All about the West Seattle neighborhood around Beach Drive
The Argosy Christmas Ships are scheduled to sail along Beach Drive this upcoming Friday, December 7, 2018. They are scheduled to be at Lowman Beach Park at 7:55 p.m. and then arrive at Alki Beach Park at 11:40 p.m.
Currently the weather for Friday looks like it will be cold and without rain. 🙂
If you’re lucky enough to be home right now or near a Beach Drive Park, look to Puget Sound to see Native Americans participating in their annual canoe trek. This year’s event is the Power Paddle to Puyallup. The tribes plan to arrive in Puyallup tomorrow with 108 tribal nations participating.
You can hear some of the participants sing as they paddle against the current and tide as they head south.
This is always such a treat to witness!
Tomorrow’s -3.7 tide represents the lowest of the year & gives beach combers a good opportunity to see how the starfish recovery is going. Sea star Waisting Desease nearly wiped out our entire local populations starting back in 2013.
I spoke to a neighbor that had walked a few blocks of low tide shoreline along Beach Drive today. She mentioned only seeing 3 starfish clinging some of the larger rocks but was happy to report that they were making a big comeback just north of Seattle along Discovery Park. She went on to say that “biologists were stunned how fast the recovery was coming along”.
While scientists claim we’re not out of the woods yet in the Salish Sea, they’re optimistic that we’re near the end of the epidemic.
Scupper, reporting for Beach Drive Blog
Construction of the Emma Schmitz Memorial Overlook Seawall Project was projected to begin this Fall according to BDB sources from the Army Corp of Engineers. Yet, it appears that construction, ahem, “design” work will commence within a week. This info sign was just installed at the park….
Anticipated impact to neighbors and the public will include drilling/boring equipment taking soil samples from numerous locations along the 450′ stretch of seawall. Constructing the actual wall has been updated to “TBD”.
Sooner the better is my opinion for getting this done. Fall might be too late for the tattered original structure.
From the City of Seattle’s press release:
Soil borings and sampling at Emma Schmitz Memorial Overlook
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), the City of Seattle, and Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) are collaborating on the Emma Schmitz seawall repair. Together we are ensuring a successful cost-sharing program to restore shoreline protection at Emma Schmitz Memorial Overlook in West Seattle. SPR entered into a Project Partnership Agreement with the Corps for the replacement of the seawall. The Corps is responsible for the design of the seawall, and one of the steps in the design process is to take soil borings to inform the final design. Drill equipment will be on site for several days starting the week of June 4.
Built circa 1927, the 450-foot stretch of seawall supports important City and County infrastructure, including a 54-inch sewer main, various Seattle Public Utilities drainage and wastewater lines, and Beach Drive Southwest road. The seawall is badly deteriorated, with a 30 percent chance of failure in the event of severe storm or tidal conditions. The new seawall will be built approximately 2 feet seaward and 2 feet higher than the existing wall, thus significantly improving the grade of this scenic viewpoint for the enjoyment of park users as well as ensuring long-term stability.
The implementation cost of the recommended plan is estimated to be more than $2 million, and will be cost-shared with 65 percent federal funds and 35 percent non-federal funds. The non-federal sponsor, SPR, is responsible for all lands, easements, right-of-ways, relocations, and/or disposal areas which are controlled by the sponsor.
The Corps is designing the seawall, and SPR will be designing the park amenities on top of the wall area. SPR will be holding a public meeting to provide information and gather input on these park amenities.
For more information on the boring and soil collection please visit http://www.nws.usace.army.mil/Missions/Civil-Works/Programs-and-Projects/Projects/Alki-Erosion-Control-Project-Seattle-WA/ or SPR Emma Schmitz Memorial Overlook page: http://www.seattle.gov/parks/find/parks/emma-schmitz-memorial-overlook
Scupper, reporting for Beach Drive Blog
Although I’m not quite sure what the karma penalties would be for catching one of the dungy’s, it was a great sight to see this Taiwanese family repatriating 30 large crabs into Puget Sound.
The grandfather and father of the newborn (on left with mother) carefully remove bands from the claws before releasing the 30 crabs purchased from a local market.
This Buddhist ritual is meant to give good health and wellbeing to the newly born child and create harmony with nature. Pretty cool!
Scupper, reporting for Beach Drive Blog
Puget Sound chumming season is in full swing on this beautiful day.
Photo credit: Scupper
We have some windy weather in the forecast starting Tuesday. It looks like the wind will be almost non-stop on Wednesday. Combine the forecast with the some high tides could mean that some of us along the water may flood.
We are currently getting our pumps out for the first time this “season” to inspect them and prepare for potential flooding this week. Because we tend to have water come over the bulkhead during high tides and southwest winds, we’ll continue to have our pumps on standby.
When we anticipate high odds of flooding is when we publish a “barking dog” report here at Beach Drive Blog and shared on Facebook and Twitter. One of the main reasons for starting this blog many years ago was to try to share this information with neighbors. A barking dog report is like a friendly neighbor’s dog who barks to warn of impending danger – sometimes they’re right and sometimes not. 😉
Here are the upcoming tides for Puget Sound:
High tides will be hitting us around 4:00 pm over the next few days.
Tomorrow, the winds will begin picking up and it looks like we’ll dodge flooding on Tuesday with the forecast from “Wind Alert” showing winds dying down before high tide.
However it looks like the wind may be howling most of the day on Wednesday.
Of course forecast often change and this is as good of reason as any to get prepared for this winter’s storm season…even if we don’t flood, we could experience a power outage with the wind and heavy rain expected during this pineapple express.
Stay safe, Neighbors!
Earlier today one of our readers gave us a heads up of a possible sewage leak by the Harbor West Condos. The beach at Cormorant Cove is closed.
If this is indeed a sewage leak from the Harbor West Condos…it wouldn’t be the first time.
This morning our intrepid reporter, Scupper, caught a couple pics of the John C. Stennis heading out into the lingering smoky haze from the BC fires.
UPDATES POSTED BELOW.
A water craft has approached the plane that landed on Puget Sound just off the shore of 6000 Beach Drive yesterday afternoon.
We’re assuming the plane will be towed when tides are a bit higher. We are just coming off this morning’s 6:00 am low tide of 1.45 and the next predicted high tide of 8.71 just before 3:00 pm this afternoon.
It’s truly amazing that nobody, including the two men on board the plane, was injured during this emergency landing.
Additional coverage can be found here:
West Seattle Blog
Westside Seattle
Update 2:14 pm:
Cranes have arrived to help hoist the small plane.
Update 2:21 pm
The plane has been lifted from Puget Sound.
Update 2:50 pm:
The plane is now resting on the deck of the crane.
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