Bainbridge Island commute by ferry is gorgeous~

Because I work on the island, I'm not usually lucky enough to be out on the water as the sun is rising. Yesterday was a lucky exception, as I had to be on the 7:55 ferry for a continuing education class in South Lake Union. Here's the image I shot with my ever-present iPhone as the sun rose and a bicyclist sped by. I love the sunrise reflected in the car windows and on the waters of Eagle Harbor.

It was a day for rising! The tides have had record highs this week. The tide in Eagle Harbor was 3.7 meters at 8:05 a.m., just as the ferry pulled out of the bay and headed south parallel to Rockaway Beach. (My iPhone has an app for that--I can look up the tidal charts for our area for any given day.) Local artist Kathe Fraga said she chatted with a long-time Islander who said he hadn't seen such high tides since 1935. The weather warnings said we had "astronomically high tides" coupled with "low atmospheric pressures," which sent the waters lapping over the tops of seawalls and bulkheads.

Eagle Harbor looked like Safeco Field after the last out. I have never seen so much floating debris in the bay. Everywhere giant tree trunks and logs were bobbing in the surf. I would think small crafts would want to stay in the marina. Clearly the saturated soils and the high winds of last week brought down trees throughout the Puget Sound, and it looked like most of them washed in with the tide.

It was a morning to make me envy my neighbors who head to Seattle for work every morning while I sip a second cup of coffee at my kitchen table.

UPDATE:  01/23/10
This morning the front page of the Kitsap Sun had more information on our high tides this week. Quoting Andy Haner of the National Weather Service in Seattle, three forces account for higher tides--the sun, the moon, and low pressure. Although the tide for Thursday was only predicted to be 12 feet, in fact at 8:24 Thursday the tide was measured at 13.8 feet. He said the models that predict tides don't take air pressure into account very well, but the National Weather Service is working on models that within two years may be able to predict when super-high tides are likely. For photos of the effects of Thursday's "perfect storm," here's a link to the whole article: Kitsap Sun "Tides".