic was still completely gridlocked when we left, and it took more than an extra hour just to get from the marina out to route 1, which is normally 5 minutes.
