Sunny Skies Return

Welcome to John's Island

Sky Watch

Sunset over the Olympic Mountains
April 22nd  7:56 PM

This past week saw sunny, dry, warm weather return to Seattle after a long rainy spell. Among the many benefits ... getting some new sky photos. Linking up with Skywatch Friday where you can see lots more sky photos. Thanks to Yogi for hosting!

Interesting sky colors
April 24th  8:05 PM

Looking across Puget Sound on a wall-to-wall blue sky day.
April 23rd  12:44 PM
The mountain in the center is known as The Brothers.
The more I look at it the more I think I can see the face
of a sleeping giant. Do you see it? Or, maybe
I should cut back on the coffee.  :-)

Postcard Department

Known as a "silk postcard" this 100-year-old postcard was hand crafted with silk threads. The occasion was the celebration of the end of World War I. It was made in and is a souvenir of Belgium. These old silk cards are rare! This was the closest fit we could find in our collection for this week's theme at Postcards for the Weekend ..."Patterns and Prints"  Thanks to Maria for hosting the link-up!

1918 Handmade Silk Postcard
Souvenir of Belgium
End of World War I

Ship Watch

Three larger vessels in this shot on April 26th  9:50 AM
In the foreground, the KOGO Charter Yacht at Elliott Bay Marina
At anchor, in the middle:  The Semiramis Bulk Carrier
Arriving in the distance, the OOCL Vancouver Container Ship

A closer look at the Vancover as she arrived
April 26th  10:01 AM
For a ship this big you need to be at a distance
to get it all in one frame with the camera.
Each container will easily hold a car.
Actually, 4 cars can be put in 1 container.
See the YouTube video below!

Passenger vessel Victoria Clipper enroute to Victoria BC
High-speed passenger-only ferry service
runs daily Seattle to Victoria and back.
The ship can accomodate up to 324 passengers and
typically completes the 70-nautical mile trip in under 3 hours.
April 23rd  8:07 AM

Clipper Race Around the World Departs Tomorrow

Official Race Souvenir Magazine
Picked this up at Bell Harbor Marina
where Clippers have been taking a break this week.

A visit to Bell Harbor Marina this past week was most interesting. The vessels in the Clipper Race Around the World are moored there while they are taking a break between legs of the world wide journey. To see the kind of conditions they endure check out the short video below from YouTube. The vessel in the video is the one which won the 6th Leg of the journey from China to USA. The Clippers will depart Seattle tomorrow (April 29th) for the 7th Leg -- Seattle to New York City via Panama Canal. They are scheduled to arrive in New York City in June.

For all kinds of additional info check out the official website Clippers Around the World.

She Shall Decide

While going through the collection here of vintage memorabilia I found the following item to be timely and worth sharing. This is a cover for an advertising booklet put out by Good Year Tire Company in 1916. The past year has seen greater emphasis on the movement for equality for women. At least one large corporation had the right approach over one hundred years ago. Way-to-go Good Year!

Closing thought via an antique poster ...
Carefulness or Carelessness - safety or sorrow - take your choice!
     Bill Jones

Thank you for stopping by John's Island

Clipper Race Around the World Reaches Seattle

Welcome to John's Island

Ship Watch

Clipper Race Around the World

This story developed over the last few days and was somewhat of a surprise to me. I did hear about a sailboat race coming to Seattle. Then, I just happened to spot, early Friday morning, the boat in the second picture below. It turns out to be quite an event ... A sailboat race around the world. Known as Clipper Race Around the World, it consists of twelve teams, twelve boats, racing from Liverpool, England around the world. The race consists of 8 legs, and some legs have more than one race, resulting in a total of 13 races. The boats are in competition with each other, of course, and receive points for each race of the journey, depending on their finish time. They have just completed the 6th leg from Qingdao, China to Seattle. They will depart here on April 29th for the leg down the West Coast, through the Panama Canal, and up the East Coast to New York City, arriving there about June 15th. [Click on images for larger views]

Screen capture from official website.
Clipper Round the World

The Qingdao sailboat arriving Seattle
April 20th  8:24 AM
She was 1st to arrive and won the
Mighty North Pacific leg of the race.

Closer look at the Qingdao
Sailboat names relate to their sponsor.

Photo below:  Of course I had to go down to Bell Harbor Marina to see all these sailboats. They will be here for a few days before heading out on the next leg of the race down the coast, through the Canal, and up to New York City. Check out the official Clipper Round the World website for the full story. How and why people are doing this race around the world is pretty fascinating.

The boats are staying at Bell Harbor Marina,
downtown Seattle.
(Next to Pier 66, which is one of our Cruise Terminals.)

Qingdao is winner of Pacific Crossing.

The Visit Seattle is sponsored partly by Port of Seattle.

Signs like this are posted for each of the teams.

The boats are available to be toured April 21 and 22.
This shot taken April 21st  10:18 AM

Another screen capture.
Love the photo!

The Arabella

This time of year I start to notice bulk carrier ships anchored out awaiting their position at the Louis Dreyfus Company grain elevators. The Arabella has been out there for a couple of days now. You can see all the details on her at VesselFinder.com.  Here are four photos to show how this vessel looks at different times of day. I first spotted her in the pre-dawn darkness on April 20th.

The Arabella Bulk Carrier at anchor.
April 20th  4:38 AM

Arabella just before dawn.
Commuter ferry behind.
April 20th  5:45 AM

Arabella in the morning sun.
April 20th  7:16 AM

Another early morning shot.
April 21st  5:28 AM
Note how the ship swings around on anchor
depending on tidal flow.

More Ships

Aquila Ocean Bulk Carrier
Arriving on a very windy afternoon.
Two FOSS tugs on the way to help.

Tug bracing the ship against the wind.
As they approach the terminal they are going so slow
that they are susceptible to wind movement.

GLOVIS RoRo
(Roll On, Roll Off vehicle carrier)
Enroute to Tacoma WA

First cruise ship of 2018 Season
Norwegian Sun

Photo above: The Norwegian Sun was the first cruise ship of the 2018 Cruise Season to visit the Port of Seattle. Not only was she the first of the season but also the first I've seen to take a "dinner cruise" on departure. She departed the cruise terminal (Pier 66) at about 6 PM and I spotted her heading northbound, as usual, for departing ships. Then, she got very, very slow and began a turn around as if though to head back to the terminal. But no, just a very slow circle, taking over an hour, as if though to let folks on all sides of the ship get a nice view of Seattle's evening skyline.

Pacific Basin Bulk Carrier
Departing Seattle
April 19th  7:01 AM
The morning sun really brings out the colors of the ship.
Olympic Mountains in the distance.

Postcard Department

This week's theme on Postcards for the Weekend is "Retro/vintage." That pretty much describes my entire collection so here are a few I hope you'll enjoy. Thanks to Maria for hosting the link up.

The blue sky is your ceiling in the
Vista Dome - North Coast Limited
Northern Pacific Railroad
(Probably 1940s or 50s)

Before "smartphones"!
Telephone Service on the Oriental Limited
Great Northern Railway

Photo above: This card was probably published in the early 1900s when there was no wireless telephone service. The story is the phones only worked when the train was stopped in a station. That is despite the fact that the postcard image appears to show the train moving through the country side.

Photo below: A vacuum cleaner was such an amazing development that it was touted as one of the perks of traveling on this train. From the description on the right side:  "Kept free from dirt and dust with Vacuum cleaning machines. Other distinctive features are: Daily News Bulletins, Telephone Connections and Afternoon Tea Service in the Observation Car. Electric lighted throughout."

OMG  ... Vacuum cleaners in the lounge car?
The Oriental Limited
Great Northern Railway
"The Perfect Train to Puget Sound"

Eastern Tour of Mormon Tabernacle Choir
October 26th 1911
Salt Lake City to New York City
Chicago Milwaukee and St Paul Railway

Back of the Eastern Tour card.
Postmarked October 27 1911

Dear Joe message on back of card from Anna.
Anyone make out the last sentence?

Sky Watch

Here at the Island a post doesn't seem complete without a sky watch but new ones are in short supply so here are a few from the archives. The three photos below are from before the days of blogging.

Road trip in the Rocky Mountains
alongside the wheat fields of Montana
2007

Montana sunrise
2007

Madison Valley Montana sunrise
2007

As usual, linking up with Skywatch Friday where you'll find lots of neat sky photos. Thanks to Yogi for hosting!


More Circling Year Calendar 1917

We're keeping you up-to-date with the Circling Year Calendar we started publishing in our January 15th post. The story on why we're reprinting a 1917 calendar is there.

April 22nd through May 5th
Life's Blessings

May 6th through May 19th
The Cost of Happiness

Thank you for stopping by John's Island.

Mountain Bluebirds, Kodak, Ships, and Skies

Welcome to John's Island

Mountain Bluebirds

I recently told Eileen, of Saturday's Critters, that I wanted to dig into my archives and find some of my Mountain Bluebird photos to post and link up with her. So that's what we have here. These photos are from 2007 and were taken in Southwest Montana. Check out Saturday's Critters #226 for lots more critter photos. Thanks to Eileen for hosting, and, what a coincidence ... she is featuring the Eastern Bluebird! Gotta love that!

Mountain Bluebird Dad

Mountain Bluebird Mom

Bluebird Home

Babies and one egg that hasn't hatched.

Opening the box resulted in this behavior.
Of course, they are expecting mom or dad to arrive with
nourisment.

Mom at work.

More blue than Eastern?

A Monument

This week's theme at Postcards for the Weekend is "monuments." This proved to be a challenge for my collection of postcards. By way of explanation, Postcards for the Weekend is a weekly event for postcard collectors to share some of their cards, somehow matched to a certain theme. So, this is as close as we could get. Well, it's kind of like a monument! A monument to Kodak! It's the Kodak Pavilion at the New York World's Fair of 1964-1965. It's a pretty neat card. If we had a World's Fair today it seems unlikely that Kodak would get its own Pavilion, what do you think? Someone missed the boat when it was time to make the move to digital.

Kodak Pavilion
New York World's Fair
1964 - 1965

Back of the unused card.

Description from back of the card.

Ship Watch

Hapag-Lloyd
Essen Express
Departing Seattle, April 13th  5:56 PM

The interesting thing about the photo above, if you look closely, is the exhaust blowing in the same direction that the ship is moving. That speaks for the wind out on Puget Sound at the time the photo was taken. It was a stormy afternoon, indeed.

KOGO Charter Yacht
Docked at Elliott Bay Marina
April 13th  8:01 PM

I noticed the KOGO yacht docked at Elliott Bay Marina and decided to snap a photo showing the cool look of the lights along the waterline. I haven't seen that before. Of course, curiosity kicked in and I had to look her up on the web. The screen shots below show how the ship is identified, using VesselFinder.com, and then one can look up further information thanks to Google. Charter yachts of this size are not all that common at this particular marina. No, I'm not at all interested in chartering a yacht like this but I do find it fascinating to see how the weathly folks like to spend their money.

How KOGO appears on website VesselFinder

Vessel information for KOGO from MarineTraffic website.
The photo is from the website.

The info you need if you wish to charter KOGO.
Note ... Crew of 21. Not going to be for someone on a budget!

Sky Watch

Digging through the 2007 archives for the Bluebird pics became a slow process as I encountered sky photos from eleven years ago and had to stop and admire them again. Well, isn't that what the archives are all about? So, I decided to post a few of those sky watch photos since they were well before the beginning of John's Island, AND the past week in Seattle hasn't presented many new opportunities.

Most of these photos were taken in the Rocky Mountains of Montana. Linking up with Skywatch Friday as usual, where you can find many more blogger photos of the sky. Thanks to Yogi for hosting!

I recall printing the photo above and taking it to the family who lived in the house below the rainbow. They loved it so much they had it framed and hung it on the wall in their living room.

In the photo above you see Fan Mountain ... so named, I believe, because, when looking at it at the right time and place, it appears to be like one of those old fashioned hand fans. In the photo below, Fan Mountain appears again on the left. In the sunlight, right in the center, is a mountain all by itself, which, I think, is why it's named Lone Mountain. And, Lone Mountain is home to well known ski resort Big Sky.

The photo below, again from 2007, was taken on a road trip through Arizona. I do not recall the exact location. The thing I like about this photo is the way layers of mountains are revealed by the somewhat hazy sky.

Closing thought (and I can confirm this for my friends who blog) ...
You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.
    Poet John Lydgate as made famous by Abraham Lincoln

Thank you for stopping by John's Island.