With many cannon blasts, the Seafair Pirates approached Alki close to their announced landing time of 1:30 pm.
(Photo by Dave Gershgorn for WSB)
As in years past, they were on board the Global Diving landing craft Prudhoe Bay; the colorful cannon smoke, however, was new, and meant the Pirates came ashore in something of a fog:
(Photo by David Hutchinson)
(This photo and next three by Oliver Hamlin for WSB)
It cleared quickly enough for brave beachgoers to try to thwart them:
Most of the crowd welcomed the invaders:
Eventually the Pirates – led by Davy Jones (in green) and Captain Kidd (in red and gold) -made their way to their wheeled “vessel” Moby Duck up on Alki Avenue, where Seafair royalty – Queen Alcyone (former SPD Chief Carmen Best), King Neptune (former TV anchor Eric Johnson), and Community Hero Mercy Hobbes (the Hero program replaces Miss Seafair) awaited for a bit of goofy ceremony:
Pirate leaders were anointed Seafair royalty.
(This photo and next 2 by Oliver Hamlin for WSB)
Every year they also manage to wrestle the key to the city – or county – away from a politician. This year the designated key-yielder was deputy mayor Greg Wong, who first tried valiantly to speak the Pirates’ language.
Eventually the Pirates sailed on – leaving behind aspiring shipmates like this 7-year-old who’s come to see them every year of his life:
But they’ll return to West Seattle three weeks from today for the WS Grand Parade>! You might even see them passing through like this (thanks to Val for the video from Admiral Way):