Once In A Blue Moon

Tonight we were lucky enough to get out to paddle under the second full moon of the month, a Blue Moon. There are two considerations for Blue Moons: Seasonal, where there are four full moons in a season (or quarter); and calendar, when two full moons occur in the same month. This month, it's a calendar Blue Moon and we won't see another like it until July 2015. 

(Please forgive the grainy images, my waterproof camera isn't the best with night photography)

Reflection on the Water

Moon Beginning to Rise Before the Sunset

Windwaves and Sunset

It's also Harbor Days this weekend in Olympia and tugboats from all over the Sound have come to visit and race here. I'm hoping to get out during some of the racing on Sunday and surf some of the wake these tugs can throw. I'm also excited to see the Virginia V here, 125 foot ferry boat built in 1921-22. An original member of the Mosquito Fleet, long before Washington had it's own ferry system, the Virginia V used to run between Seattle and Tacoma before WWII. During the war, she was enlisted as a troop ship, shuttling men between forts in the north Sound. Afterwards, her career took a brief downturn, running between Portland and Astoria on the Columbia River and then again on the Puget Sound. After 1950, when Washington invested in its own ferry transportation, she became a backwater excursion boat, until 1976 when the Virginia V Foundation was formed and received grants and funds to purchase her for $126K and refurbish her. Today the Virginia V provides public excursions, hosts private parties, visits maritime festivals, and even functions as Seattle's Lake Union floating farm boat! Tours are available while she's here this weekend.

Virginia V at night