Lions in Winter?

Did word get out in the Sea Lion world that Point Richmond Beach was the place to winter?  It has been so noisy around here lately that I am having a hard time sleeping! Has anyone else noticed this? I have woken up several mornings dreaming that I am in the Pinniped exhibit at Sea World!  I snapped these photos in the back yard recently...

 

Look at all these guys, there must be 15 of them out there!

And then there is this otter... what is with him!  Now he's hangin' with a heron!  Isn't this how rumors get started?

Otter hangin' with Heron

Swim with FISH Blog

www.swimwithfish.blogspot.com

The Swim with Fish Blog has had some interesting sightings recently. It
seems that Swim with FISH shirts are starting to show up at various locations around the world.  So far there has been a reported sighting in Anchorage, Alaska and La Jolla, California. Where will the next shirt show up?

               ????????????????

  Stay tuned!

Visit the Swim with FISH blog to see where shirts are making  appearances!

www.swimwithfish.blogspot.com

 

Otters ans Oysters

A River Otter, "the otter," was seen early Wednesday morning allegedly working on an act for a future Otter show. The otter appeared to practice its routine under the shroud of morning fog. Witnesses observed the otter climb the ladder then do a sliding dive off the trampoline. Is this is just a coincidence that the maneuver was similar to what neighborhood kids had done the day before?

otter at top of ladder

otter practicing sliding diving

Meanwhile...


neighbors tend to their oyster colonies discussing strategies and lessons that they may have learned.

Swim with FISH Raises $2900!

Start of swim, left to right; Drew Kellerman, Larry Burr, Athena Petterson, Scott Huntington, Tesa Johnson, Ellen LArson, Wren Huggins, Rondi Thornton, Peter Bortel, (Vashon Host) Jane Macready, Jacque DeGideo, Steve Rees, Allison Skibbs
- Photo by Joyce

This year swim with FISH had a record catch of $2900 and 26 food items, for the Gig Harbor food bank!  Gloomy weather did not stop 13 swimmers from crossing Colvos Passage on August 2. In fact the water was almost perfect for making the swim!

mood of swim takes on that of a rainy northwest day

 - Photo by Kimber

Here are this years times;

Dave following his wife Tesa during the race.
- photo by Joyce

Drew Kellerman  29:43, 

Steve Rees 33:19 - No fins

Brad Howeiler 36:33

Athena Petterson-35:55

Ellen Larson-35:55

Peter Bortel-40:13

Larry Burr-41:53

Rondi Thornton-43:12  - NO fins!

Tesa Johnson- 46:06 - NO fins!

crowd gathers  - photo by Kimber

Jacque DeGideo- 47:36

Allison Skibbs-49:12

Scott Huntington-50:22

Wren Huggins-59:40

Swimmer, Paddler, boater briefing - photo by Kimber

start of swim from Point Richmond Beach - photo by Kimber

Tesa taps the cone with a big smile on her face!
- photo by Joyce

Ellen hugs Allen after swim*
- photo by Joyce

*Ellen who just met Allen at the beginning of the swim, gives Allen a big hug. The two were paired up as swimmer and paddler and apparently "bonded."

The finish Line - photo by Kimber

 

Hannah, you are such a sweetie! - photo by Joyce

Some of the fleet of escort kayaks - photo by Joyce

 

Mid channel - photo by Kimber

Andrew and Donna chat on the Vashon shore while getting ready to Escort swimmers back to Point Richmond Beach - photo by Joyce

Steve comes in second place with no fins on! - photo by Joyce

Steve and Rondi are the only brother sister that have done the swim.

Rondi comes in 8th with no fins - photo by Joyce

celebration after swim - photo by Kimber

Wren brings up the rear as Christy and others note his time.
 - photo by Joyce

Musician Mary Farr entertains the crowd after the swim.
- photo by Joyce

Fish, Fish, Everywhere!

Wow, look what Sam caught right off the shore, while Peter was at work - on the phone! 

And speaking of fish.. there will be another kind of FISH here tomorrow, August 2.  The 7th annual Swim with FISH takes place tomorrow afternoon.  From the looks of it swimmers will be amongst the salmon running up the passage! 

Below is a preview of this years tee shirt!

Another Fishing Story

The Bortel boys during a recent summer evening fishing on the beach, perhaps hoping to catch the "big one" before bedtime comes around.

Rescue on Point Richmond Beach!

Dave and Osten made a heroic rescue this evening when 4 logs apparently beached themselves by the pilings.  Without hesitation the father son team went into action towing the logs to the safety of deeper water,

Dave and Osten at rescue site

presumably so that they could beach themselves on some other beach.

First High School Grad in 6 years on the Beach!

PHS class of 2013 graduate

Julia is the first high school graduate that we have had on our beach in the last 6 years.  The last graduate we had was Matt Banwart who completed high school in 2007.

Julia is pictured below in Gordon and Judy Thorne's '57 T-bird.  Class of '13 in a classic car!

teenager in a fancy car

Eagle and Otter, again?

I know I've already covered this a couple times but.. this photo I had to share!  Does it look like they posed for the photo?  They're thinking, "dont try to take the attention from us, this is our show!"  Make sure that you click to enlarge and see the expressions on their faces.

 

Eagle and Otter Show Takes on New Partner

Just when we thought that we had seen it all, the Bald Eagle brings the "kid" into the act! 

The new act; A juvenile eagle poses on a piling for camera.

With otter and parent in the background the young eagle keeps tries to learn the ropes.  "Those river otters are so hard to work with," she chirps

An Amazing Place!

What an amazing place we call home!  Here are a couple of photos that display why this is true..

After the fog lifted this morning! -  by Christy

...Later a pod of Orca cruised by! - Staff photographer

See video of Orca shot recently at Point Richmond Beach!

Click below:  
 http://youtu.be/HFjMngHT5ho

Eagle and Otter Show

The story goes like this...

The otter catches a fish and brings it onto the floating dock.  The eagle sees the otter with the fish and wants it.

The eagle tries to scare off the otter and grab the fish...

The otter is not deterred..

Finally the eagle succeeds in chasing the otter off of the dock..

                 ..but the otter brings the fish along into the water! The end right? 

 

No! the otter sneaks back around the dock..

And poof, the otter pops back up on the dock and says,
"wat up?"

Some photos contributed by Joyce

Warm Weather Brings out Neighbors

Record High temperatures Bring Neighbors to Water...

Cristina reviews paddle technique between spirts of laughter

.

Cristina and Joyce kayaking

Joyce and Cristina stop for a quick photo

- Photos contributed by Cristina and Leslie

Whale Alert!

No it's not Nessy, nor is it Champ. A single Humpback whale was spotted on the morning of May 6 at 10:28AM right off of Point Richmond Beach.The photographer was fortunate enough to catch the tail fluke as the whale prepared to depart from the surface to deeper water.

Streetlight Repaired; Relocated

Raise your hand if you have received mail in your mailbox since last October.  IF you dropped by after dark did you use your vehicle's headlights or a flashlight to illuminate the mailbox so that you could see where to put the key?

Just what I thought. 

Well, the mailbox streetlight is now fixed, but it gets better. The light was relocated up by the mailboxes so that you can actually see what you are doing when you are getting your mail! The streetlight will now allegedly, come on at dusk and turn off and turn off at sunrise. The light will stay on all night long, allegedly.

 

This is all part of a project that the association took on when the light was observed as not working correctly last fall.





 

 Along with moving the light the wiring in the water shed was also brought up to current electrical code, for safety reasons.  This meant rewiring the shed by installing a circuit breaker box, circuit breakers, and a GFI outlets.  There were no circuit breakers or GFI's in the water shed previously.

 To the left is a new power outlet installed by the newspaper box. The newspaper box is now a Wifi hot spot courtesy of the hallie guest network. This is unrelated to the other work.