October, 2022
Back down to the beach! There’s a ton of stuff to see and do around Bremerton, but with weather like we had this week, I couldn’t stay away from the beach and the water.
So down I drove again, down those switchback roads, back down to the beach and the pier and the water, and a to see few boats. 🙂
Below … the view of the pier from the parking lot. It was somewhere close to noon when I was here, but at this time of year the sun is pretty low in the sky even at noon, so I’m sometimes shooting straight into the sun for these photos. I know that makes the rest of the photo look dark. But I still wanted to show you. 🙂
While I was walking on the beach, I heard a power boat approach.
It pulled into the dock at the end of the pier.
It was a State Parks boat! Two guys were on board and were, I guess, checking things out by water. I’d like that job! Well, except in bad weather.
So that was on the north side of the pier. I then walked around to the south side of the pier (the side with the sun shining on it!). Hmm, seems there’s a sailboat out there on the float opposite where the State Parks boat was. In the middle of summer, those floats would be FULL of small boats.
Zoomed the camera in for a look-see. You can see a little bit of the State Parks boat there too.
So then I decided to walk out that long pier and check things out at the far end of the pier.
Looking to the left, to the north … what a beautiful day!
And looking straight down from the end of the pier … here’s that State Parks boat moored up nicely.
Twin screw (two props and two engines). Counter-rotating props, not surprisingly. One prop turns clockwise, the other turns counter-clockwise. I knew of one boat in Puget Sound that had two engines and two props but both props turned the same direction. The guys who owned that boat had a heck of a time maneuvering slowly in tight spaces because props not only push the boat forward (or in reverse), they also turn the boat sideways depending on the rotation of the propellers. So if you have both props turning the same direction, even with the “steering wheel” pointing directly forward, the boat will turn all on its own. Counter-rotating props are a must on a twin screw boat. Even my 1939 Pied Piper had counter-rotating props!
I stayed out at the end of the pier for a bit, listening to the birds. It was so quiet except for a few birds. And then I headed back in towards land.
Mid-way back on the pier, I looked to my left, south, hoping to see Mt. Rainier. On a clear day, that’s exactly where she would be. Too many clouds on the horizon today though. But, there’s a boat on a state park buoy out there … might be the same buoy that I had moored to some years ago with Pied Piper.
I got off the pier and then walked down the beach towards that boat.
I didn’t know the boat by the name that was on the transom, though the boat looked just like one I used to know. Maybe a new owner who renamed the boat?
I kept walking along the beach. The tree below had barnacles all over it so had obviously fallen quite some time ago such that the tide has gone in and out over the trunk many, many times. The base of the trunk was about 3 feet in diameter.
Then I started walking back towards the pier and the parking lot. But then I also started looking at the beach in more detail.
An empty clam shell below … lots of those hereabouts.
Below … a rock with a colony of barnacles on it. The barnacles that show a black hole have no animal in them any more. The barnacles that are closed do have a live barnacle in them … waiting for the tide to come back in and bring food!
And then there was THIS tree (below). The base of the trunk was at least four feet in diameter. The tangle of roots was fascinating.
Below … sometimes the beach didn’t have rocks, just sand and leaves and rivulets of water … fresh rain water run-off from the land just above the beach.
Here are a few close-ups of shells.
I don’t know what the one above is. The one below looks like an old, well-worn oyster shell.
More barnacles … healthy ones. There must be a billion trillion barnacles here in the Pacific Northwest.
And of course, the omnipresent red crab … the one below empty of life.
Sigh … and then I found I was almost back at the pier again … and the parking lot. I drove back up those switchback roads and back to my campsite right next to my friends’ campsite.
The sounds of walking on a beach like this … squish, squish, squish. And the need to watch your footing so you don’t step on an animal in a shell or slip on some slippery sea grass or a large rock. But also the need to watch everything else too … the beach, the water, the sky, the birds. There was an eagle there today who dove into the water twice, but I didn’t catch her/him quick enough on camera.
What a great day.
ADDED NOTE: So many barnacle questions in the comments! I love it. 🙂 Ok, HERE is a video of “acorn barnacles” feeding. We have “acorn barnacles” here in the Pacific Northwest. They are little, not even an inch tall. There lots of other varieties of barnacles, some really big ones that are eaten by humans. But I’m used to just these little ones. And HERE is a website with more information about acorn barnacles.