May 2026 Seattle and Sea Lions
What has happened to time? May seemed to have lasted barely two weeks. I don't think AI is going to help this time thing any. I think 2027 will be here in just a few months time and then what?
Because time has been compressed, this blog is much longer than usual since your moving towards light speed of change!
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| Family Tradition Mothers Day trip to Bainbridge Island, Island Woods. |
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| From the ferry you can see the Port of Seattle, lots of Car Carriers come and go but container ships are the unicorns now. Most car carriers unloading in Seattle/Tacoma carry 4,000–6,600 vehicles per voyage. I asked AI why do so many car carrier ships keep arriving here in Seattle and Tacoma when the new car sales are down? | | |
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🚢 Why car carriers keep arriving even when sales are down: Inventory rebuilding after years of shortages
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| Even though sales are down, dealership inventory is still being rebuilt after the 2021–2023 supply‑chain crunch. Automakers continue shipping vehicles to restore normal stock levels. This is consistent with the Northwest Seaport Alliance’s notes that import volumes can rise even when demand softens, because shipments reflect orders placed months earlier, not current sales.
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| Hard to get all 6 to sit still so we got three for the Mothers day pic, at least the mothers made it! |
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| Two roads diverged in a yellow wood. |
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This Chipmunk is part of the clean up crew. They have a fantastic Brunch and this guy gets all he can eat. See: https://youtube.com/shorts/QvJ6EftmFDM?feature=share
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| A short window has opened just for tribal boats to crab. |
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| The Sea Lions have been encouraged to leave these docks to make way for the tribal crab boats. |
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| hundreds and hundreds of crab traps are now in Shilshole Bay, right in front of the marina. The sailors will have a big challenge avoiding getting the lines from catching their propellers and or keel, or rudder! |
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| A small tribal crab boat docked with a man and woman crew and they had 3 and 1/2 of these plastic trash cans full of Dungeness crabs! it takes two strong people to lift one of these containers from the boat to the dock. |
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| Three refrigerated trucks awaiting the days catch. |
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| It was a short window, after about a week all the crab traps were hauled out of the Sound. |
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| These guys can’t wait to get their luxurious dock back. |
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| Some spring mallard chicks |
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| This is a Nonsuch 36. It has a freestanding mast with a wishbone boom. I’ve always been curious about these single huge mainsail vessels. The mast is forward of the coach roof with a relatively long boom. The mast is much beefier and stoutly built since it does not require any wire rigging to keep it standing. |
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If you look at the forward end of the boom you see some running rigging that allows moving the boom
forward or aft depending on the strength of the wind. Forward for light winds and aft for stronger winds to flatten the sail. The mainsail winches are large to handle the loads on such a large sail.
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See a Schooner returning to Shilshole:
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| This is a Helmsman 38, one of my favorite trawlers, they are seaworthy and very nice vessel inside and out. |
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| End of year Ultimate Frisbee team photo. |
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| Our second opportunity to attend school concert. |
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| Extra Low tides, it continues to amaze me the incredible amount of water that leaves Puget sound twice daily and then returns |
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| Interesting custom trawler. Made just for PNW cruising |
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| This is my favorite Seattle coffee spot. |
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| We went to puppy yoga with the grandkids and our daughter. |
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| They have a big space back there and this was my second time to go to yoga, The first time was with the Admiral years ago at Mt. Bonnell in Austin |
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| After the puppy Yoga we walked a few blocks to visit the Center For Wooden Boats on Lake Union. |
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| As you can see there are several fiberglass 22' Catalinas for day sails now. I think the Wooden Blanchard JR. Knockabouts just required to much maintenance for such huge daily use. Just not enough volunteers to keep them ready for all the sailing that goes on around there. |
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| There are still a couple of the Blanchard's still available at the livery. |
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| You can buy this historic vessel! |
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| On a Walk down to Golden Gardens Park we saw this sea otter. It's rare to see them near a busy sidewalk. |
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| Eagle at Luther Burbank Park on Mercer Island |
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| What a Day for a sailboat race, almost no wind at all. This is the third race in a series, This is the third and final race of the Seattle Yacht Clubs Tri-Island race series. The Blake Island race where they race South to Blake Island and back to Shilshole Bay. |
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| Here in this AIS screen shot you can see the whole fleet with three way out front, and then what wind there was just died. |
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| Fortunately the tide is about to turn to flood so they can ride the tide to Blake Island! |
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| Zukerberg's Mega yacht "Launchpad" showed up in Seattle causing a bit of a stir. |
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| This is "Wingman", the support ship that accompanies Launchpad |
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| Seattle has added two more cruise ships to the 7 or so already making the weekly trips to Alaska. |
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| Finally a worthy boat project, I have been planning this for two years. I am adding two 175 watt solar panels to SNOWBALL. I manage to get the first panel mounted in about two hours. |
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| And on May 31 It took me another two hours to get the second one mounted. |
