The low-quality photo, taken with my old iPhone 7, shows the ugly drifting dock section seen in Mud Bay this morning. Fortunately it’s gone, carried out into Dyes Inlet by the ebbing high tide. There’s another photo at the end of this post showing an even less flattering view.
I first noticed the dock section this morning as I was leaving for a wet bike ride. At the time it was on the shore of my property. I don’t know if it floated in from Dyes Inlet on the morning high tide or broke away from a stationary waterfront dock further up Mud Bay. There’s been enough wind and storm surge during this weekend’s series of “atmospheric river” storms to account for either possibility. By the time I got back, the tide was on the way out taking the unwelcome visitor with it. Within a few minutes it was at the entrance to Mud Bay, several hundred yards away, headed for the north end of Rocky Point and possibly the Port Washington Narrows. Good riddance.
Of course, stuff floats into Mud Bay all the time—trash, branches, logs, even an occasional loose boat. If it washes up on my property, I either haul it off or, in the case of logs and large branches, cut it up so the next high tide will take it away. If you are wondering why, picture your own yard. After a storm covers it with branches and leaves, you or someone you hire does the work to return it to the way you are accustomed to seeing it. I feel the same way about my “front yard.”
I’m not sure what I would have done had the dock section become stuck on the shore near my house. It would take a boat with a motor to haul something that size out into Dyes Inlet. Plus it seems like cheating to intervene in that way. But when the tide does the work of finding the next location, there’s no guilt involved. I didn’t ask for an ugly dock section to land on my beach and shouldn’t have to deal with one.
Lost anchored floats, sometimes called floating docks, are a different matter. In their case, postings on a website like Nextdoor can often help reunite the owner and the float.
A comment on the old boat in the background of the second photo. Yes, it’s as ugly as the dock section, perhaps more so, but it’s been there long enough (25 years as least) to be considered part of the Mud Bay shoreline. My view would look strange if it wasn’t there.
Mud Bay Blog 