We timed our departure from Tacoma this morning to start through the Tacoma Narrows right around slack tide and at the beginning of a flood. (Flood flows south, ebb goes north.) So at slack the current is still, and as it turns to flood, the current starts south and gives us a little boost in speed. For instance, we usually cruise at around 2200rpm and make between 7-8 knots, and through the Narrows today we were at 2200rpm and going 10-11 knots, so we had about a 3 knot boost from the current.
Farewell committee at the marina:
Some shots as we exited the Thea Foss Waterway:
There were a lot of seals and porpoise (and fishermen) around Point Defiance today. I managed to luck out and get this Dall's porpoise as it did a cute little jump!
Moody landscape on the bluff:
Some shots of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge as we passed underneath:
We had a nice cruise down to Anderson Island. It was pretty and fairly uneventful (read: no whales). We're now anchored here on our new Rocna 20. So far so good!
We took the dinghy out for a bit to check out a derelict (but cool!) 1923 ferry that's over here in the bay (more about that in the next post), but it started raining pretty good so we motored back to Airship for a cozy evening and a bit more work.
Here we are in the rain:
And here's today's track – 24.2 nautical miles. And tonight will be Night No. 70 aboard Airship. Woohoo!