Pleasant Harbor

Low clouds, and chilly. Mid 50’s for a high. Hood Canal floating bridge schedule indicated a closure of the bridge to auto traffic today at approximately 10:45a. I wanted to see that, so dropped the mooring ball around 9 and headed back the 3 miles. There is a launch ramp on the north side of the bridge, so I just tied up to the dock there on one side, since there were no boats launching. I thought maybe there would be some military ships coming through, but ended up to be two sail boats and two yachts. I was kind of surprised to see it open for them. The elevated bridge section on the east side has 50’ of clearance at high tide, and we were at low tide. I assume that their masts and antennas were higher than that, as boats can be fined that request this bridge be opened if they can fit under the elevated section. Anyway, it was kind of cool to watch the bridge open. I took two videos, one at just over 2 minutes, and the other at 7 minutes. That longer one was of the bridge closing. Video is kind of long in the middle as it took about 5 minutes from when the one section was moved back into place, before the raised section was lowered. In case you didn’t google it from yesterday’s post, there are two sections of the bridge on both sides that are slightly raised, so that the middle two sections can be slid back underneath the raised sections. They only opened the eastern half for the private boats going thru, as they didn’t need any more space, and it would take a bit longer to open both sections. I will post those videos on my Youtube channel for those reading this blog at Findpenquins, since they are too long for that media. https://youtu.be/m9C0qwFnAAE and https://youtu.be/sjK3RksnLG4
After the bridge closed, I ate lunch, then left the dock to head back down the Hood Canal towards Pleasant Harbor. There was still an ebb current that I would be going against, however I found that staying along the eastern shore there was a bit of a back current, as I was getting a 1 knot push. The tides changed when I was half way along my route, so I began to get the current push in the mid channel. Went by some military restricted areas. I believe Navbase Kitsap. Didn’t see any submarines or big ships, but there were some small ships & boats. There was one security boat patrolling the perimeter to make sure no one unauthorized entered the restricted zone. I also passed some training going on with the USCG I believe.
I envy some of the homes along the water front, but have only taken a few photos of them. I passed one harbor, Fisherman Harbor, that is a very small cove, but only accessible at high tide. Looked to be pretty scenic and peaceful, and private, but it was low tide, so unable to go in and check it out. Pleasant Harbor matches its name. You come through a small spit, and then opens up into a small oblong cove, at the base of some mountains. I’m the only one docked here at the state park dock, but there are two larger marinas next to me. I walked one mile round trip to the farthest marina, which by boat would have been about 100 yards. Lol. I’m watching a couple seals swimming a couple boat lengths away from me as I type this.Les mer