As I mentioned in my last post, there is a U.S. Coast Guard station in Menemsha. On July 12, 2010, I was in the office and Debbie was working in her garden when she yelled up to me that the sky was filled with smoke. I looked, and sure enough, smoke was billowing from the harbor. I grabbed my camera, ran down there and saw an inferno.
The big white building on the right is the coast guard boat house in happier days.
This was the scene when I got there.
This boat caught, fire broke loose, and was floating toward the fueling station. The guys in the other boat roped it and towed it away just in time. If they had not caught it in time, things could have gotten rather dicey.
The wooden dock that goes out to the concrete pier was destroyed, thereby stranding a number of cars that had to wait for weeks to be loaded onto a barge and taken ashore.
About an hour after the fire started, a fire boat arrive just in time to cool down the ashes. To their credit, though, the boat was stationed on the opposite side of the island several miles away.
Old Glory took a bit of a beating with all the action, but she still stands proud.
The aftermath the day after.
You can see here how the wooden dock was destroyed. Cars at the other end on the concrete pier were stranded.
The cormorant was a Coast Guard boat. The other two were personal boats.
As far as I know, the authorities have not yet figured out who or how it started.
Travels with Skip & Debbie 