West Seattle whale watching: Humpback whale off Lincoln Park
(Click image for larger view)
Dennis Cheasebro shared that photo of what he believes was a humpback whale, spotted off West Seattle today:
Photographed at 1:34 PM, February 16, 2014, from the Lincoln Park bluff. It was breaching, tail flipping and swimming fast southward, close to shore. I’ve never seen a humpback before, but the small, dull-pointed dorsal fin on top of a low hump seems to be diagnostic.
8:05 PM: Our experience with humpbacks is limited to their distinctive flukes, through binoculars, in Alaska. We’ve looked around at various whale-sighting sites and no other reports of this today; the species-ID page on The Whale Trail‘s site seems to affirm Dennis’s ID. Any other confirmations/opinions/sightings?
9:04 PM UPDATE: Thanks to Kelly for pointing out, in comments, photos published to TWT’s Facebook page not long after we published this – so, humpback it is!
West Seattle Crime Watch: Seen this Maxima? Plus, car-theft stats
Another stolen car to look for – Trevor reports:
My tan-colored Nissan Maxima ’92 was stolen last night from right in front of my house on SW Cloverdale and Delridge [map]. Police says thieves often take older cars like this for a ride and then abandon them. If you happen to see mine, #275USV with chrome rims, please shoot me an e-mail at trevorny (at) gmail.com. Thanks!
Since it seemed anecdotally as if we are receiving more auto-theft reports than usual – knowing that we don’t hear about them all – we checked the Seattle Police Reports map to get a sense of the trends. Here’s a screengrab showing West Seattle auto-theft reports for the past week, February 9th through today:
10 reports in 7 days is about the same a year ago, 43 reports for the Southwest Precinct in February 2013, averaging 1.5 a day. Crime stats are published for last year through November; the lowest month for auto theft in 2013 was July, with 25, fewer than one a day, while the highest was January 2013, with 61, almost two a day.
WSHS boys’ basketball season ends with 2nd trip to playoffs
Congratulations to head coach Keffrey Fazio and the West Seattle High School boys-varsity basketball team on a second consecutive season with postseason play. Their final report is just in:
The West Seattle High School boys basketball season came to an end on Saturday night, falling to Seattle Prep 63-59 in an overtime thriller.
The WSHS boys were one game from making the 3A Regional playoffs, which consists of the top 16 teams in the state.
The Wildcats have now gone to the playoffs in back-to-back seasons, and this year made it to the district tournament.
This season was a true journey for the team as they battled through adversity and achieved great things on and off the court.
The future is bright for the Wildcat boys, as the youth in the program has great potential and will be training hard in the off season to get back to the post season.
Lots of postseason sports updates this weekend – see them all in our sports-coverage archives here (reverse chronological order).
West Seattle weather: New wind alert in effect until midnight
Thanks to Tanya in North Delridge for the photo of a storm-related close call – a tree limb as big as an entire tree, at least 50 feet long, came off a neighbor’s tree in the Saturday wind and rain, landing in her yard and theirs. She says it “landed perfectly to miss our house and our beloved maple trees.” They’re putting together a neighborhood work party in hopes of clearing it away this afternoon. This might not be the last weather-related tree trouble in the area, since the National Weather Service has a new Wind Advisory in effect (see it here) until midnight tonight, warning of strong winds out of the south, with gusts up to 55 mph.
ADDED LATE SUNDAY NIGHT: The wind advisory expired at midnight as scheduled. And we have an update from Tanya:
Wow. With the help of 6 neighbors, we had the whole cedar limb cleared in 1.5 hours. We filled 7 yard waste bins, gave a neighbor a ton of firewood, and had fun doing it. It was an amazing effort! Without our neighbors, we faced a daunting task. But with their help, we remained light-hearted about the whole incident, and were left feeling deeply supported.
More athletes to state competition: 2 Sealth swimmers
One more update on local student athletes in this weekend’s postseason high-school-sports events – a swimming update from Trisha Montemayor:
Chief Sealth participated in the Boys 3A Sea-King District 2 Swim Championships this weekend. Preliminaries were held (Friday) and finals (Saturday). Chief Sealth had two relays participate in finals, finishing 11th in both and dropping 5 seconds of time in each relay. Boys in the relays were Carlos Montemayor, John Woefel, Eliot Nichols and Michael Stewart. Michael Stewart also swam finals in the 50 free and 100 free, qualifying for state in the 100 free with a time of 49:18 and finishing 8th overall. Carlos Montemayor swam the 100 back final, finishing 2nd in a time of 52.84. He will swim both the 100 fly and 100 back at State. Boys 3A State championships are Friday, February 21 at 6:15 at King County Aquatic Center for preliminaries and Saturday, February 22 at 6:30 for finals.
The aquatic center is in Federal Way.
West Seattle weather: Rainbow over Puget Sound
Thanks for sharing rainbow photos! Above, Mark Dale‘s view of a state ferry (rather than the rumored pot of gold) at the “end of the rainbow”; next, Joe Szilagyi photographed almost the entirety of the rainbow’s arc, seen from Alki:
And Greg caught it between Fauntleroy and Vashon, with two state ferries in view:
Next up for the weather – a new Wind Advisory from the National Weather Service is in effect through midnight (more on that shortly.)
ADDED 4:46 PM: Thanks to Creighton (welcome back!) for sharing a northeast view:
What a day!
High-school wrestling: 4 from Sealth compete at regionals, 2 moving on to state
More high-school-sports postseason news: Thanks to Lynn Ogdon-Perrine for sharing the photo and update after four Chief Sealth International High School wrestlers who won in the Metro League tournament last week competed regionally on Saturday. From left, freshman Nathan Perrine, sophomore Daron Comacho, junior Greg Tauti, and sophomore Orlando Lopez. At regionals, Daron placed second at 195 pounds and Greg placed fourth at 285, so they will represent Sealth in statewide competition at the Tacoma Dome next Friday and Saturday.
West Seattle Sunday: Traffic alerts, entertainment, more
Thanks to Craig Towle for sharing Saturday morning’s sunrise, photographed from Don Armeni Boat Ramp. Not far from there, in the Jack Block Park vicinity, Karen Richter spotted what might be the season’s first Canada goslings:
Now, before today’s calendar highlights – traffic reminders:
CALIFORNIA/FAUNTLEROY INTERSECTION WORK: The major traffic-signal project we reported here on Saturday is scheduled to continue today, so if you’re headed that way, we’d advise side routes.
I-5 LANE CLOSURES: Once again, a reminder about lane closures on southbound I-5 all weekend long, just north of I-90. The view:
More info here.
A few non-traffic notes:
WEST SEATTLE FARMERS’ MARKET: Year-round – 10 am-2 pm today. (44th/Alaska)
JAMTIME, LIVE: Music at C & P Coffee Company (WSB sponsor), 1-4 pm. (5612 California SW)
ARTSWEST MATINEE: Final performance today for “The Little Dog Laughed,” current production at ArtsWest in The Junction, 3 pm. (4711 California SW)
ALL-AGES LIVE MUSIC: Pouch, Canals of Venice, and Hoax Foot perform at 7 pm at Skylark Café and Club, all ages. (3803 Delridge Way SW)
Update: 3 hurt in, rescued from crash at Olson/Roxbury
(EDITOR’S NOTE: See our Tuesday followup here)
(Photo courtesy Jason)
6:52 AM: Police and fire have responded to a crash at Olson/Roxbury (map), with a sizable “heavy rescue” dispatch. According to radio communications, three people are being taken to the hospital. More to come.
7:19 AM: Thanks to Jason for sending the top photo taken during the rescue. We are just back from the scene, where the wrecked Lexus is about to be pulled the rest of the way out of the off-the-road spot where it crashed among trees; police told us they expect to have the road reopened soon, but for now the Olson/1st hill down to/up from Highway 509 is blocked.
(This photo & next by WSB’s Patrick Sand)
This crash comes less than a week after SDOT officially launched the SW Roxbury safety project with a meeting a few blocks to the east.
7:29 AM: Police just announced “all lanes are open.” We don’t know the victims’ conditions but the crash did not trigger the type of major investigation that would usually follow if anyone had life-threatening injuries.
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