Wow, the end of another year is upon us. I can’t believe that they go by so quickly. After a pretty wet November, the first couple weeks of December have been comfortably crisp and dry.

In the midst of all that rain, you may have noticed quite a bit of digging going on down at the port toward the end of November. That project was done to expand our electrical capacity so the holiday light display could be better presented. By the time you are reading this, the whole show should be lit up every evening for you, your friends and visitors to our town to enjoy. Please don’t miss this project that has been assembled mostly by a dozen volunteers working since last spring.

I would like to thank my sister and brother-in-law, Betsy and Greg Curfman, for once again donating a beautiful Christmas tree that we can all enjoy. We will have to send them pictures, though, because they are wintering over in Mexico.

I hope some of you were able to take advantage of the SoundRunner midday run on the Dec. 8 or the Sunday shopping trip to Seattle Dec. 18. We have been fortunate to work with the Port of Seattle to get temporary moorage for our ferry from time to time at Bell Street Marina. If you are unfamiliar with that location, it is at the foot of Bell Street in Seattle and just a short walk and elevator ride to Pike Place Market. It is a good place for visiting the city and shopping. We will keep you posted on other trips that come up.

We have had some discussions about our “first Thursday” trips to town. We are wondering if perhaps Friday may work better. Say leaving Kingston late morning and then departing Bell Street at 5 p.m. and picking up our Friday commuters at Pier 50 at 5:20 p.m., getting everyone back to Kingston by 6:15. You can email me at your comments at the address listed at the end of the column.

Daily ridership has increased a little since we began to offer the ORCA card as a means of payment. Hopefully after the holidays, we will continue to attract more.  As much as we try to keep everyone informed through the Chamber of Commerce, Facebook, press releases or direct email, people are still telling me they never hear about special trips on our boat. A good way to get the word is to go to the port website, www.portofkingston.org; click on Passenger Ferry and sign up for email and/or text alerts.

It’s been a great year down at the port, lots of work was done by staff and volunteers alike. Whether you were part of the Passenger Ferry Advisory Group, a Farmers Market patron, the Holiday Lights team or just a caring citizen who helped out by cleaning up after your pet or picking up some trash and putting it in a garbage can (I’ve seen some of you do that), thank you for being a part of this great little harbor village. To the staff, thanks for another great year of hard and dedicated work. Each of you cares a lot about this place and it shows.  To Commissioner Tom Coultas, it has been a wonderful experience serving with you for the past eight years. Fair winds, Tom! Welcome to the board, Walt (the Salt) Elliott. Commissioner Marc and I look forward to working with you to continue to help make Kingston the best place to ever to live.

Most of you know that I am a retired U.S. Coast Guard officer. The history of this smallest of all the uniformed services is very interesting and fun to explore. Have you ever wondered how it all got started?

Nautical term
My final nautical term of the month for this year is a statement to Congress by our first Secretary of the Treasury: “A few armed vessels, judiciously stationed at the entrances of our ports, might at a small expense be made useful sentinels of the laws.” — Alexander Hamilton, 1790.

That’s about all the room I have left this month so, for the 80th time (can you believe that!), I would like to thank you for taking a few minutes to read this stuff in hopes of finding something interesting or informative. I would also like to extend my own wishes to all of you for a wonderful Christmas, a great holiday season and best of everything in the New Year.

— Pete DeBoer is a commissioner of the Port of Kingston. Contact him at  pete@petedeboer.com