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Monthly Archives: June 2014

One Year in Tacoma

Nordhavn 47 Sea Eagle

Sea Eagle snug in her berth with the Tacoma Glass Museum and UW in the background.

Sea Eagle was snug in her Tacoma, Washington berth over the weekend. I took the opportunity to dive and clean the bottom and check on the zincs and running gear. The Petite Barnacle Buster Paint that was applied to the propellers is a complete failure after only 3 months in service. There are already sizable barnacles growing on the the main (which were laughing at my scrub brush). Grrrrr!

I did take a moment to go through the log book and realized that in the year Sea Eagle has been in Tacoma, she has been out cruising 45 times and has covered nearly 2500 nautical miles. Not bad for a boat that is primarily used on weekends!

The Thea Foss Waterway, in Tacoma has turned out to be a great location for a Nordhavn. Central Puget Sound is a few minutes away with a plethora of anchorages and marinas. Downtown Tacoma is within easy walking distance with the Tacoma Dome for entertainment, the University of Washington, Glass Museum and lots of great restaurants along the waterfront.

Heading over to dinner on the Thea Foss Waterway

Heading over to dinner on the Thea Foss Waterway

I have also had very good luck in our choice of Marinas, scoring a nice big slip, right at the bottom of the ramp, making loading the boat an easy task. The Marina staff has been exceptional and takes great care of the facilities, the boaters and the boats. Life is Good!

Colvos Passage

Running north in Colvos Passage, with Mt Baker and Blake Island ahead.

Running north in Colvos Passage, with Mt Baker and Blake Island ahead.

On a stunning first day of summer in the Great Pacific Northwest, we headed up the West Side of Vashon island along Colvos Passage, enroute to Seattle for the weekend. Colvos Passage currents always run North, even on Flood tides, where the main channels run south. During the peak of the flood, we were still making well over 8 knots all the way to the northern tip of Vashon Island and the scenery is lovely.

Commercial Traffic steers clear of Colvos Passage so they can run in the Traffic Separation Zone along the East side of Vashon and Maury Islands (as dictated by Vessel Traffic Control).

Cute community along Colvos Passage.

The community along Colvos Passage near Klockstad Road, across from Command Point.

Once clear of Vashon Island, it’s pretty much a straight shot to pass south of Blake Island and cruise right into the heart of Seattle and the Elliott Bay Marina (which was a ghost town this weekend). We spent a quiet night, BBQ’d some steaks and then picked up some passengers flying in from Utah to cruise back to Tacoma with us.

How to beat the Seattle Traffic

Dall's Porpoises

Dall’s Porpoises swim along side Sea Eagle near Maury Island

With another gorgeous Pacific Northwest weekend on tap and an event to attend in Seattle, the traffic forecasts were dire. The department of Transportation was closing down multiple lanes on I-5, along with 520 and Hwy 99. Delays of up to 3 hours were predicted! It turns out that’s really no problem if you have a boat! 😉

We cast off the lines just after noon on Friday and rode the Ebb Tide up to Elliott Bay Marina in Seattle. The weather was perfect and there was no traffic at all! We saw a few ferries and a container ship that was trying to run over some guy in a kayak, but Oh My Gosh does that beat slogging it out on the freeway!

On the way into the marina, we spotted the crew on Pacific High (Nordhavn 4709) as well as several other Nordhavn’s. Most impressive was Craig Mundie’s Serenditpity (Nordhavn 8602), which was easily the largest boat in the Marina and is actually more impressive than the massive cruise ships docked right next door.

Dall's Porpoises swimming in the wake.

Dall’s Porpoises swimming in the wake.

We had a magnificent weekend, just enjoying life and rode the flood tide south Sunday afternoon. As we neared Maury Island, we received a text from several dive buddies that they were just splashing at the Maury Island Barges so we diverted over there to say hello. As we approached, a small group of Dall’s Porpoises swam along side the Sea Eagle and were feeding in our very small wake.