LouisG
Veteran Member
So I did the Lake Union fireworks and survived. Here are a few observations:
1. It really wasn't that bad. Except for some loud music (see below) the day was very pleasant. Most boaters seemed at least fairly competent and I didn't see any accidents or other mishaps.
2. I got there around 1:00 PM and there was plenty of room. I anchored on the southeast corner of the marked zone. The zone is marked by temporary giant orange buoys. The depth was 40 ft and I let out about 150ft of chain. Not a lot of scope but it held all night.
3. Other boats started showing up and anchoring. Everyone left a reasonable amount of space and luckily there was very little wind so I never felt like other boats were too close.
4. The rest of the day went smoothly. It was pretty easy to dinghy over to the docks at the south end of the lake to pick people up. There are only a few truly public docks there and most of the private docks had people making sure no dinghy's show up. So be careful.
5. The fireworks were great and after was pretty smooth. Most people just took their time and headed out. I asked a police boat what the official rules were around anchoring for the night. They said it was ok but you had to be anchors up by 7. I set the alarm for 7 and still saw lots of boats so went back to sleep for an hour. at 8:30 there were still plenty of boats so they didn't seem that concerned with people spending the night.
6. Like I said it was a great day. The only negative is that we did have a wakeboard boat near us that was very proud of their sound system. They were especially proud of it at 1:00 AM. I'd say if you don't like loud music it might not be the party for you.
Hopefully this info can be useful for people looking at doing the 4th in the future.
1. It really wasn't that bad. Except for some loud music (see below) the day was very pleasant. Most boaters seemed at least fairly competent and I didn't see any accidents or other mishaps.
2. I got there around 1:00 PM and there was plenty of room. I anchored on the southeast corner of the marked zone. The zone is marked by temporary giant orange buoys. The depth was 40 ft and I let out about 150ft of chain. Not a lot of scope but it held all night.
3. Other boats started showing up and anchoring. Everyone left a reasonable amount of space and luckily there was very little wind so I never felt like other boats were too close.
4. The rest of the day went smoothly. It was pretty easy to dinghy over to the docks at the south end of the lake to pick people up. There are only a few truly public docks there and most of the private docks had people making sure no dinghy's show up. So be careful.
5. The fireworks were great and after was pretty smooth. Most people just took their time and headed out. I asked a police boat what the official rules were around anchoring for the night. They said it was ok but you had to be anchors up by 7. I set the alarm for 7 and still saw lots of boats so went back to sleep for an hour. at 8:30 there were still plenty of boats so they didn't seem that concerned with people spending the night.
6. Like I said it was a great day. The only negative is that we did have a wakeboard boat near us that was very proud of their sound system. They were especially proud of it at 1:00 AM. I'd say if you don't like loud music it might not be the party for you.
Hopefully this info can be useful for people looking at doing the 4th in the future.
