With many cannon blasts, the Seafair Pirates approached Alki close to their announced landing time of 1:30 pm.

(Photo by Dave Gershgorn for WSB)

As in years past, they were on board the Global Diving landing craft Prudhoe Bay; the colorful cannon smoke, however, was new, and meant the Pirates came ashore in something of a fog:

(Photo by David Hutchinson)

(This photo and next three by Oliver Hamlin for WSB)

It cleared quickly enough for brave beachgoers to try to thwart them:

Most of the crowd welcomed the invaders:

Eventually the Pirates – led by Davy Jones (in green) and Captain Kidd (in red and gold) -made their way to their wheeled “vessel” Moby Duck up on Alki Avenue, where Seafair royalty – Queen Alcyone (former SPD Chief Carmen Best), King Neptune (former TV anchor Eric Johnson), and Community Hero Mercy Hobbes (the Hero program replaces Miss Seafair) awaited for a bit of goofy ceremony:

Pirate leaders were anointed Seafair royalty.

(This photo and next 2 by Oliver Hamlin for WSB)

Every year they also manage to wrestle the key to the city – or county – away from a politician. This year the designated key-yielder was deputy mayor Greg Wong, who first tried valiantly to speak the Pirates’ language.

Eventually the Pirates sailed on – leaving behind aspiring shipmates like this 7-year-old who’s come to see them every year of his life:

But they’ll return to West Seattle three weeks from today for the WS Grand Parade! You might even see them passing through like this (thanks to Val for the video from Admiral Way):