The whole town showed up

   Within a day of our arrival in Anacortes on Feb. 22, we heard that on April 10 the BMW/Oracle Racing team would be in Anacortes, along with the America's Cup (trophy), which they'd just won the week before in Valencia, Spain.

   Anacortes!?!?!

   The small town of Anacortes, population 17,000, we soon learned, had designed and built USA 17’s hull and 243-foot wing of the fastest boat to ever compete in the America’s Cup race.

   No small feat indeed. Imagine a boat that can sail 2.5 times wind speed! Or a boat wing larger than 747’s.

   So last Saturday night, we left early for Warehouse 1, assuming the line might start early for the free celebration Larry Ellison was putting on for the town.
   Sure enough, we were 320th in line with fifteen minutes left to stand out in the freezing westerlies blowing through Guemes Channel.

   Once inside the standing-room only space, there was no Larry Ellison to be seen, which we suspected would be the case. But there were plenty of people. Half the town showed up to celebrate the part they played in winning back the Cup: baristas, waiters, machinists, millers, and boat builders. Up on the makeshift stage were the designers, the production chief, members of the crew. BMWOracleRacing blog describes the evening pretty well. Here's a cool video.
   For Davy and me, as newcomers to the town, it was amazing indeed to think that such a small town comes equipped with such incredible talent up to such a valiant task. One designer explained that he considered the impossibility of the task, then "gulped, and signed on."
   The town loved the workers, and yelled out their names as they walked onto the stage. “Hey, Irish!” “Billy” “Smitty!” The crowd’s height changed as hands holding cameras shot aloft, periscope steady, capturing some sense of the event to instant message to friends and family. The love was big and contagious, as love can be.
   Next came the production jokes and sea stories. A crewman reminiscing how, as a kid in New Zealand the only way to get to school was by boat, he and his friends often arrived to class wet because they’d raced to school.
   Finally, the crew and designers signed free posters for the town, and the Cup was placed on a table in the middle of the warehouse so townspeople could have their pictures taken with it. It sounds hokie, but yum was it delicious!

   David and I enjoy Anacortes, though we actually live outside city limits. The people are friendly and real, and always have a smile and a wave for others. It’s a pretty, clean town, one not overly self-aware or stratified. There are only two grocery stores within blocks of each other, and everyone patronizes them, regardless of where on the island they live. We feel lucky to be here, to get to be a part of all that it is.