(WSB photo, July 2023)

If you are planning on going to the beach to stay cool on Saturday afternoon, here’s your reminder that you might find yourself in the middle of a high-seas showdown – tomorrow brings the annual Seafair Pirates Landing, with the “Pirate Kings of the Northwest” approaching from offshore, barging onto the beach, and declaring this summer’s regional party officially under way. Announcements have listed their expected arrival time as both 1 pm and 1:30 pm, so our advice if you don’t want to miss the spectacle is to be there on the earlier side. Once ashore, the Pirates bluster, mingle, showboat, and become the Pirate Kings of Photo Ops – and then climb aboard their shore-going “ship” Moby Duck, rolling away to other stops on their itinerary (which, two weeks later, will include the West Seattle Grand Parade on July 20th. Tomorrow, look for all this toward the west end of the sandy beach, by Alki Bathhouse. (If you haven’t been before, here’s our coverage from last year.)