Thanks to Bob Bollen for that photo; Bob, along with J. Leddy, David V. and Ron, sent word of that submarine sighting off Alki Point, northbound , in the past hour. Earlier in the day, David Hutchinson photographed a more frequently sighted vessel, just as the storm clouds rolled in:
Thanks to everyone who shares photos of what you see around West Seattle – here are all the ways you can share.
Where are the sub’s coming from? Are sub’s common in the south sound?
This is the third one we’ve gotten tips about in the past few weeks. The other pix hadn’t been good enough to use. There is a sub base over at Bangor (Kitsap Peninsula) but that’s on Hood Canal – TR
Lived here in the Puget Sound my entire life and have still never seen a submarine (or maybe I have and didn’t realize it!). I take the Vashon Island/downtown Seattle water taxi every day so I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled.
I’m born, raised and still live here in West Seattle and I have only seen a sub once off of Alki and that was a few years back. My wife is a Navy brat and grew up over there in Silverdale while her mom was stationed at Bangor. Her understanding is that the Navy doesn’t usually surface around Elliot Bay or Alki outta fear it may cause the public to panic. She’s not for sure if that is true or not, but thats what she had heard. Cool picture by the way.
I heard the same thing about them not surfacing from a former Bangor person. But I suspect they are around more often than we know of..They are beautiful vessels.
So glad our taxes go to funding things like subs. You know, for all those underwater fights w/ the Russians we have nowadays…
Here’s a picture of the sub from another angle (through a telescope): http://burkeconte.com/album/2010/20100428/img_1499.jpg
We’ve seen a few over the years, but this one passed the closest to Alki that we’ve seen. It’s hard to get a sense of scale from these pictures but by comparing it to the two boats that flanked it, it was big!
Celeste – that is a seriously cool pic.
Is there anywhere we can go to find out when subs (probably not subs, I guess) and carriers and such will be coming through our waters? I know the Stennis comes through occasionally, and I always find out a little too late, usually from the good folks here at WSB. I would love to take my daughter out to see them sometime.
In our experience, those details are generally not publicized, unless it’s something major like a carrier homecoming from deployment, in which case, when we hear about it in advance, we publish word of it.
And Jim… there a far worse things to worry about than Russian submarines in local and international waters. Think before you type. Where do you think All of the old Ruskie subs went? Think Korea, China.. Caught a few of them slumming off the WA and Canadian Coast tracking merchant traffic. All it takes is for them to pop a missile out of the straits and buh bye small towns.
Thank god for Sonus Arrays being checked every now and then.
I used to attend the submarine races down at Alki every Saturday night!
Wow – that must have been quite a sight!
A few years ago, I happened to be crossing the Hood Canal as one of the subs was being escorted into Bangor by the Coast Guard. Damn, those things are huge…
hi, i’m pretty certain that was my husbands sub on the day they left.. theres a really great photo that was in the seattle times on thursday april 29th. Which i would really like to get a color copy of so i could frame it. Does anyone know how i could find a copy? I’ve been trying but i cant find the photo online.
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