Among the Things I Didn't Do This Summer and Fall

Didn't fill the freezer with blackberries picked from the streetside bushes around the corner.

Didn't get up the Sol Duc River to watch the coho salmon jumping at Salmon Cascades.

Didn't go out to Obstruction Point, so didn't see any marmots.

No blackberries in 2013. No salmon in 2013. No marmots in 2013. And damn near no blogging. Um, in that case who am I and why am I here??

August 26, 2013. Rialto Beach. Photo by JL. She's good, isn't she? (Click for larger image.)

For Rialto Beach, thankyou Olympic National Park.

Shout-out to @JudeCallirgos whose recent blog post reminded me to try again to keep a record and communicate. No blog --> no memory. This beach-bunny blog doesn't have much to do with what's really going on in my life right now, but that's not the problem. I just don't much wanna talk except in 140-character bursts. I don't even wanna take pictures.

Still Raining, For Heaven's Sake

All weekend, on and off, it rained. This morning we had a grey, pink and blue sunrise, then it rained some more.

Sunrise, September 30, 2013, from Port Angeles's west side (Click for larger image.)

The river jumped up exactly as predicted.

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At the last possible moment in the water year, the rain pushed the precipitation measure at the Waterhole Snotel over last year's total (look at the red line).

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Last night, it snowed just a little at the Visitor Center on Hurricane Ridge.

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I don't do this often, but this post is a mirror of what I put on the tribe's Education Department blog this morning. The sunrise photos are, after all, from my own deck...

Rain Lovely Rain

It's been raining the way non-local people imagine it rains here. Rain rain rain. All the yards on the alley, and up and down our street, are green. The river has jumped up, and will go higher.

Forecast for the Elwha River (Click for larger image.)

On Thursday there was the first snow up on the mountain, now washed away by todays warmer rain. Monday is the end of the water year, and it looks like this weekend will put us over last year's curve.

The gauge at the Waterhole SnoTel on Hurricane Ridge (Click for larger image.)

About That Water Horizon

Out on the deck in my flannel nightie, taking pictures. My attention zooms, the camera zooms. This is what I see, and show:

Before sunrise, September 20, 2013 (Click for larger image.)

but it's barely ten degrees of the 360-degree horizon. 3% of the full circle. View below is zoomed back out to more like reality, about 50 degrees of the circle; there are bits of water over the roofs to east and west, though the only substantial bit is the one at the end of the street that I usually focus on.

... (Click for larger image or you won't see the water at all.) ...

This one is for Kate.

As Promised, A Glimpse of the Salt

Morning. Blue but hazy day, sunshine and no fog, but thick thick moist air; you can't see Canada across the Strait.

September 18, 2013, morning; the neighborhood, the Strait (Click for larger image.)

The harbor, Ediz Hook, a freighter passing on the Strait just beyond the Hook, but still no Canada through the thick air.

September 18,2013, midday. Port Angeles Harbor from the third floor of the Landing building. (Click for larger image.)

Afternoon. The Strait. If you are determined to puzzle it out, you can see Victoria: the profile of Mount Douglas, and the buildings around the Inner Harbor, but fuzzy fuzzy.

September 18, 2013, afternoon. View from Ediz Hook. (Click for larger image.)

And, out of chronology, what you can see when you can really see. Labor Day, a picnic way up on the hill in JL & JL's garden. Perfect weather. Port Angeles Harbor, Ediz Hook, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Victoria on Vancouver Island clearly visible (the next country north, across the Strait).

September 2, 2013, afternoon. View from (Click for larger image.)

This post is for VR, who insisted I must go out and take pictures of salt water.

The Season of Sunrises

The sun rises every day of course. But in winter it rises behind the lot with the trees; and in summer it rises so early I am never out in the livingroom flinging the curtains open when the sky is full of color. Also there are foggy days and cloudy days and low-ceiling days any time of year. But spring and fall are best for a chance at morning color, with Mount Baker posing up against it.

Mount Baker, about 90 miles away, August 16, 2013 (Click for larger image.)

Designated Duck

It's time for the Great Olympic Peninsula Duck Derby, the annual fundraiser for Olympic Medical Center. The Big Duck moved around town, letting people know where the table to buy a chance on a duck was at the moment. I 'bought' my one designated duck, #9162, when Big Duck and the signup table were at Swains General Store, and came home with a paper tying me to his number.

Big Duck styling at the Albertsons. My car parked behind him, for scale. (Click for larger image.)

A couple of weeks later, I was giving a good-luck greeting to the little ducks lined up on the signup table, which was then at Albertson's. The ladies offered me a little duck to take home. As did someone last year.

The derby was yesterday. #9162 didn't win anything for me. I hope he isn't disappointed. He and his 27,603 fellow ducks are probably by now on a truck on their way to the next small town fundraising for its safety net.

Little-buddy ducks in the kitchen. (Click for larger image.)

Logship, Fisherguys, BigShips

Saturday remained a watercraft day. Went out twice more, first time down to the harbor to check on the loading of Astoria Bay. There was more simultaneous activity than I've ever seen at one of the logships, two loaders taking logs off two trucks at a time, seven or eight trucks lined up at once waiting to drive out onto the pier. Brakes puffing, engines rumbling, each truck hitting its horn when it is in position and all brakes set, ready to have its load lifted away.

May 18, 2013, Terminal 3 (the T-Pier) at the Port of Port Angeles. (Click for larger image.)

The whole process is mesmerizingly tangible, like watching a giant set of gears in some steampunk fantasy, and I love to watch it. The end result, of course, is that a couple of days later, a whole forest sails away to China.

...

Back home for a couple of hours, I kept my eye on the clock, and on the shiptracker websites, and when the evening's flock of cruise ships rounded Point Wilson, at Port Townsend, I went down to Ediz Hook (map) to wait for them to pass by on their way to Alaska. It is a reliable entertainment for summer weekend evenings; every Friday Saturday and Sunday, these ships bigger than all downtown leave Seattle at 4PM, come in close to the Hook around 7:30 PM, one two three, so the pilot boat can go out to pick up the pilots who brought the ships out of Puget Sound; and away they sail for Alaska. In a week they'll be back, and do it again. May through September, over and over.

But I was early, Westerdam, Jewel and Star were not yet in view, and there was a whole lot of action on the small boat docks inside the Hook. These were the guys whose boats were not sitting around in the alley a few hours ago. Mostly they hadn't caught anything. One man said his son had caught a small halibut. One after another they hauled up the ramp and headed for town.

Returning fishermen, Ediz Hook, Port Angeles Harbor, May 18, 2013. The tanker Polar Enterprise and the bulk freighter Pacific Logger in the background of the images. (Click for larger image.)

I waited a while. Other shipwatchers came and went. There were two tankers and an empty log ship anchored inside the harbor. There were freighters and tankers on the move on the Strait.

It got blue out.

Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, across the Strait of Juan de Fuca (Click for larger image.)San Juan Island (US), across the Strait. (Click for larger image.)

The pilot boat Juan de Fuca, pulled out from the pilot station

Puget Sound Pilot Station (Click for larger image.)

and ran around furiously out on the Strait. Took pilots off two outbound ships, a freighter and a tanker. Came back in, dropped off those guys, went out again. Put pilots on two inbound ships, a container ship and a tanker; then, finally, rendezvoused with Holland-America Westerdam, Norwegian Jewel, and Star Princess, one after the other, to bring in their pilots.

Westerdam, with the other two cruise ships visible behind her. The Holland Americas all have white tops and dark bottoms, and are smaller than the others. (Click for larger image.) Norwegian Jewel. The Norwegians all have goofy colorful paint jobs on either side of the bow. (Click for larger image.) Star Princess. The Princesses are all white with a blocky stern and that sort of swooping crown over the logo on the stack. (Click for larger image.)

Warm Gray Day In Proximity To Water

The water is a presence everywhere in Port Angeles, visible at the bottom of most streets. @jfleck's theorem does not require a waterfront home with moorage to be provable. Went walkabout around my neighborhood just now, taking pictures of the boats in yards and alleys and on the quiet streets. These would be (just some of) the boats that have NOT been trailered down to the water this weekend in really nice boating weather. In some cases appear not to have been anywhere for a good while.

Westside streets and alleys, May 18, 2013. The people in the next yard have lots of rhododendron still freshly blooming. (Click for larger image.)

The thing(s) to notice here: lilacs on the left. Strait of Juan de Fuca below. Freighter going past. San Juan Island on the other side.

... (Click for larger image.)

Truth: the rhodies are mostly past their prime, and the madrona trees likewise; but the lilacs are splendid. In the vacant lots, alas, scotch broom is peaking.

... (Click for larger image.)

LOTS more boats in the camera, and plenty visible as little specks out on the Strait. Must note however, that with slightly different framing this could have been a photo essay on the number of vehicles per household (trucks, boats, trailers, cars; functional and not), or the way people ornament their dooryards.

Scotch broom invading the lot with the trees (Click for larger image.) Lilacs across the alley (Click for larger image.)

Where was all this? Thankyou satellites for talking to the GPS in my camera, and thankyou iPad for the location pin.

Exactly where (Click for larger image.)

STX Harmony

When we flew in past the harbor on the 19th, I could see there was a fully-loaded log ship at the T-pier. The next day was devoted to errands. As I came down the hill, I could see that she was still there, so I went to look. The top of the load was aswarm with longshoremen lashing the logs down, beginning at the bow end. Suddenly two more log trucks came out onto the pier, and their logs were loaded as smaller parcels into apparent spaces along the top of the load further back towards the stern.

STX Harmony topping off her load, April 20, 2013 (Click for larger image.)

She sailed for Lanshan sometime that night, soon disappearing from the ship-trackers; came back into view as she passed through Umiak Pass on April 26, and is invisible to the (free) tracker websites again. Will arrive Lanshan about May 8.

STX Harmony near Umiak Pass on April 26, 2013. 10,000 thanksyous to marinetraffic.com (Click for larger image.)

Almost immediately another logship tied up. Pacific Basin Black Forest. She was already full yesterday evening, will surely sail today.

Pinky-Beige Morning

The Strait was very sugar-plum colors for a couple of minutes this morning. The camera didn't catch it.

March 28, 2013 (Click for larger image.)

Shipwatching (Recollected)

Thursday, March 21. Spring break at the college began at 4 in the afternoon, and PG arrived from Santa Fe shortly afterwards. She requisitioned a nap, and then to go out on Ediz Hook. (I thought the nap was because she gotten a bit lost near SeaTac and near Poulsbo, and it was longer driving out here than expected. Turns out the nap was because she was on vacation and naps were an important part of her itinerary.) Tankers galore in the harbor, two Polars and two Alaskans. Conditions were not best for observing ship details out on the Strait, kind of misty out there to the north, but we managed to identify sundry ships, inbound and out, with the help of the iPad and marinetraffic.com. They had entertaining names, especially Grand Dahlia, and Glorious Maple. Okasana had such a baffling silhouette it took forever to figure out what we were seeing. What she was seeing, actually: PG's eyes and binoculars are much better than mine.

March 21, 2013. Looking south across Port Angeles Harbor to Klahane Ridge. (Click for larger image.) Only one pilot boat was visible. The other was... somewhere. (Click for larger image.) Look north across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. (Click for larger image.)

PS After much dithering about the question, have decided to date these posts about PG's visit on the days they happened, so they will file correctly; rather than the day written, as much as 10 days later.

Morning Morning

The sun rose a little while ago, about 90 degrees around to the right behind clouds and behind the lot with the trees. The ferry just sailed, I could hear its horn when I went out on the deck to take a photo. Straight out, my bit of water horizon. The Strait, San Juan Island (US); off to the left of this image would be downtown Victoria on Vancouver Island (CA). As always, camera zoomed as my attention does, focussed on the water.

Strait of Juan de Fuca, December 30, 2012 (Click for larger image.)

The soundtrack at the moment is Richie Havens, singing, "Morning morning". And a verbal one (*googles*, good heavens it's Longfellow). It's about the other end of the day, but feeling exactly right. "Darkness settles on roofs and walls,/ But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls."

Indeed the sea calls. Heading west to the outer coast, soon as I can. The tide and the weather aren't right, but this is the day, here I go.

The Watcher of Ships Watches Some Ships

Light mostly gone. Thank heavens the sunsets are going to be later now, I am done with darkness. Went out on Ediz Hook (map).

Vancouver Island on the other side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, December 23, 2012 (Click for larger image.)

The submarine escorts (technically, offshore supply vessels) HOS Arrowhead and HOS Eagleview came in off the Strait. They always travel in pairs. It used to be Silverstar and Gemstone, but those two are no longer listed. Where have you gone, Silverstar?

HOS Arrowhead (Click for larger image.)

There were three big ships at anchor out in the harbor, the tankers Polar Discovery and Alaskan Frontier—the Polars and the Alaskans are often here, either just anchored and waiting for a day or two, or tied up at one of the piers sometimes for weeks, getting service done—and something more unusual that I couldn't get an angle on to photograph. The shiptracker sites say she is Prabhu Jivesh, an Indian ship. I can only think of one other time there was a ship from India...

Polar Discovery in Port Angeles Harbor (Click for larger image.)

There were three boat trailers parked by the small boat docks when I got out there, and a woman from Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife sitting in her pickup waiting. All three came in while I was hanging around; only one of the boats had caught anything. "A small blackmouth," said the fisherman. The WDFW lady took her clipboard out on the dock and measured the fish. Blackmouth is a winter Chinook salmon, not yet mature to begin its spawning run.

Alaskan Frontier, and a small recreational fishing boat (Click for larger image.)

The Olympic Mountains emerge briefly (Click for larger image.)