Saturday fog and Lighthouse Fun
Aug. 26th, 2002 11:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolphins_logJuli and I took a day trip on Saturday. About 11 AM, and after a stop for an espresso and second stop for a McD's breakfast, we headed off to Port Townsend. We chose Saturday because Steve Pool said that would be the better of the two weekend days. He also said there would be fog in the straights and around Whidbey Island.
He was 100% on. We got in line for the 12:30 boat to Keystone and no waiting. We rode the 73-year-old Klickitat. I regaled Juli with my knowledge of the history of the boat and my adventures working on her back in my college days. And I told her of the other boat on the run, the Quinult, which went aground last Thursday. The Quinult is one of the three sister ships of the Klickitat. She's still on the run and doing fine. These old boats have outlived many of their contemporaries.
We set sail a little late, made out turn out of Port Townsend and immediately into the fog bank. While I worked for the State Ferries I learned to hate fog. Now I love the August fog again, the thick low stuff that is still bright with the sun. The Klickitat hooted slowly across and bounced about in the swell from the straights. I could tell we were close to Keystone when the boat started rocking erratically. There are a bunch of currents that meet right there off of Keystone that always make the crossing interesting. That's one of the reasons why the Quinult went aground the other day.
We made Keystone without event, that's always a good thing. Fort Casey and Admiralty Head Lighthouse is just right there off the boat. We brought the Subaru across anyway. It was only $7.00. We took a walk to the beach to see if we could get a good shot, but the Lighthouse is set back from the bluff. It was moved to make room for a gun emplacement back in the early 1900’s. We strolled back up the path to the Lighthouse and took a number of potentially good photos. I, unfortunately, had to use my old crappy Chinnon camera as my Minolta is broken. It's too old to be fixed by Kits Camera's, but there's another shop that may be able to repair it.
After our photo session we went in and explored their displays. I bought a t-shirt. We climbed the tower and gazed out at the view. The wisps of remaining fog laced the shores and faded leaving the sun to sparkle on the water in the haze. That was our day there. Juli wanted some juice before we headed back to Port Townsend. The only juice I could think of was in Coupeville, so we took a quick jaunt to the Red Apple and returned to catch the boat back across the water.
We wandered the streets of Port Townsend for a bit and stopped in a couple of bookshops. I sat down and thumbed through a book about Robert Luis Stevenson's family of Lighthouse builders. I forgot to mention it to Juli. As it turns out it's a book she wants to examine. oops.
Before we headed home we took a side trip to Fort Flagler and the Hearthstone Head Light. It's not a lighthouse. However it did have a lighthouse keeper and quarters. The light itself was simply a light set on a box-like structure. The structure was obviously designed by the same architects that designed lighthouses. It was worth a few photos.
From there we drove home with a stop in Silverdale for a Red Robin dinner.
"Admiralty Head Lighthouse History"
Admiralty Head Lighthouse was built for the navigation of Sailing ships through Juan de Fuca. The ships would head for the Admiralty Head light until they were past the Point Wilson light and could see the Hearthstone light down the inlet. When steamship navigation became dominant the Admiralty Head Lighthouse became redundant, and in the 1920's it was decommissioned. The Fort Casey night crew found it hard to sleep in their bunkers during the day with all the noise [and occasional gun blast]. They moved into the Lighthouse and maintained it for a number of years. Then from 1945 to 1960 it fell into disrepair. In the early 60's the Lighthouse came into the park department's hands, and through the help of volunteers it has been restored to it's current condition. The 4th order Fresnel lens had long since been moved to Dungeness where it's still in use.
He was 100% on. We got in line for the 12:30 boat to Keystone and no waiting. We rode the 73-year-old Klickitat. I regaled Juli with my knowledge of the history of the boat and my adventures working on her back in my college days. And I told her of the other boat on the run, the Quinult, which went aground last Thursday. The Quinult is one of the three sister ships of the Klickitat. She's still on the run and doing fine. These old boats have outlived many of their contemporaries.
We set sail a little late, made out turn out of Port Townsend and immediately into the fog bank. While I worked for the State Ferries I learned to hate fog. Now I love the August fog again, the thick low stuff that is still bright with the sun. The Klickitat hooted slowly across and bounced about in the swell from the straights. I could tell we were close to Keystone when the boat started rocking erratically. There are a bunch of currents that meet right there off of Keystone that always make the crossing interesting. That's one of the reasons why the Quinult went aground the other day.
We made Keystone without event, that's always a good thing. Fort Casey and Admiralty Head Lighthouse is just right there off the boat. We brought the Subaru across anyway. It was only $7.00. We took a walk to the beach to see if we could get a good shot, but the Lighthouse is set back from the bluff. It was moved to make room for a gun emplacement back in the early 1900’s. We strolled back up the path to the Lighthouse and took a number of potentially good photos. I, unfortunately, had to use my old crappy Chinnon camera as my Minolta is broken. It's too old to be fixed by Kits Camera's, but there's another shop that may be able to repair it.
After our photo session we went in and explored their displays. I bought a t-shirt. We climbed the tower and gazed out at the view. The wisps of remaining fog laced the shores and faded leaving the sun to sparkle on the water in the haze. That was our day there. Juli wanted some juice before we headed back to Port Townsend. The only juice I could think of was in Coupeville, so we took a quick jaunt to the Red Apple and returned to catch the boat back across the water.
We wandered the streets of Port Townsend for a bit and stopped in a couple of bookshops. I sat down and thumbed through a book about Robert Luis Stevenson's family of Lighthouse builders. I forgot to mention it to Juli. As it turns out it's a book she wants to examine. oops.
Before we headed home we took a side trip to Fort Flagler and the Hearthstone Head Light. It's not a lighthouse. However it did have a lighthouse keeper and quarters. The light itself was simply a light set on a box-like structure. The structure was obviously designed by the same architects that designed lighthouses. It was worth a few photos.
From there we drove home with a stop in Silverdale for a Red Robin dinner.
"Admiralty Head Lighthouse History"
Admiralty Head Lighthouse was built for the navigation of Sailing ships through Juan de Fuca. The ships would head for the Admiralty Head light until they were past the Point Wilson light and could see the Hearthstone light down the inlet. When steamship navigation became dominant the Admiralty Head Lighthouse became redundant, and in the 1920's it was decommissioned. The Fort Casey night crew found it hard to sleep in their bunkers during the day with all the noise [and occasional gun blast]. They moved into the Lighthouse and maintained it for a number of years. Then from 1945 to 1960 it fell into disrepair. In the early 60's the Lighthouse came into the park department's hands, and through the help of volunteers it has been restored to it's current condition. The 4th order Fresnel lens had long since been moved to Dungeness where it's still in use.
