Sue Creek Strikes Again...but the fireworks were awesome

The 4th of July is a true boating holiday. There is nothing like watching fireworks from the water and I always make sure I take July 5th off from work (seriously, who wants to go to work after such a fun evening?). With the 4th falling on a Thursday, we were lucky enough to have double the fun this year.

Harborview Marina is a prime spot for the Baltimore City fireworks and no less than 38 boats moved to our marina for the occasion (I asked at the marina office).

Our dock was full for the festivities.

The fireworks are set off from a barge in front of the Tiki Barge so we practically had a front row seat, hence the reason we ended up with 20 friends on our boat for the show.

The Tiki Barge is the orange and blue building on the right. The fireworks barge is in the middle of the water.

Friday afternoon we set off for Sue Creek for two nights and a day of swimming and the Middle River fireworks. My brother, niece, and one of my nephews joined us and I was so excited to share the experience with them.

The ride over ended up being rather eventful. We tend to have our radio on and, unfortunately, we frequently hear about boats in distress and calls for other boaters to assist if possible. This time we came across a boat in trouble.

This single-person catamaran was in the middle of a field of crab traps so we were not able to get very close, however, another boat was closely circling the situation. If we had seen someone in the water, we would have set down an anchor and taken the dinghy over to help. We hung around and attempted to radio in to see if we could assist until a police boat arrived. Thankfully, before leaving we heard that the person on the cat had already been rescued earlier and the vessel would be towed to shore.

We arrived in Sue Creek, rafted up, jumped in to cool off, and settled in for the night. The next day was hotter than beach sand on the bottom of your feet so we spent a majority of the day in the water. The warm sun wore everyone out:

Don't worry. She is just sleeping.

And then it was time for more fireworks! As always, we had multiple shows visible from the boat. The house in front of us set off their private display:

The official fireworks were behind us:

And we could see other displays in the distance. The grand finale for the Middle River display was disappointing but the house in front of our bow more than made up for any disappointment. They had fireworks left and they set off a memorable finale. In essence, the "official" display got served. The airhorns and claps were much more prolific for the private display.

This is where the evening got interesting. As my faithful readers know, we have seen/had issues in Sue Creek before. On this particular evening, the issues started with the parade of boats leaving after the fireworks. One of the guests on the boat next to us had to leave that evening, so we got all the lights necessary and he was brought to shore on a properly lit dinghy. During the trip back, a cabin cruiser - With No Lights At All - almost hit our friend. If you are going to boat at night, please have the common courtesy to follow the law and have your lights. Also, do not get an attitude when someone reminds you to turn your lights on.

Back to settling in for the evening...when we hear some of the our friends start yelling "Bow lines! Bow lines!" This boat was too close to the front our boats and it clipped one of our anchor lines.

Apologies for the dark picture. It was around 11pm. However, you can see how close the other boat came to hitting boats in our raft up.

This can be both dangerous and expensive. Dangerous because a boat with a rope wrapped around its propellers can be dead in the water. Expensive because many times the only way to solve the issue is to cut the anchor line and lose a multi-hundred dollar piece of equipment. I will give them credit, they put two of their own guys in the water to work on the issue and everything was settled within 20 or so minutes. No one was hurt and no money was lost.

Oh, Sue Creek, we can't seem to stay away and we'll be back again soon.

Our raft up as we were leaving the creek.

And now for a quick Where's Waldo moment. Can you spot the lone seagull?