July 4th Celebrations
AJAYA'S CRUISE
Phil & Nikki Hoskins
Tue 7 Jul 2009 18:03
America's biggest day of the year - July
4th, which celebrates their independence from the 'Mother Country" was a
real firecracker of a day in Herrington. So as Brits we were unsure of what
the form should be - whether to lie low, lock the boat from the inside
and watch our Wallace and Grommet DVDs collection all day, or simply join
in all the fun and games and take it on the chin like the good Brits we are. But
our sense of humour needed to be in good form to withstand the numerous jibes on
offer, especially as we seem to be the only British visitors in the
marina.
Well, we joined in some of the celebrations,
which was an adventure in itself. A huge firework display was being
held at Herrington Harbour South, the sister marina to the one we are in, which
is only a mile or so from here in a boat but by road the "trolley" as it is
called takes considerably longer. At 25 cents it's a bargain ride running from
Deale through Herrington North, Herrington South and ending up in Chesapeake
Beach which is the main resort in the vicinity. It is subsidised
partly by local businesses and is a brightly painted bus but where it gets
it's "trolley" status from is slightly baffling. It does sound a bell as
it trundles slowly along the local roads. However, on the evening of the
fireworks - July 3rd it wasn't doing any trundling at all, as a notice at the
trolley stop just inside the marina entrance informed us. For reasons
unknown it wasn't running that evening, but the marina had kindly
arranged a shuttle service between north and south for anybody wanting to
see the fireworks.
It didn't state where the bus would be operating
from or what the times were so we walked the 1/2 mile to the marina office to
see if there was another notice giving more information. No, same notice. So we
walked all the way back to the original bus stop and sat down to see what
happened. 15 mins later round the corner came one of the traditional bright
yellow school buses driven by a local bus owner called Warren. He and
his bus had been hired for the whole evening, announced Warren, so we
climbed on board. "Just gotta pick up from the marina office before we get
going" he said. But Warren didn't know his way round the vast marina
complex and a wrong turn took us straight back near our boat by
the swimming pool. Guiding him round the marina complex found us back at the bus
stop we had been picked up from before finally arriving at the marina
office. A 15 minute wait for any stragglers and it was then back to the swimming
pool trolley stop before we finally exited the marina 40 mins later, still
with just the two of us onboard!! In that time Warren had found
out we'd sailed all the way across from England in a little boat! We did
tell him it was 39ft long but as Warren was used to cruise ships Ajaya could
have been 100ft long and it would still have been damn small to
him.
Arriving at H.H. South we went straight into
Mangoes Restaurant for a meal. Mangoes is situated right alongside the Olympic
sized swimming pool on the complex which also has a Motel adjacent to the pool -
very different from our location at 'North'. The meal was excellent except Phil
in a greedy moment ordered the FULL rack of Texas Barbecue ribs which arrived
very neatly stacked one rack on top of the other. Nikki just about made it
through her seafood platter but the last rib on the plate remained untouched
by our greedy skipper. We staggered out of Mangoes wondering if we would be
eating again in the next couple of days.
The fireworks were due to start at - well nobody
seemed to know the exact time so we went for maximum viewing potential which was
on the beach behind the stage which had loud rock music blasting out from its
front end. There were thousands of people lining the beach front waiting the
spectacular display. But just before the fireworks started the owner of
the two Herrington Marinas got up on the stage to introduce a State Senator
who looked as if he had also been eating a lot at Mangoes! A short rundown of
all Americas war efforts with particular attention paid to beating the British
in 1812 was well received by the crowd which was then followed by a Marine
soloist singing a heart-rending version of the 'Star Spangled Banner' at which
point nearly all the people on the beach in front of us turned and faced the
flag which formed the stage backdrop, with us standing in front of it!! It
was a long rendition and being faced with so many people young and old standing
with right hand on heart gave the whole evening a heavy patriotic flavour which,
when the fireworks commenced continued with music and songs about
America, oddly punctuated by Queen's "We are the Champions".
HHmm.
The display was impressive, made even more so by
the fact that unlike most modern fireworks events which are lit
automatically and computer controlled this 30 minute wiz-bang was lit by a
handful of brave men out on the breakwater holding bright red lights who could
just about be seen in the dense smoke wafting round the launch site. The
backdrop to the display was formed by the lights from many anchored yachts and
powerboats that were watching the event, no doubt enjoying their own
private celebrations.
We wondered back to see if Warren and his magic bus
were anywhere to be seen to take us and our heaving stomachs back to Ajaya. It
was there, only this trip he had more customers, making about 12 of us in total
which was hardly likely to strain the massive diesel engine pulling the bus
along. Just as he shut the bus doors he announced - "These are the folks who
sailed all the way from England everybody! 22 days at sea they were". He'd
obviously done a good 'bigging-up' job on his next run after dropping us off at
South!
The return trip was another adventure. The heavy
traffic was backed up a couple of miles to the 'circle' which translated into
English becomes a roundabout. Warren pointed out his wife walking
along the road, who was rather large and 65 if she was a day. He
announced that she worked at the Marina swimming pool - as a lifeguard, then
laughing as we all went quiet wondering how she could ever save somebody's life
in that condition. Then he thought he'd missed the turning into the
H.H.North road which meant he would have to drive for miles before being able to
turn the bus round again. He hadn't actually missed the turn but then driving a
school bus maybe he doesn't drive much in the dark evenings. Between
Warren's jokes we bore the brunt of the Americans around us lapsing into
over pronounced 'Queens English', which was started by the 'roundabout' v
'circle' confusion.
The evening of July 4th we stayed onboard Ajaya
playing Scrabble, whilst watching the various smaller firework displays
going on round the marina and surrounding area. A short
distance away from us there was a "Dinghy-In movie" (popcorn provided -
bring your own chair) which was showing Top Gun with Tom Cruise
which supplemented the noise of fireworks lifting into the sky
from all around us.
So, in a large nutshell, those were the events
of July 4th in the little bit of America we are in - lots of patriotism
(can't remember the last time we heard that word in the UK), fireworks,
barbecues, movies, people having fun, and us two playing
Scrabble.
Warren's big yellow bus
Waiting for the show to begin
ooooohhhhh
aaaaahhhhhh !!!
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