The first thing that struck me was the number of boats throwing wakes in what is clearly a no-wake zone. I am surprised there were no complaints and enforcement. In my neck of the woods many tickets would have been written.
This. You couldn't pay me to launch that week. If the holiday weren't enough, it's also the start of scallop season. Every drunken redneck moron in the southeastern US who only uses their overpowered stinkpot once a year is out on the water with ten passengers aboard.
Oh, there's lots of enforcement - it's just that it's acceptable behaviour. On the 4th (And only on the 4th) it's acceptable to zip all over Dana Point harbor in your dinghy while soaking others. So you grab your water blaster, and soak as many other folks as possible. I.e. "water wars". There'll be folks on the bridge with 5 gal buckets of water that get dumped on anybody that goes under the bridge. I have no idea how I'd get my boat out of the slip on the 4th. I did have a very nice daysail on the 3rd.
