Category Archives: Mud Bay & Rocky Point

Sailing Days

Posted on March 9, 2013 | 1 comment

Square rigger in Mud Bay


The Sweetie out of Grayland, Washington, might be the biggest boat ever seen on Mud Bay. Certainly she’s the most unusual (see photo, taken earlier today just before high tide). In fact, let’s not refer to the square-rigged replica as a boat as Sweetie looks big enough to be called a ship.

The Sweetie entered Mud Bay under a combination of sail and engine power. About 40 minutes later when she left, all of her sails had been rigged and she proudly headed back out into Dyes Inlet on wind power alone (see photo below).

Leaving under full sail

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Posted in Mud Bay & Rocky Point

Heron Gates

Posted on December 11, 2012 | 2 comments

Unusual security gates


I don’t have a security gate because my driveway is too steep and I also don’t want to discourage the few visitors I do get. But if I did I would want it to be a heron gate (see photos). At least I think the birds are herons, although they might be cranes. I’m going by the crooked necks and long bills.

Great blue herons are regular residents of Mud Bay. By day you see them stalking the mudflats, patiently spearing fish in the shallow water when the tide is out. At night you hear their painful-sounding squawks in response to some threat real or imagined.

The owners of the gates in the photos must also feel that herons are symbolic of their waterfront properties. The top gate is from a home on Rich Passage off Beach Drive in Port Orchard. The exquisite bottom gate secures the driveway to a home on Erland Point in Dyes Inlet. I see the gates frequently as both locations are on regular bike rides. The photos were taken last weekend.

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Posted in Mud Bay & Rocky Point, Other Local Places

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What Is It?

Posted on November 15, 2012 | 4 comments

Pontoon busters: who you gonna call?


The first question that popped into my head when I saw the Big Concrete Object (see photo) that washed up on my neighbor’s beach last night is the title of this post. More important points to ponder include where did it come from? and what can my neighbor do to get rid of it? Dyes Inlet is having 13+ foot high tides for the next few days, but just because the BCO floated in on one doesn’t mean it is going to float back out.

A few musings before I post the photo. The BCO looks like it broke away from a commercial marina or a breakwater. I don’t think it is part of a floating concrete walkway though. Not with those rusty bolts protruding into the center channel. The top part is normally above water as only the lower portion is encrusted with barnacles. Concrete floats or at least it floats when the pontoon’s air chamber is big enough. How long has it been floating around posing a threat to boat traffic in Dyes Inlet and Port Washington Narrows?

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Posted in Mud Bay & Rocky Point

Rocky Point Road Reflectors

Posted on September 24, 2012 | 2 comments

A five-vehicle, seven-person process


Today a crew from Kitsap County Public Works installed road reflectors in the recently paved section of Rocky Point Road. Although the process is labor intensive (see photo), when the crew is working in sync they can install the reflectors quickly.
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Posted in Government, Mud Bay & Rocky Point

Hurry Up and Paint the Fog Lines

Posted on September 10, 2012 | 2 comments

Smooth and too quiet


Last week’s paving job (see photo) makes Rocky Point Road a joy to drive on. Until the fog lines are painted, however, the road is a bit dangerous for cyclists. I hope Kitsap County Public Works realizes that and makes the painting job a top priority.
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Posted in Biking, Government, Mud Bay & Rocky Point

The Swimming Raccoon

Posted on June 18, 2012 | 2 comments

Why did the raccoon swim across Mud Bay? I can’t answer the riddle unless the reason is that the hunting is better on Rocky Point than Marine Drive or simply that the swimming raccoon I saw yesterday has a den on my side of Mud Bay. There’s no photo to accompany this post as it was almost dark and the cross-bay swimmer was out of range of the zoom on my inexpensive digital camera.
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Posted in Mud Bay & Rocky Point, Pi

Flag Day

Posted on June 14, 2012 | 3 comments

Stars and Stripes at low tide


In honor of Flag Day I’m proudly flying Old Glory over Mud Bay today. From my deck I can see five other flags and one American flag-themed windsock. There’s a strong breeze on a cool overcast day leading to somewhat mixed results in the photo I took. My flag and the flags of my neighbors won’t be seen by many people, but they are just a small part of celebrations taking place everywhere across our great country. God bless America!

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Posted in Home, Mud Bay & Rocky Point

A Brief Complaint

Posted on March 15, 2012 | Leave a comment

Complaining by picture


It has been said many times that a picture is worth a thousand words. When it comes to complaining, the savings might be even greater. Instead of bitching about the miserable March weather we are having, including seven straight days of rain*, showing a picture of Rocky Point pond (see photo) should get the point across. That way I don’t need to mention that spring, due next week according to the calendar, seems as far off as it did on Groundhog Day.

Despite a wetter than normal winter, this is the first measurable accumulation this year in Rocky Point’s informal rain gauge. And that should be worth some sympathy—at least until you compare the size of the pond to a picture published a year ago in the Mud Bay blog.

* Catchall term used in short complaints for rain, sleet, snow, hail, and rain blowing sideways.

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Posted in Mud Bay & Rocky Point, Weather

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A Handy-Looking Snow Plow

Posted on January 20, 2012 | 1 comment

Do I need one of these?


The big thaw started this morning. Aided by a steady rain, warmer temperatures are slowly converting the snow on my steep driveway into a river of slush. I will probably be able to drive up it tomorrow, the third day after Wednesday’s storm. But if I had a wheeled snow shovel like the one shown in the photo, I would be out sooner.
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Posted in Home, Mud Bay & Rocky Point

Catch My Drift

Posted on January 18, 2012 | 1 comment

Front door drift


It always snows more somewhere else. That’s especially true with the much-delayed storm that blew into Western Washington early this morning. South Puget Sound was hit harder than Kitsap County and Seattle, with Tacoma reporting 8 inches of snow and up to a foot accumulating in Olympia. Although only about 3 inches of the white stuff fell at my house, I may have one of the region’s better snow drifts (see photo).

The knife-edged drift was caused by a strong wind blowing from Dyes Inlet down the length of Mud Bay. When it hit the north end of my house, the wind split and was funneled between the side of the house and the steep hillside that borders the front parking area. At its highest point the drift is 30 inches tall. All that snow had to come from somewhere, and as the photo shows, the flat part of my driveway is almost clear. There’s plenty of snow left on the steep part though, so I’m snowed in at least until tomorrow.

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Posted in Mud Bay & Rocky Point, Weather