Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Living in the Rainshadow

The weather doesn't always match predictions. Sun yesterday, sun this morning (while I was in the laundromat). Clouds. Rain. Bits of blue sky. Tonight the rainy dark.

Freighter crossing the bottom of H Street, morning, November 10th

This afternoon there was a green ship in the harbor. And from the windows at home, a huge freighter lingered for ages off the bottom of the street. So I whipped out to Ediz Hook. Green ship was gone. Not one single large ship in sight on the Strait or in the Harbor. Ducks (buffleheads and mystery ducks); a great blue heron standing on a small floating log on the harbor side. Odd smaller ships in the harbor. What on earth does Penn No. 91 do for a living? Or Ocean Reliance? Later: Penn No. 91 is an "unmanned tank barge". A what? And the Crowley Ocean Reliance is an "articulated tug barge"(2).

Out on the Strait, a small tug pulling two barges filled with... dirt! Where from? Where going?

As it approached the Hook, the tug shortened its tow cable, and shortened it again as it moved across the harbor.

Towboat and barges in the harbor, Klahane Ridge on the horizon

...and eventually tied the barges up to a buoy off the inside shore of the Hook (between the Olympic Peninsula Rowing Association's boathouse and the Sail & Paddle Park), ...and left them there.

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