Labor Day Fireworks and Tropical Storm Hermine

If you have followed this blog over the years, you know that once we get to Hingham Shipyard Marina we tend to stay in port. In fact, since arriving on May 8th, the boat has been away from the dock a total of four times. One was a day cruise to Boston Harbor on a beautiful June Saturday.  One was a 2 mile maintenance run to Grape Island for bottom cleaning in August (Note: My marina will not let a diver clean the bottom at the dock). The third was an overnight at Fan Pier in Boston for the Labor Day Fireworks and the fourth was the run to Marblehead for the aborted 1,000 hour service. The latter led to the article Hansen Marine: Lazy, greed and Stupid, which if you have not read it is worth reading.

This brief article deals with our overnight cruise to Fan Pier to view the Labor Day Fireworks and with Tropical Storm Hermine. I suggested to my sister, Myrna, about a week earlier that it was time for a cruise and she suggested that we see the Boston fireworks. Myrna is the chief legal officer for the Fallon Company, which is developing Fan Pier.

Fan Pier artist rendering of the completed project
In the top center of the photo is Rowes Wharf, the unofficial center of Boston Harbor
and one of my sister's legal projects

According to Wikipedia, The Fallon Company is currently developing Boston’s Fan Pier, one of the most sought-after waterfront sites in the United States, and a catalyst for the revitalization of South Boston’s waterfront. Fan Pier is a nine-acre, 21 city block site which consisted largely of underutilized parking lots when the Fallon Company purchased it for $115 million in 2005. Today, it is a neighborhood consisting of four commercial towers – One Marina Park Drive, 11 Fan Pier Boulevard, 50 Northern Avenue, and 100 Northern Avenue – and a luxury condominium tower Twenty Two Liberty. A second residential building, Fifty Liberty, is currently under construction. Two more high-rise towers are planned. When complete in 2020, the $4 billion Fan Pier project will encompass three million square feet of commercial and residential real estate, public, civic and cultural space, including two parks and a 6-acre marina.

Myrna arranged dockage at the marina, which, by the way, looks nothing like the above photo. The marina is currently operating with temporary docks and will be the last part of the site to be developed.

Guided Discovery at Fan Pier
The tower at Logan Airport is in the background (right side of photo)

Tropical Storm Hermine also got into the act. We had been following this system, which had briefly reached hurricane strength while making landfall between Apalachicola and Steinhatchee Florida. By Saturday, Hermine had stalled east of New Jersey and south of Long Island. Sustained winds were 50 knots. The surface map showed that strong slow moving high pressure over northern Maine was holding the storm south of New England. I calculated that the situation would remain stable for at least 24 hours before the storm started moving north. You might say we had a weather window for our Boston overnight. The plan was leave Saturday afternoon and return to Hingham by mid-day Sunday.

We departed Hingham Shipyard Saturday at around 4:15 PM and arrived in Boston about at hour later. We enjoyed cheese and crackers on the aft deck and then proceeded to Babbo Pizzeria for dinner. Dinner ended and we returned to the boat just it time for the fireworks, which we watch from the boat deck.

We had a spectacular view as the fireworks, which were about 1 mile northwest of our position.  Our view was enhanced by a clear night with a easterly wind that blew the smoke toward the city. The display lasted 20 minutes.

iPhone photo by Diana

Sunday morning we awoke to beautiful day with clear skies and low winds. Tropical Storm Hermine was still stalled exactly where she was on Saturday morning. We took advantage of situation and took a short stroll along the Harborwalk.

Here what Boston redevelopment Authority says about the Harborwalk: "One of the most important components of the City's waterfront revitalization program is HARBORWALK, a continuous public walkway along the water's edge that is, in effect, a re-established shoreline. The HARBORWALK System connects the City’s neighborhoods to its Harbor, linking recreational, cultural and historic attractions, as well as access to public transit, including water transportation facilities. Currently 38 miles of HARBORWALK have been constructed and when completed the walkway system will stretch over 47 miles from Dorchester to East Boston."

Here are a few views:

We departed Boston at around 10:00 AM and headed back to Hingham. Winds began to pick-up slightly as we traveled the 9 nautical miles to the shipyard.

Tropical Storm Hermine reached Hingham on Monday morning. You might say she was a shadow of her former, self with wind gusts only reaching 30 knots.  Rainy conditions continued through Thursday with low winds by Tuesday.  Hermine was essentially a "non-event."

Written by. Les