West Seattle, Washington
15 Wednesday
A few hours after last night’s “surprise” fireworks show on Elliott Bay, we added a link shared with us by a citywide-media friend – who finally found out about what was apparently the only website in the city that listed the show in advance – the City of Seattle Special Events Calendar. Then tonight, in a new comment on last night’s story, DSA pointed out that another Elliott Bay fireworks show is on that calendar for Saturday night, March 27 – as with the insurance company having a blast last night, it’s for a business celebrating a centennial: This time, General Construction Company (history here), which happens to have a branch here in West Seattle. Coincidentally, that night is also this year’s date for “Earth Hour” – 8:30 pm, an hour after the calendar says the fireworks will be happening. (Photo from last night, courtesy Emory E)
ORIGINAL 10:38 AM REPORT: Dean just shared that photo via Facebook – as we were about to run out to follow up on e-mail that Pat sent about the same thing: A “cow” afloat off Alki Point. As to who put it there and why – don’t know yet; do you? ADDED 12:24 PM: Just back from a reconnaissance mission for a closer look. You have to be near Alki Point Lighthouse to really see it – or near the “$1.3 million teardown,” where we zoomed in for some bobbing-bovine video:
It’s just west of the most famous Alki Point raft, the Joy D. Smith Wildlife Raft.
9:23 PM UPDATE: Just got word from former co-worker David Rose, anchor at Q13 FOX News, that they had a crew over here this afternoon who got to the bottom of it. He says this is the story they were told:
(A nearby resident) built the cow out of fiberglass and it was on his back deck for years. He and his neighbor, Jacqueline Garnett, decided the cow was lonely and needed a pasture to graze in. Since she had grass in her yard, she took it to her yard. After a while, she moved it up to her front fence, decided it didn’t belong there. Then, they decided it would be fun to have the cow drift over to West Point. But then, they decided the Coast Guard might not be happy so they decided to anchor the cow to a buoy. They put rainboots on the cow to keep its feet warm and dry and put a life-jacket on it to keep it compliant with boating regulations. She told our photog she’s never gotten any milk from the cow, but with the rough seas, all she would get is buttermilk :)
If you see this before 10 pm, we’re guessing you will catch some version of it on Q13’s newscast. We appreciate getting the info from David; they found out about the story by seeing it on WSB, so a nice return favor! (And thanks yet again to our morning tipsters, Pat and Dean!)
(photo added 9:33 pm – see explanation below)
ORIGINAL 8:44 PM NOTE: First we got various reports of noise in the Admiral District that sounded like fireworks. Apparently there are fireworks over Elliott Bay off the downtown waterfront. Trying to find out why!
8:58 PM: A brief report of a possible reason, turned out to be somebody’s joke. The Local Notice to Mariners issued by the Coast Guard mentions Farmers Insurance‘s 100th anniversary as an Elliott Bay event – but we can’t find any link to fireworks – so that might not be it – still checking!
9 PM: Via Twitter, KIRO confirms it’s the Farmers’ Insurance party. They are apparently celebrating at the Space Needle – which would have a great view of the bay!
9:15 PM: For our fellow info-geeks, here’s the aforementioned “Local Notice to Mariners.” Note that it mentions the Farmers Insurance party and a narrow evening time window, but doesn’t specify fireworks. Citywide media did not get advance alert, either, in case you were wondering.
9:33 PM UPDATE: Adding a photo e-mailed to us by Emory E.; accompanying note says Emory is 13 and took the photo from Hamilton Viewpoint. Meantime, THANKS AGAIN to everyone who sent word of this while it was happening – phone, e-mail, Twitter, Facebook. That’s why we had something up fast – when YOU share word of something like this happening, that helps inform others who are wondering too – we didn’t hear/see it ourselves because HQ is in south WS. Here are all the ways to reach us, 24/7.
10:12 PM: One note for absolute clarity: Per the news release we found, this is Farmers New World Life Insurance celebrating its centennial – not the entire Farmers Insurance Group, which acquired Mercer Island-headquartered New World Life in the ’50s.
1:10 PM: Found out from a citywide-media friend that one website has turned up with an advance mention of the fireworks: City of Seattle Special Events. We’re linking it to the list of calendars at the bottom of the WSB Events calendar so we will be able to check it regularly ourselves!
Thanks to Mark Ahlness for sharing photos of, and info about, the “water rescue” call off Alki Point earlier this afternoon. He wrote, “Shortly after noon on March 6 we spotted a guy in a small swamped sailboat being towed to shore, just south of the Alki Lighthouse … Coast Guard, Seattle police boat also responded, but it was the couple in the kayak that got him in. Medic crews were waiting on land.” The photo above shows the police boat approaching (USCG was out of the picture to the south) as the boat was being towed; this one shows everybody safely on shore:
(Photo by Seal Sitters’ Robin Lindsey)
We weren’t expecting to bump into news while taking a long walk along Beach Drive/Alki around sunset – but that’s what happened when we stopped in an Alki coffee shop. A few chairs away, Seal Sitters leaders were meeting with a city rep – who brought them the news that they are receiving a $15,000 Small and Simple Grant. Seal Sitters is an all-volunteer nonprofit group that’s run till now mostly on scrappiness, with some donations – just last November, a jewelry sale at Merrill Gardens-Admiral Heights (WSB sponsor) was their first-ever fundraiser. Founder Brenda Peterson told us they’ll use the $15,000 grant for education — one of their major missions, something the actual seal-sitting itself embodies too. Find out all about Seal Sitters at sealsitters.org; they also keep a blog-format journal at blubberblog.org.
Greg Whittaker from Alki Kayak Tours shares what he says is the first photo of a kayak in the new “finger piers” that are part of the King County Water Taxi dock upgrade at Seacrest – work we’ve been tracking here. And with the work done, he says Alki Kayak Tours is ready to reopen. From his announcement:
Alki Kayak Tours, one of the 2009 recipients of the City of Seattle Mayor’s Small Business Award, will be reopening for the season this weekend at its location at Seacrest Marina in West Seattle.
… Alki Kayak Tours has prepped its sea kayak fleet and will be offering guided sea kayak tours of Elliott Bay, exploring the natural history and human history of Puget Sound. Migratory waterfowl are prevalent this time of year along with sightings of marine mammals including the California sea lion, harbor seal, and occasional grey whale and porpoise!
Alki Kayak Tours also offers “other outdoor adventure gear,” plus inline skates, beach cruiser bikes, longboards and Stand Up Paddleboards. As for the Water Taxi – it’s still on track to start the season exactly one month from today, Monday, April 5. (Did you see our stories with a sneak peek inside the new boat and the first look at it with the official paint job?)
So much else was going on this afternoon, we never got a chance to go into full whale-watching-sound-the-alert mode, but thanks to Eve for sending a photo as proof (and yes, we know it’s fuzzy, but hey, it’s A WHALE!): We’ve had several reports of a gray whale spotted in Elliott Bay, then heading southbound in the Sound, earlier this afternoon. Eve took that photo off Alki at 1:15 pm; Orca Network (which tracks sightings of non-orca marine mammals too) had a report of a gray whale in Elliott Bay, closer to downtown, just after 10 this morning. Orca Network also has a great page on its website explaining why you see grays in Puget Sound, most often at this time of year; see that page here.
Thanks to a tipster (who didn’t want to be credited) for pointing out the Coast Guard’s report of a partially submerged 65-foot tugboat at Island Tug and Barge, in the Duwamish, just north of The Bridge. It had more than 6,000 gallons of fuel and oil on board, but according to the Associated Press, it was brought back up this morning without spilling anything but 25 gallons of oily bilge water.
Not West Seattle, but taken by a West Seattleite, and some WS riders had to have been in the crowd – that’s a ferry full of bicycles, headed from Bainbridge Island to downtown Seattle after the Chilly Hilly, photographed by John LaSpina, who caught this view too:
This has apparently been in beta a few weeks but we hadn’t heard about it till a mention on WSDOT‘s Twitter feed today: The Vessel Watch page, which tells you where any given state ferry is at any given moment, has been upgraded – the map used to be static, and now it’s dynamic, with panning/zooming capabilities among other things. Check it out here. (And while that feature can identify a state ferry for you, if you’re looking to ID any other kind of vessel, MarineTraffic.com’s the place to go.)
Tonight’s e-mail update from the Orca Network confirms another baby for Puget Sound’s resident orcas: If you go here, you’ll see a photo of L114, seen with L77 in B.C. waters yesterday. That brings the resident population – J, K, L pods – up to 89. (That page also has photos of half a dozen other babies born to the local orcas since the start of 2009; and you can see yet more here.)
On a picture-perfect morning, the USS John C. Stennis, CVN-74, was spotted from West Seattle shores, headed toward Bremerton (WesCAddle mentioned it in the WSB Forums). Thanks to Kevin for this carrier-and-mountain view!
No guarantee they will show up this far south, but we would be remiss not to share the alert – Orca Network says a big pod of so-called “transients” (to separate them from the ones who live in Puget Sound year-round), maybe up to 25, was seen heading south as recently as a couple hours ago off North Kitsap shores. If you spot any, please let Orca Network know as well as sharing the news here – thanks! 3:20 PM UPDATE: They’re still north of here but Channel 7’s chopper is over them – live video feed here.
Thanks to Sharonn for sending that photo after we mentioned this earlier on Twitter: After a note from Deborra asking about the unusual-looking white ship in the middle of Elliott Bay. We looked it up with a website you should bookmark if you get curious about ship sightings too: marinetraffic.com’s Seattle map. It’s the Mona Lisa, a chartered passenger ship according to this info-page (which also has a closeup file photo). More background here helped indirectly point us to confirmation of what Sharonn said she’d heard – The News Tribune reported last week that Mona Lisa is one of the ships headed to Vancouver to serve as floating hotels for workers coming in for the Winter Games. 3:33 PM UPDATE: Zack shares a closer view – first, the entire photo, then a closer view, since his note to us called attention to the funnel art honoring the ship’s namesake:
First – Cecile shared photos with us taken at Alki Sunday – that’s her in the water – saying, “This morning photographer Jenny B. and I went to Alki and took some awesome pictures!!! Thought it displayed our beautiful Puget Sound as a wonderful place to live!” We thought there had to be more to the story – a modeling shoot, maybe, given the striking outfit? Answering our followup, Cecile explained, “We were just experimenting with some new photographic equipment and threw together an outfit that we thought would bring out the colors of the nature, which it definitely did! I’m a classical musician so I thought it would be a good opportunity to get new pictures for CD covers/headshots etc.” Read More
Yet more must-share photos have come in – first the Saturday sunset, from Kelly Johnston (who has more here); then, a few more views of the Three Tree Point Duwamish Head sailing race – this one from David Hutchinson:
And this one from Rick Rasmussen:
Doesn’t look like race results are online yet, by the way, but they should eventually appear here. (Several other photographers’ images were published here earlier.)
All those sailboats you saw off West Seattle shores today? The Three Tree Point Yacht Club‘s 31st annual Duwamish Head Race (here’s the home page). Thanks to JayDee for the first three photos.
The race’s starting point was Des Moines.
That’s also where members are now gathered to wait for the results. The next photo is courtesy Russ Walker:
And shortly after we published this – another note with photos came in, from Chris D:
Then another one – from JH!
Thanks to JayDee, Russ, Chris and JH – got photos to share? editor@westseattleblog.com (or via Facebook, where we’re WS Blog) any time!
A happy followup today to the orca sightings that brought many out to the West Seattle shores yesterday afternoon, hoping to glimpse J-Pod passing by … Orca Network says the researchers who were following the whales for a while spotted a new baby! It’s been designated J47, born to mom J35, and you can see photos on the Orca Network website (scroll down from that photo and you’ll see the five babies born to the “Southern Resident” orcas last year – their population is now up to 88).
Three beachside scenes to share as the weekend ends – First, thanks to Colby for sharing the rainbow sighted at Lincoln Park, by Colman Pool. Next, while strolling Alki this afternoon, we spotted what appeared to be a wise and patient cat:
And a bit further south along Alki, the signs are up for the future pho restaurant we first told you about in October:
(We’ll check soon on the cafe’s progress toward opening.)
E-mail from Orca Network says J-Pod was spotted near Maury Island just before 1 pm, heading slowly north close to the Vashon side of central Puget Sound. The note adds, “NOAA Fisheries is heading out to try to get some fecal & fish scale samples – please let us know if you see the whales so we can help guide the researchers toward the whales – call us at 1-866-ORCANET – thanks!” (And keep us posted so we can share progress here and on Twitter and Facebook.) 2:13 PM: Just got a call they’ve been seen from Three Tree Point (here’s a map; a comment’s come in to that effect, too). Heading down to look from here!
3:32 PM UPDATE: Latest report puts them still south of Fauntleroy.
4:36 PM UPDATE: Whales passing Blake Island right now, still closer to the west side of the Sound.
4:54 PM UPDATE: As they say in sports, “called for darkness” (plus it’s starting to rain). Thanks to Donna from The Whale Trail, who says the view was best when they were off Marine View Drive/Arroyos, for letting us have a peek through her serious-sized binoculars toward the end of our stakeout at Emma Schmitz Viewpoint south of Me-Kwa-Mooks, and thanks to Janette from Seal Sitters for joining us on orca watch too. (Look for some seal pix/news later tonight.) Also thanks to WSB photojournalist Christopher Boffoli, who was also out on orca stakeout too, but they just didn’t get close enough. And thanks to everyone who commented, texted, called, tweeted with info. Next time maybe they’ll be closer to this side!
Thanks to Lina Rose for sharing photos taken by husband Scott Rose during last night’s low tide.
Lina says, “Our favorite thing from the evening was the small blue shrimp with iridescent eyes. We have never noticed these in the daytime but they were really cool. Also- I have never seen so many crabs out and about!” Tonight’s low tide is almost as low, another minus-three-footer, bottoming out around quarter past 11.
Looking ahead on the chart, it appears the tides won’t get this low again until June.
Some stories were joyful – like the last one in the slideshow – and some were painful. Photojournalist Christopher Boffoli assembled this group of more than 30 of the hundreds of memorable images he produced for WSB news coverage this year. He put them together in a black-and-white slide show (just hit “play” on the first frame and they will automatically advance). Many are from breaking-news scenes, where Christopher often arrived before your editor here even got word something had happened, but you’ll also see wildlife, volunteerism, aviation, and even JP Patches. Many of these scenes, you will probably remember; if not, there are brief descriptions on the photo set’s home Flickr page. We’ll have more to say about ’09 in the hours ahead, as well as a couple lists with New Year’s Day practicalities. And, once more, if you’re STILL not absolutely certain what you want to do tonight, we’ve added two more venues to the New Year’s Eve list on the West Seattle Holidays page.
Thanks to Eric Shalit of Box Turtle Design for sharing this sight from Alki (where the latest water-temperature reading is a non-balmy 48 degrees). Gives us an excuse, meantime, to note that two “polar bear swims” are on the calendar for the New Year – 10 am Friday (1/1/10) on Alki, across from Duke’s, is the annual-albeit-informal swim, and this year, Special Olympics of Washington has the Polar Plunge fundraiser at 11 am Sunday 1/24/10, also on Alki – go here to register.
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