Illegal Fireworks

When I got up this morning and climbed down to take Zoe for a walk, I found the remnants of a few dozen fireworks, all the way from 1/2" to 1 1/2" in diameter, on and around the boat. From the pattern, it looks like the people who live directly behind the boat yard, and directly adjacent to where my boat it parked, fired them off. Since I didn't notice it until this morning, they must have fired them off just after dark while I was walking Zoe. We were gone for a couple of hours and got back to the boat sometime after 10pm -- it doesn't start too cool off until around 8 and doesn't get dark until after 9, so we probably left around 8:30 or so.

I don't really care that much about fireworks, but do care about my boat. After I found and picked up most of the spent cardboard casings (guess that's what they're called), I called the police and found out the it was indeed illegal to discharge fireworks here, and they recommended I call them the next time it happened. I plan to be back from the walk this evening before dark and wet down the cover to minimize the risk.

If that sounds paranoid, it's not. I found one large burn spot on the cover and evidence of at least two other projectiles that hit and stayed on the cover. I also found a place in the fore peak where something hit and burned a spot in the paint that looked reminiscent of a small cigarette burn. I had pulled back the cover, and exposed that section of the deck, in order to allow better ventilation. Since I don't smoke and that's the section I've already repainted, it's obviously from the fireworks -- not to mention that the ash is still fresh.

I made these discoveries as I was preparing to do more work on the freshwater and bilge systems and after I'd already spoken to the police. You might image how upset it made me that I'd come this close to loosing my boat even before she was in the water -- there were several gallons of paint and solvents only a few feet from the largest of the burn marks. So I picked up a couple of the spent rounds and walked around the block to talk to the owners. This is the second time, that I know of, that they've set off fireworks. The first time was a few weeks ago and I was here and sprayed water on the cover to make sure it didn't catch fire. None of those rounds came my way, however, it looks like all of these were directed toward the boat yard and my boat got about half.

The walk calmed me down a bit, so when I arrived at the house, I was able to make my case to the owner, a woman sitting out on the patio, without any undue emotion. It was probably even a bit understated, although I did stress that I had paint and solvents stacked on the deck, and that all of it was highly flammable. Had any of the fragments that hit and burned the cover ignited it, the boat would have been a total loss -- something I couldn't afford to replace. Unsaid was that she probably couldn't afford to replace it either.

It went pretty well, and she was very apologetic, so I hope that'll be the last of if. But I'll keep an eye out tonight and try to finish up as quickly as I can just in case.

Zoe watch:

Since Zoe was with me, she was never in any danger. She's hanging out under the bow today.

Boat watch:

Hopefully, I can get the bilge and the last couple of lockers cleaned and reinstall all the pumps today. I'm also going to try to finish filling the deck holes and get ready to paint. We've got a few good days in a row, so I think I can get some painting done. Since I can't paint the whole thing at once anyway, I want to paint a few particular sections first so I can start remounting hardware. That will help a lot with storage in the cabin and in the cockpit and allow me to remount the AC power plug and manual bilge pump in the cockpit. I also want to remount the handrails and the winches. That'll all make a huge difference.