Lights Out!

Especially now, only a few days from the darkest day of the year, lighting on the boat is really important. So I was very surprised to drive up to the boat Sunday morning and discover that the streetlight was out. This was extra frustrating, since there are actually two streetlights on the east side of the river, but the first one was shot out about a month ago.

This is what the east side looks like at night with one streetlights (of course, I don't have a pic with both):

I know, bad pic. But that light in the distance is the streetlight. I actually think I took this pic in the middle of the river, so the light was even closer.

This is the east side with no lights:

The upper pinprick of light is a reflective sign (reflecting off the lighting on the boat) that says "Danger Underwater Cable." The lower pinprick is the reflection of the sign in the water.

It's CREEPY! And landings are sort of terrifying. I can't see where my slow down point is. And if I can't see that, I'm either slowing down way too early, then drifting, or too late, and slamming shore. I also don't like the fact that I can't really see enough to walk up to my car at the end of the night (or down to the boat in the morning). So I've taken to driving my car onto the ferry in the morning, parking on the other side, then ferrying my car back in the evening. Works, but annoying.

When I got to work on Sunday, there was a note in the cabin that just said, "light shot out 12/15 @ 20:48. I knew what that meant. It meant my coworker had taken the time to look through the CCTV footage and found the moment the light went out. And the footage is pretty damming. You can see the headlights approach the gate, then a bit of movement, then, a few minutes later, sudden darkness. And after that, bits of flashlights, possibly of someone walking down onto the boat. And quickly after that, the car turns around (you can make out that it's a truck) and leaves. So lame. How bored or drunk must you be to shoot streetlights?

The boss came onto the boat today. I made it very clear how totally uncomfortable I was with the lights out--both navigating and personal safety--and he completely got it. He's coming down tomorrow with a bucket truck, and will take a look to see how much damage the shots did. It'll probably be a week or so until the lights are repaired, depending on how hard it is to get parts.

As a temporary solution, I've started leaving a few lights on the boat overnight. The boss is fine with this, and said that because of the location of the lights, if the same asses want to shoot these out, they'll have to walk onto the boat. Because of that, we'll at least get footage of their faces that way. Not much consolation. I also mentioned the lights to several regulars who live on that side. It really does seem like everyone's related in that end of the county.

In other, totally unrelated news, remember that super killer awesome job with the city I interviewed for last month? I waited with baited breath....and then they pulled the recruitment. I suppose it's better than being rejected, since it's a job for my old boss, with my old coworkers (from about 5 years ago). It would have really stung to have been rejected. Still, I'm a bit bummed. No end of the ferry life for me, at least not for now. Sigh.