Speaking of the military-industrial complex’s extraordinary impact on our region, my ferry is currently dead in in the water, about 10 minutes out of Bremerton, as we wait for a military ship to go by. Or so they tell us. Folks are craning their necks looking for the vessel, but no sign of it yet.
Is this a normal thing?
UPDATE: It’s a submarine.
Quick… sell these pix to the Ruskies!
Your ferry is a sitting duck! Get into your life vest now!
Hint: when you’re right by a “blow up the world” sub base, you often will not see the vessel.
You might also want to grease yourself up right now, so that when you’re in the water and you give up the floating wood panel to the cute rich girl who decided not to go through with her arranged marriage and just let you sketch her in the nude, you don’t die of hypothermia so quickly.
The “blow up the world” sub base is Bangor on the Hood Canal, not the Shipyard at Bremerton. It might be a sub that you cannot see, but it also could be a number of other vessels, which are being retrofitted or dismantled at PSNS. Yes, this type of thing happens all the time.
I told you not to mock the Chinese.
If you had an iPad none of this would have happened.
The ferry’s orchestra isn’t playing out on the deck, is it?
If not, you’re probably fine.
Dare you to start singing “Nearer my God to Thee” for the entertainment of your fellow passengers.
Those who know me well, know my usual schtick at sea is to start reciting lines from the Poseidon Adventure.
(And per the update, it was indeed a submarine.)
could be worse…
oh yeah, wait, it’s Charles that has the angle on the horse thing.
Like others have mentioned, it’s never too early to panic.
that’s odd, I have never experienced a ferry “waiting” for a ship to exit the harbor there, usually it’s just business as normal.
I hear there’s got to be a morning after.
A-ha! Do I get an internet or two for guessing right?
And it’s not enemy combatants they’re worried about, so much as rafting Raging Grannies and Physicians for Social Responsibility. Twelve grannies got themselves arrested at a protest outside the Trident base just last month in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Strange. Even though I hate the idea of these submarines, I am very jealous that Goldy saw one while riding the ferry.
However, once I did see a pod of Orcas swimming off Alki Point while riding the Bainbridge ferry, which in the end is cooler than spotting a nuclear submarine. Kind of.
Subs are cool. Orcas are cooler. But whale pods ftw!
Cool. That’s a Virginia class attack sub, the newest type in the fleet. The navy maintains a fairly wide security zone around them when they move in & out of port.
A few weeks back I was on the Bremerton ferry as it tailed the Stennis almost all the way to Elliot Bay. It was flying the 12th man flag for ye Seahawks:
http://www.kitsapsun.com/photos/2011/jan…
I’ve seen these subs several times while sailing between Shilshole & Bainbridge. They’re more common to see than Orcas in the Puget Sound — the killer whales are normally up in the Straits or the San Juans.
I don’t think most people know that there are tons of porpoises all over the waters here. They’re like little grey dolphins. I’ve had them swim right under my boat near Port Madison on North Bainbridge. Tough to see these things from a ferry.
Hey I was on that boat too! Are you the uber handsome man in the nice suit with the dorky name badge that said “CEO” on it?
I got to tour one back in the lat 90’s. It was docked at Everett Naval Base.