you know, just your average day. . . with pirates!

I wasn't supposed to work today; instead I planned to take my significant other downtown, where we could view the arrival of tall ships from the Morrison Bridge. Alas, I was rudely awaken this morning by the telephone, signalling me onto the Hawthorne for the afternoon shift. I was sad to miss out on potentially lifting the bridge for replica pirate ships, or (even better) to view them with cameras from the Morrison's pier, so I snapped some pictures from the security cameras as they headed into town.

Something which is amazing about working on the bridges is how much communication happens between different vessels on the water. Obviously, they're announcing their presence to one another and calling us for lifts, but the fanfare which culminated in the arrival of Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain this afternoon took a whole lot of choreography, never seen or heard by the onlookers watching from the pier.

The ships were preceded by a Portland fireboat, which put on a fantasitic show of shooting water in all directions. This was followed with giant red and blue arcs of water, which briefly dyed the surrounding Willamette River accordingly. When the colors kicked in, the radio chatter fell briefly silent, and the ships let of canon fire! It was awesome, and cool to be so close to. I was all but hanging out the window, and several people crossing the Hawthorne were equally impressed. One jogger, however, could not be arsed to pay attention, and never flinched when the canons went off. Now that's the zone.