Has it been so long?
At the end of September I took a daytrip out to Westport, Wash., to wander around the marina.
Westport is a commercial and sport fishing town on the Pacific Ocean, just south of the entrance to the bay of Grays Harbor.
In the photo above, taken from the three-story Westport Viewing Tower, you can see most of the marina and the area that I photographed for this post.
I worked backwards on this journey, meaning that I walked to the farthest point of my ramble and photographed on my return. The day started off overcast and then cleared rather dramatically; some of the context and introductory shots will appear out of sequence.
My objective when I left the house that morning was to visit the Fisherman's Boardwalk, on the 'back' side of the marina.
I've stood looking across the water at that elevated portion of the boardwalk on numerous occasions over the years, but never ventured all the way around the marina to check it out. To be fair, on most of those occasions I was waiting on a bus after getting off work in the cannery, which means I was both tired and wearing my knee high rubber boots, which aren't great for long walks.
The boardwalk offers some nice views...
...and it's a great place to watch the boats.
Here we see the Betty Lee heading back to dock after offloading some crab.
This chartered fishing boat made waves entering the marina.
The Hula Girl's approach.
The Predator came in just as the sun was breaking through.
The boats approach along the wooden seawall, and then make a U-turn to enter the marina, which churns up some waves. Here's the Tornado making the turn.
I caught the Nahcotta Express, an oyster scow, heading out.
There appeared to be some kind of fishing tournament going on that day, though I never did figure out what they were fishing for. People were scattered all through the docks and on the boardwalk ... and wherever they could find a good spot. Some seemed to be fishing, while others were laying mini crab pots.
You really can't tell, from those four shots, how many people were about. I have to admit I'm not much of a 'street' photographer. Too shy about being caught doing it.
Wildlife, on the other hand, I can photograph all day. But then they are the ones that are shy, though there were animals all over the marina, even with all the people around.
Early in the day this flock of sandpipers stretched impressively across the sky.
There were seagulls all over, and this one actually posed for me.
These are brown pelicans. I often see them skimming the waves, but these were flying over like geese.
There were sea lions and harbor seals about, fishing just as hard as any of the humans. This harbor seal seemed to be checking me out.
As the skies cleared, I made my way off the boardwalk and headed back to the road. I wanted to get an overview shot of the marina from the viewing tower, which you can see on the horizon in the center of this photo, taken from the dock at the entrance to Fisherman's Boardwalk.
I took a few shots here on the dock at water level. The Westport Maritime Museum is in the center of the first in this next series, next to the flag pole.
The Beaudacious sailing yacht seemed to be on fire.
Looking back at Fisherman's Boardwalk.
I didn't stay too long in the viewing tower, after I got the overview shot that opened this post, but here's a couple looking out across the entrance of the bay at Ocean Shores on the far side.
I did get into the depths of the marina for just a few shots of the big vessels, including the Betty Lee, which we saw earlier heading back to its berth.
Perhaps one day I'll get the gumption and ask for permission to photograph one of these commercial fishers extensively, on and off board. It would be worthy of its own post, for sure. Even if I don't get on board one of them, I could make a post just of the vessels parked there on the docks.
In the meantime, I'll sign off. Happy fishing, all, whatever you're trying to catch!
