The holiday season is always a blur so I have fallen behind in blogging, but I wanted to be sure to share this fun night with you all.
The Firefly crew competed in the 12th annual Old Town Alexandria Parade of Lights earlier this month.
This was our first year entering the popular holiday event, and so we were not quite sure how to compete. With no generator, and only the sailboat’s regular boat battery, we were most anxious that we figure out how to tap into this power source and that we not drain it before we finished the parade.
Volleying emails, we settled on a design that was simple enough for us beginners and appropriately holiday-inspired. Check out the final draft design, and a fun runner-up design I made that we just don’t have the skills for (yet).
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The Plan – Let It Snow 2011
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The Runner Up Design – Santa’s Slay
After we picked Let It Snow, Hank volunteered to bring a converter for the battery and we were on our way. Until he mentioned we should use LED lights. The efficient lights would conserve power and, I realized sadly, not something any of us had. After all, you don’t buy new Christmas lights every year. We all had the old, power-sucking kind of lights. After trying family and friends, I went to Micheal’s and bought out their entire stock of LED snowflake lights, and bought hundreds of feet of white LED lights at Target. (it turns out we only needed 60 ft).
It Worked! Snowflakes Falling
We were feeling confident until we went to the Parade of Lights planning party/meeting. The night was nearly ruined when the captains began to introduce themselves and their boat’s theme. The first boat introduced had our theme! Sure, we knew weren’t original and we weren’t trying to win this year, but still… You don’t want to see someone in your dress, you know?
Then, after the party we were talking with the captain of Miss Appropriate and he scared the beejeezus out of us with tales of other boaters who tried the parade of lights without a generator.
Confidence shaken, Firefly crew regrouped the morning of the parade to cut out the letters and the shape of a snowman in cardboard. We covered everything with tin foil and lights, for max shine effect, and attached them to the starboard side of Firefly. The snowflakes were hoisted up the mast and we held our breath as Hank connected the converter, battery and lights. Everything worked! We had lights… for now.
That evening, we filled the sailboat with friends, hot chili and sausage balls, and warmed booze. We sailed up the Anacostia stealthily with our lights off. We waited until we were near the judges stand in DC to announce ourselves and light up the night with our super bright LED lights. We sailed down to the 14th street bridge and back again, waving at the crowd that had gathered on the waterfront.
Then we cut the lights and stepped on the gas to keep up with the rest of the parade. We booked it at 4 knots an hour on our outboard engine and arrived at Old Town Alexandria to even bigger crowds. Our electricity lasted the whole night; the sausage balls were not quite so lucky. After the parade, we warmed ourselves at the after party at the Fish Market, where we toasted to LED technology.
As Hank told the crowds:
“We may be slow, we may be last, but our message the whole season will last. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.”
We are planning to win next year. We now know at least that the boat battery will last if we stick to LED lights, and that we need to pack more sausage balls
Got any good design ideas to share?
Firefly's Let It Snow Entry
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