2016 Lighted Boat Parade

Well, we decided to do the lighted boat parade this year for the first time ever. It was in our neighborhood lagoon and run by the Queens Harbour Yacht Club. 30 boats signed up. Prizes for Big Boat, Medium Boat, Small Boat, Best Overall Entry, Best Costumes and Best Lighted Dock!

The theme was Mickey And Friends, Holiday Harbour Treasures! There was an after parade party at the Country Club where  over  250 had signed up!

So Paul decided that most would go for the obvious, and dress their boats and themselves as Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy and Donald! He wanted to go a bit outside the box and decided on Its A Small World After All. The idea was to light up the boat with plenty of Disney, but dress those on board in costumes from around the world. We also has the music from Its A Small World After All blaring from our boat speakers!

Video of Sonas all ready to go here:

We had a Spanish lady, a Dutch girl, a Frenchman with beret, onions, garlic and bread, a Mexican, and an Indian couple resplendent in sari and robes! We had ten on board enjoying the parade. We also had Disney decals on the hull.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Simba!
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Ariel!

We set off as soon as it got dark and headed through the lagoon. The music played and we blew the horn at regular intervals.

p1010381
The Following Fleet

There were parties underway at many of the houses on the water. And a very large crowd along the banks. We were having fun and enjoying ourselves.

DCIM100MEDIADJI_0004.JPG
Sonas Ready To Go
DCIM100MEDIADJI_0012.JPG
Back Deck

A video of us going by a neighbor’s dock!

Posted by Queen's Harbour Yacht & Country Club on Saturday, December 3, 2016

Near the end of the parade route we bumped aground. Not knowing how shallow it was at that end of the lagoon Paul decided to use the engines and bow thruster to turn around and head back. It was then that Sian, who was on the bow, felt the bow thruster run but instead of turning off, stay on. Paul tried to turn it off at the helm but it kept running, pushing us to port.

We were both on our wireless headsets, and during the next twenty minutes we had to navigate our way through the fleet coming behind us as our bow thruster pushed us to port and Paul gunned the port engine to keep us on line. It was interesting to say the least.

Then, as we got nearer our dock, we had smoke and a burning smell come from below. Paul managed to get us parallel to our dock and ran down and turned off the battery switch for the thruster which was burning up. At that time the port  engine quit on us. Paul got back on the bridge and cut the starboard engine while he worked out what happened. Since there was a breeze gently pushing us towards our dock we waiting until we bumped against the dock and tied Sonas off.

All in all everyone had fun on the parade, though we knew we had some issues with the thruster and engine that we would have to look at in the coming days.

We headed off for the party where we won Best Costumes!!

p1010385
Best Costumes!

For a report on the mechanical issues and resolution see this page:

Thruster and Glendinning Issues.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *