Up close.
(The kayaks are on Liberty Bay, just out from Poulsbo.)
The sea level seemed lower than it did during the early 1980s, but that is probably just because the tide was out when we got in the water. We did not have the equipment needed to make formal measurements. The local seals appeared abundant, and were tolerant of kayaks, as long as we didn't come too close.
Cross posted at Jim Miller on Politics.
(Note to those who have never tried ocean kayaks: Unlike canoes and even rowboats, they are quite easy to handle. Most will find the double-bladed paddle natural in their hands from the very beginning. The foot pedal rudder controls take a little getting used to, but operate slowly enough so that you can learn as you go.)
Posted by Jim Miller at August 28, 2009 01:01 PM | Email ThisHere are their rates.
Posted by: Jim Miller on August 28, 2009 01:33 PMOtherwise, there has been no change anywhere on the west coast that anyone has been able to detect AFAIK.
No one is adjusting docks and the ramps going down to them, the pilings all have the same high water marks, etc.
Generally the Gorebots use lakes, creeks and the spring thaw in AK as they are seasonal, factors which are increasingly being left on the cutting room floor by such indisputable pillars of knowledge such as the History and "Nat Geo" channels.
I've been watching those channels for years, and it's disappointing to watch them succumb to political brain death. Posted by: 4woodenboats on August 28, 2009 04:29 PM
OR, you can build your own. See the Pygmy Boats web site. These are build-it-yourself boats that use the "stitch and glue" technique. Kits run around $800 and up and they say they take around 70 hours to complete. They are very light and also very nice looking. And the factory may well be in your own backyard (hint: go for a test drive).
Posted by: Zarro on August 29, 2009 08:27 AMOR, you can build your own. See the Pygmy Boats web site. These are build-it-yourself boats that use the "stitch and glue" technique. Kits run around $800 and up and they say they take around 70 hours to complete. They are very light and also very nice looking. And the factory may well be in your own backyard (hint: go for a test drive).
Posted by: Zarro on August 29, 2009 08:29 AMMy great-grandfather moved to Seattle from Austin Texas in 1899 with a large family. My grandfather worked on the "mosquito fleet", (wonder how many readers know what we are referring to), as a young man during the AYP "worlds fair" here in 1909, on the immense sidewheeler "Yosemite". My great uncle was an engineer on the old steam ferries.
I appreciate you sharing a bit of your family history. There aren't a lot of us that have real roots here in the northwest. My wife's great grandfather was an IWW member and went to prison for his participation in the "Centralia Massacre".
Posted by: Bill Cruchon on August 30, 2009 07:58 AMI know my great uncle worked on the Iroqouis, a big steel steamer that came out here from the Great Lakes. Joshua Green, who wrote the forward to your uncle's book was one of the guys that brought the Iroqouis to Seattle. Green later became a banker, and lived to be well over 100. Asked in his later years whether he preferred his career in steamboating to banking Green replied that steamboating "was a little warmer".
My dad was a radio operator on the old Alaska Steam passenger ships, and later after they gave up the passenger business, on their freighters, which were old WWII Liberty ships.
Our readers might wonder what we are talking about. It was a different world.
Posted by: Bill Cruchon on August 30, 2009 09:06 AMYes, I am Ole Birkland (the 'e' was removed from our surname before my time). I was named for my grandpa. My dad was the youngest brother, Simon, or Sam, as he went by. I remember Uncle Tom well, he lived to be 96 or so. I still call his widow Nina (his second wife, as his first wife, Josie passed away decades ago) once in a while. Nina turned 102 in June.
I have almost completed an extensive family tree on ancestry.com and am planning to write a book about growing up on a small farm in the 50's and early 60's.
Where do you live, Bill? You and I are pretty close in age, share political philosophies, are lifetime Puget Sounders (as is my wife) and have interesting family histories. Might be fun to get together sometime.
Posted by: Saltherring on August 30, 2009 10:58 AMMy dad's family were Democrats for the most part. Mom's family from Spokane were Republicans. Mom was a genealogist and wrote a book about her family.
I know we are way off topic here and I hope the readers and Jim will forgive us for our recollections of area history.
I suspect you might be a member of the Puget Sound Historical Society. We've been members for years. We will be at their dinner meeting this coming Wednesday.
Posted by: Bill Cruchon on August 30, 2009 12:26 PMThis post was meant to be a Friday-let's-have-a-little-fun post, not a serious, deep political post, so what you have been saying is perfectly appropriate.
(Though I do hope that I motivated a few people to get out on the water.)
Posted by: Jim Miller on August 30, 2009 01:02 PMYour family does have an interesting history. My wife was born in Seattle and raised on Capitol Hill. Her family moved to Sandy Hook, near the Agate Pass Bridge that connects Bainbridge to Kitsap, when she was in high school.
My mother moved to Bremerton from Montana with her widowed father in the 1920's. Her dad was a machinist and had gotten a job at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Mom was a lifelong Democrat until one of my sisters and I talked her into listening to Rush Limbaugh. She was in her 80's and was losing her eyesight and couldn't watch TV. Three days later she confessed to being ashamed for having voted for Bill Clinton in '92. She passed away ten years ago today and never voted for another Democrat again (her words). Dad was a New Deal Democrat who, even though well read, failed to realize the Democrats Party had devolved into defacto Communism. He died a Democrat in 1996.
I had not heard of the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society. Where do they meet? I live on the Olympic Peninsula and don't go to the "other side" too often.
Posted by: Saltherring on August 30, 2009 03:36 PMYou'll get to see the few historic vessels that still float on our waters. A 1904 steam powered lightship. The 1889 tugboat "Arthur Foss", which originally was built to tow sailing ships across the mouth of the Colombia River. The "Arthur Foss" also starred in the 1933 movie "Tugboat Annie" with Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery. There is also the 1909 fireboat "Duwamish". The "Duwamish" at one time had the most water pumping capacity of any fireboat in the world. The folks that lovingly care for her still take her out and exhibit her power.
You might also see the beautiful "Virginia V", the last member of Puget Sound's "mosquito fleet". The "Virginia" was built in 1922 and is the only surviving passenger steamboat from that era. You can ride on her as we have many times. She's lovely, and glides across the water as only a steamboat can. "Virgina" also won the last steamboat race held in Seattle, in 1948.
Posted by: Bill Cruchon on August 30, 2009 04:07 PMI never was sure how my mom voted. She passed 10 years ago. My dad lived longer and last voted for Ralph Nader.
King County sent us his absentee ballot after he passed away. My wife and joked about having him vote for Bush. Of course we didn't and shredded the ballot.
The Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society has been around a long time. They generally meet monthly during the fall and winter with interesting guests at the Swedish Cultural Center on Dexter Ave in Seattle. They are great people and publish a fabulous quarterly historic journal known as "The Sea Chest". Where else would a person learn that one of the nation's first aircraft carriers, the "Lexington" supplied electrical power to the city of Tacoma because of a drought in the winter of 1929-1930?
You can find them online at: www.pugetmaritime.org.
I'd certainly urge you to join with all the maritime history you've experienced.
Posted by: Bill Cruchon on August 30, 2009 04:45 PMI ended up learning about that amazing ship folks used to call "old Vic".
The "Parthia" was built in 1870 by the British Cunard line for what was then called the "immigrant trade". She served in that trade for many years.
The iron hulled "Parthia" had a very long life. The old Atlantic liner crossed the seas to the Pacific long before the Panama Canal was built. She sailed for years for Alaska Steam, re-named as the "Victoria". Ships typically have a usefull life of perhaps 30 years. The "Victoria" survived for more than 80 years. "Victoria" was often the first ship to plow through the spring ice to Nome, Alaska. "Victoria" was a very old ship even then.
I'm too young to have seen her. I've got a picture of her sitting at anchor in Elliot Bay, probably in the 1930's. She was a beautiful ship.
Posted by: Bill Cruchon on August 30, 2009 07:20 PMLater my great grandfather lost everything in the Depression. All his assets were in mining stocks. He had to sell the big house and ended up as a caretaker for a mine in Republic. I have some of the letters he wrote at the time. He wasn't bitter about what happened, they just accepted it, and later he and great grandmother moved back to Spokane.
Posted by: Bill Cruchon on August 31, 2009 01:49 PMNeat when stuff like this happens. :) Posted by: Duffman on September 1, 2009 05:46 AM