Cruise to WBF: Olympia--Gig Harbor

Once out of our boathouse at OYC and out in the harbor, the view astern is the State Capitol building, built much like the U.S. Capitol, then ahead 3-4 marinas, the docks of the Port of Olympia and the buoys ahead marking the ship channel, which is dredged to 50’ depth for the large cargo ships that come into the Port to load lumber or unload plastic propants used in the fracking areas in North Dakota and elsewhere.

Still near the harbor, we saw at least 3 harbor seals with their head above water, watching us as we moved past them. 

  

Once out of the ship channel, we pass Boston Harbor Marina and its small lighthouse, then turn right into Dana Passage and eventually pass Johnson Point and Zittel’s Marina. 

Then we head toward Devil’s Head on our port side where we turn to port and enter Drayton Passage heading toward McNeil Island, where we turn to starboard and go past Eagle Island.  We always take a look here for the southeast facing beach on Eagle Island, because if its low tide, there are usually as many as 50 harbor seals hauled out here resting. 

 

WA State ferry from Steilacoom to Anderson Island

Past Eagle Island, we are in Balch Passage, passing the Anderson Island ferry which connects the island to the town of Steilacoom on the mainland south of Tacoma. Sometimes the McNeil Island state prison tug and barge that carries freight and contractor trucks over from the town of Steilacoom to the prison is coming or going from its dock.  Just beyond, we pass the main prison complex on our port side and frequently see the prison passenger ferry that carries inmates and other personnel over to the mainland.  

After passing the prison, we make a turn to port, then pass Fox Island. One memorable day 2 years ago, heading south to Olympia off Fox Island, we saw 2 large killer whales also heading south, most probably for lunch off Eagle Island, where the harbor seals congregate.  We photographed them with their distinctive dorsal fins showing  and sent the pix to the Whale Center in Friday Harbor on San Juan Harbor and they were promptly identified as “transient orcas” that prey on other marine mammals, unlike our Salish Sea/Puget Sound resident orcas that eat only fish and especially salmon.

After Fox Island heading north, we enter the long 5+ mile passage called the Tacoma Narrows. The Narrows is a narrow tidal passage and the current here can run 7 knots at times.  We’ve mentioned before that WANDRIAN is a 7 knot boat, so heading north, we always avoid a heavy flood tide (one heading south toward Olympia) and try to transit the Narrows at slack tide when the tidal movement is near a O level—not flooding or ebbing.  Sometimes if we’re lucky and time it right, we transit the Narrows on an ebb and we have raced through at speeds up to 12 knots, which is very exciting in a displacement hull boat!

 

Watch the wake when something like this passes you!

We pass beautiful sailboats

In the narrowest part of the Narrows there are two large suspension bridges (the Tacoma Narrows Bridges) 187’ over the water that we must cross under.  They are the fifth longest suspension bridges in the U.S. at 5400 feet in length and they connect Tacoma with the Kitsap Peninsula. 

They are quite impressive when passing underneath!  The northernmost bridge was constructed in 1950, replacing a 1940 bridge called “Galloping Gertie” that after only 4 months in service collapsed in a gale on Nov. 7, 1940 and wasn’t rebuilt due to World War II and financing until 1950 and now carries westbound traffic.  The southernmost bridge opened in 2007 and carries eastbound traffic.  It’s always fun to look for a new photographic angles when going under the bridges.  Here are a couple of examples.  

Sail boat heading south under the Narrows bridge

Next we pass Point Defiance on the right, a large headland sheltering the City of Tacoma and the large Port of Tacoma.  But we’re headed for Gig Harbor just ahead a few miles on the left side.    Approaching Gig Harbor, it’s difficult to see the narrow harbor entrance near a bunch of colorful waterfront houses on the left side.  But as you get closer, you see the lighthouse that is on the right side of the entrance and then a wide sloping sandy shore that sticks out at the entrance.

Point Defiance and Tacoma to the right

 

Gig Harbor ahead

It looks scary at low tide but it is no problem!

As we approach, we watch for a sailboat mast or powerboat moving out of the harbor.  The entrance is wide enough for 2 boats to pass but the water depth at low tide is only 10-12’ and you definitely don’t want to get pushed too far to the side and go aground! As you come in the entrance, you make a 45 degree right turn and then there is plenty of room and more depth once in the actual harbor.  There are boats everywhere, at docks in front of houses, marinas, restaurant and yacht broker docks and eventually, many boats anchored in the middle of the harbor. 

 Our goal is to avoid all these obstacles and arrive at the Gig Harbor city-owned Jerisch Dock at Skansie Brothers Park, very close to downtown and find an open space long enough for our boat.  You’re allowed to moor here for 48 hours free, which is very generous of this small interesting upscale town.  Once we find a space, and we’ve only missed once out of dozens of overnight stays here, we prefer to moor heading out, port side to the dock, requiring us to spin the boat around, using the engine and our stern thruster and then get close enough to the dock to throw a line over.  Better yet, frequently another boat owner will come over and take our line, so then Maryke can get off and tie us up with a second line.  Throughout all this, we need to be aware of wind that might help push us onto the dock or, horrors!, blow us off the dock, making us start all over again!   Anyway, we were lucky again this trip with no wind and a friendly soul taking our line and helping us get in without incident.

There’s always activity near the docks in daylight hours with people sunbathing in the park or kayak classes and rentals and stand up paddleboard rentals nearby!  There is no power on the docks here (remember, it’s free!) so our cabin lights and other electrical needs run off our house batteries that, fully charged, store about 440 amp hours of 12VDC power—at least 2-3 days worth, including use of AM/FM radio or XM satellite radio, TV, DVDs, refrigerator, toilet, water pump, computers, charging cameras and cell phones and more !   There’s a good looking large ex-fish boat yacht tied to nearby piles, called “M/V Commencement.”

 

So we complete mooring with at least 3 lines to the dock, 4 lines if it’s windy and take a walk up the dock, through the park, past the bathrooms (no showers) and the Fisherman’s memorial statue, then turn onto Harborview Drive and walk to our destination. 

Fisherman's Memorial statue

Gig Harbor has a great boat chandlery about a block and a half to the right from our dock.  Almost immediately across the street is a good used bookstore and a terrific Mexican restaurant we go to nearly every visit, El Pueblito.  

Or turn left and walk 2 blocks to the heart of downtown for Italian or Thai or a little further down is the Tides Tavern, right on the water with fantastic pizza and more!  Hard to beat Gig Harbor for good restaurants!  There are also many boutiques and other shops along the way.  Unfortunately, the downtown supermarket closed about 2 years ago and the other one is a good mile and a half! 

 

Whimsical "street art" in Gig Harbor

So we did Mexican again and it was great and Lin also got his Negra Modelo dark beer that he loves!  We walked around a bit then returned to the boat and watched “Treasure of the Sierra Madre”, a classic Humphrey Bogart DVD movie.  On our next post, we’ll continue cruising north to the town of Kingston.