Often, we only find out about passing ships – particularly US Navy sightings to/from Bremerton – after the fact. For those who keep an eye on the water, here’s advance word of something heading this way: Via Puget Sound Maritime, we learn that the decommissioned frigate USS Jarrett will be towed to Bremerton within the next week or so. According to its Wikipedia page, the Jarrett made history as the first US Navy warship commanded by a woman (Captain Kathleen McGrath).

We’ve received multiple photos today of an unsettling sight in West Seattle waters. The WSB’er who sent the photo above, showing Cormorant Cove Park off Beach Drive, wondered if it’s a spill. NO – not a spill. If you read WSB over the weekend, in fact, you probably already know it’s a bloom of microorganisms called noctiluca, according to Beach Drive resident Lura Ercolano, who answered a reader’s question over the weekend and shared a photo this morning:

Lura explains, “It is a beautiful, glowing, noctiluca bloom. They are single-celled creatures, and there may be more than normal this spring, or it might just be that we haven’t had big waves to disperse them.” We also received a Brace Point photo from Kathleen:

Here’s more information. Experts say noctiluca is NOT TOXIC so while you might just decide to keep away from it, you don’t have to. (Our archives show that something similar turned up in summer 2008.)

8:57 PM UPDATE: The Kitsap Sun reports that the state did a flyover this morning to take a look at the bloom.

Thanks to JayDee for the view of the USS John C. Stennis passing by West Seattle shores this afternoon. Last month, the Stennis’s strike group had a change-of-command ceremony, while training to prepare for deployment, as the Kitsap Sun reported here; its own website has more about its preparations for deployment.

(Photo courtesy Scott Boyd/OceanGate, used with permission)
A low-tide day like today makes you wonder what lies deep beneath Puget Sound. Perfect time for news of a recent discovery: A local team of underwater explorers thinks it’s found the wreckage of the SS Dix off Alki Point. They’ve written extensively about it here; hat tip to the Log House Museum for sharing the link, which we also had received but hadn’t yet followed up on. Historians say the sinking of the Dix more than a century ago – after it collided with another steamship – is the worst maritime disaster in local history, killing 39 people; HistoryLink.org tells the story here. You can see more of the current exploration’s photos here.

From Alki Point, Guy Smith has shared news of wildlife and other sightings. Tonight, he shares the photo above, and the story behind it:

This photo, taken at Alki Point looking toward Restoration Point, shows two of the boats racing in Seattle Yacht Club‘s Tri-Island series race this last Saturday. The near boat, Eye Candy, was skippered by Jim Marta, who relates that this series is one of the most important local series of the year. Saturday’s race, the second of the series, went from Shilshole Bay, around Vashon Island and back to Shilshole; 48 miles in all. The first race was the Protection Island 80 mile race. The third race will be the much shorter Blake Island Race. Jim, who taught at West Seattle High for twenty years (1962-82), thinks that his West Seattle friends might be interested to know that on Saturday his boat won first in class and also first overall for the corrected time in the entire fleet.

Here’s the Seattle Yacht Club calendar;

(Photo by MIKE SIEGEL/SEATTLE TIMES [WSB partner], republished with permission)
Hundreds watched it arrive in Elliott Bay, passing West Seattle shores late last night (WSB coverage here) – and this morning, the Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX) is in place at Vigor Shipyard (formerly Todd) on Harbor Island for three months of work – also visible from the West Seattle Bridge, as Brian Presser from TouchTech Systems observed while in this morning’s nightmare traffic (WSB coverage of THAT, here):

Hours after the SBX arrival, officials from the Missile Defense Agency and Vigor hosted media reps to get a somewhat closer look, though tours on board the facility itself were not offered. Army Col. Mark Arn, the SBX project manager for the MDA, explained a few things you might not have heard, even if you have been following our coverage over the past week. For one, a little more on why it’s here for the next 3 months: Routine maintenance, upgrades including power and radar – such as, enabling it to hook into shore power so its diesel generators don’t have to run ALL the time – and work on its thrusters, since it’s coming up on a “5-year certification renewal.” That requires a shipyard at a deep-water port (at least 50 feet), and Vigor qualified.

Yes, he reiterated, it won’t be operating while here. So what if somebody just accidentally flipped the switch? That can’t happen, Col. Arn insisted – putting it into operation requires a sequence of processes far beyond just pressing a button or flipping a switch. By the way, up to 100 people can live on board, though they have been closer to 85 lately. How sensitive is it, as a missile (or whatever) detector? He had an interesting analogy in this next minute-plus of video (the main questioner you hear is longtime aerospace reporter Glenn Farley from KING5), along with information on what’s under the dome:

Col. Arn said the SBX arrival here now also has to do with its schedule; it participates in missile-defense tests, including one less than a month ago. It’s the only one of its kind, and he said there are no current plans for another one; he mentioned its total cost in the vicinity of a billion dollars. The work at Vigor is estimated at $27 million.

ADDED 5:33 PM: One more view, from our friend Rebecca Nelson, who runs Ravenna Blog, has some nautical chops, and was first to tell us (about two weeks ago!) that something big was headed this way – a look from the water:

(Editor’s note, 11:11 pm: We watched till it passed Don Armeni; have added video and photos)

(Photo by Chris Fruitrich, added at 11:09 pm)
In comments on our morning preview, we’ve been getting reports that the Sea-Based X-Band Radar – the huge platform on its way to Vigor Shipyard on Harbor Island for three months of work, as we’ve been reporting since last week – is now in view from Alki. Photos as soon as available – the one above is a screengrab from earlier as it passed Hansville. (And they’re having a media event first thing tomorrow morning, so we’ll find out even more about this structure that will be a local fixture for months to come.)

(Dusk photo by Christopher Boffoli, added at 9:37 pm)
9:09 PM: On the boardwalk at Alki. If it were brightly sunny, it would be fairly visible now that it’s entering the bay. But at cloudy twilight it’s mostly lost in the dusk. Will likely be most interesting in another hour-plus as it approaches the shipyard, close enough, we’d imagine, that it’ll be visible despite the low light. It’s proceeding fairly slowly.

9:39 PM: Added a photo Christopher Boffoli took at dusk. Most striking thing we notice as it gets closer to Alki is all the flashing blue lights from what must be escort boats, so much lower in the water.

11:13 PM: Back from watching till it made its way past Don Armeni, where we shot the video now embedded above this line, with the structure seeming to eclipse the downtown skyscrapers.

12:12 AM: Adding a few more photos that we’ve received. The one immediately above is from Gary Jones. A later shot from Christopher:

And from Paul Arthur:

Though SBX is not to operate while here, its regular mission is described as “to identify ballistic missile threats and relay that information to the battle management, command, control and communications system for missile defense.” It’s based in the western Aleutian Islands.

We first told you last week (Wednesday report here, Friday report here) what should be quite a sight, both as it approaches West Seattle and as it spends the next three months at Vigor Shipyard (ex-Todd) on Harbor Island for work: The 280-foot-high Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX), which belongs to the Missile Defense Agency and is usually based in Alaska. We just got word from Pamela Rogers in MDA Public Affairs that it will “enter the Strait of Juan de Fuca later today and begin its transit of Puget Sound to arrive at Vigor Shipyards Seattle (formerly Todd Pacific Shipyards) in Seattle, Washington, late Tuesday night.”

The update adds, “The first view of the SBX for some residents in the Pacific Northwest will likely be when the vessel is just off shore before entering the Strait of Juan de Fuca tonight. It should be visible from Port Angeles Tuesday morning. The vessel can be seen from various points as it makes its way through Puget Sound to Elliott Bay and to Vigor Shipyards Seattle, arriving late Tuesday night.” The MDA reiterates that the radar will NOT operate while it’s here.

2:38 AM TUESDAY: You can follow the SBX’s progress via marinetraffic.com – as of this writing it has just passed Neah Bay on the northwestern tip of our state’s coast, and moved into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Two days after our first report that the Missile Defense Agency‘s Sea-Based X-band Radar (SBX) is on its way to West Seattle for three months of maintenance/upgrades at Vigor (formerly Todd), we have a bit of an update: While the military won’t be any more specific, their latest update says SBX “is expected to enter Vigor … within the next several days” since it “will soon enter Puget Sound.” They also want to clarify, for those who have asked, that the radar “will not operate while in the shipyard.” More background info in our Wednesday report; the structure rises 280 feet – that’s almost half as tall as the Space Needle.

Thanks to our friend Rebecca from Ravenna Blog, who watches the Coast Guard Local Notice to Mariners more closely than we do, for first word on this. What’s in the U.S. military photo above is the Sea-Based X-Band Radar, and it’s on its way to West Seattle’s Vigor (formerly Todd) Shipyards for $27 million in maintenance work also involving Boeing. It’ll be here for about three months, and is expected to arrive in the next week or so. The Sea-Based X-Band Radar belongs to the U.S. Missile Defense Agency; a news release described it as “one of the sensors for our nation’s missile-defense system … to identify ballistic-missile threats to our nation and relay that information to the communications, command and control center for missile defense.” It’s 240 feet wide, 390 feet long, and 280 feet high from the keel to the top of the radar dome. If you are a boater, note that there’s a “vessel protection zone” planned while it’s here – including a 100-yard keep-away zone. We’re told the media will be allowed in for a closer look while it’s here.

Thanks to Guy for the sighting and Tracy for the ID (both via Facebook), and JayDee for the photo via e-mail: That’s the USS John C. Stennis, CVN-74, heading northbound in Puget Sound, past West Seattle, on the way to Southern California. The Kitsap Sun reports this seven-week trip will provide the Stennis crew and members of its strike group with training for an upcoming deployment to the Middle East.

(March photo by Kevin McClintic)
A note we received this afternoon said it looked like an Argosy Cruises boat was stuck during today’s very-low tide off Alki. Turns out, it wasn’t stuck, though Argosy gets that question about this boat all the time, and we had in fact asked them about it recently, intending to eventually write a story, so here it is: The one that’s seen off Alki frequently – anchored for hours at midday/early afternoon – is the Goodtime II, and Argosy’s Maureen Black explained that it’s used by Pacific Marine Research: “PMR is an educational organization that arranges marine science field trips in Puget Sound for local schoolchildren to help them understand Puget Sound and the watershed. Since 1972, Argosy Cruises has been providing boats and crew for the approximately 80 field trips held yearly from March to September. ” This promotional video shows what it is they’re up to during their field trips:

You can find out more at Pacific Marine Research’s website.

Thanks to CL for the view of Crystal Symphony this morning, with Anchor/Luna Park in the foreground. This is the first cruise ship to visit Seattle this season; it was scheduled to dock this hour at Pier 66. CL also had shared the Port of Seattle‘s link to the full-season schedule – see it here – things really pick up next month.