Tacoma

Partly sunny, a little breeze and somewhere in the low 60’s. Puget Sound was a little choppy as expected. Not too bad, but still enough so to mess up my windows with the salt water spray, again. Departed Bell Harbor early this morning (7am). Pretty quiet as I left Elliott Bay into Puget Sound and then turned the corner at Alki Point. Watched the Tug Osprey with his tow northbound. Heard some interesting radio chatter between Osprey and apparently a fishing boat. Osprey asked if the other boat was going to pass in front of him, or behind him. Sounded more like a hint to pass behind. I heard the other boat say something about crossing in front, but would have 300 yards, It would be close but he’d see if he could make it. This left some silence until Osprey called Seattle Traffic to say he would turn out of the ship lane a bit to give the other guy room. Not long after, this caused a little chiding from traffic control to the other boat, and after that there were several all call warnings issued by both the USCG and Traffic Control about fishing boats and regulations about giving way to large ships in the shipping lanes. IOW, someone very likely got their ass chewed out later by the authorities. Turned into the Des Moines Marina to put on some more fuel, and meet a college friend for lunch. Des Moines is known for having the cheapest marine gas in the area. In fact, my friend said she paid more per gallon for her last car fillup! Gas at the marina was $4.369/g. I only added 45 gallons to the 20 I had left. Shouldn’t need anymore than that for the rest of my trip here. I had originally planned to overnight at Des Moines. However with forecasted southerly winds tomorrow at 10-20mph, I decided to continue on to Tacoma and stay here two nights. After entering Commencement Bay, I turned into the Thea Foss Waterway and am pretty much near the end of it, at the Dock Street Marina. Just as I entered the Foss Waterway, was an interesting facility. I learned it is a Grain Inspection facility. This marina is just below the Glass Museum. Which unfortunately is closed tomorrow and Tuesday! There are several other museums in the area as well, that I will check out tomorrow. Some interesting bridges over this waterway. First the Murray Morgan Lift Bridge, and then just beyond the marina here, is the Route 509 bridge. The last three marinas I have stayed at have had free showers. So many marinas in the PNW have pay showers, so these get a much higher rating from me. I’m really getting spoiled staying in marinas, as usually in my boating travels I tend to anchor out. But staying at a dock gives me easy access to explore the cities as well as the water.Leer más