Did you know that in September 1911, the first two port districts in the state of Washington were established in Seattle and Grays Harbor? The Port of Kingston was established eight years later in 1919. So we’re about eight years from our own centennial.

Has it been a little too dark for you in the morning when you wake up? Well, that’s going to be fixed once again. On Nov. 6, we change from Pacific Daylight Time to Standard Time and set our clocks back an hour.  The downside, of course, will be that it is dark an hour earlier now. I guess it is still a give-and-take world.

It has taken five years to move the start and stop days from mid-April and October to mid-March and early November. I wonder whose idea it was to change it all.

I’d like to thank all of you who came to the planning sessions on Oct. 24 and 25 to help us get started with the update to our five-year Comprehensive Plan for the port. There are lots of great ideas on where we should go with our little port and harbor. I am excited that we will develop a great plan looking ahead for new projects that will keep life down at the port interesting and fun.

The laws, or “code,” for the state require that each port develop a comprehensive scheme to identify future projects and goals for the next five years. The plans are used to develop the port budgets. When we updated the plan in 2006, some of the projects we were looking forward to were the performing arts gazebo, the kayak facility, new fuel tanks, the artistic water feature that greets visitors to our town, replacing all of the wood on our floating docks and rewiring the marina, removal of the old bioswale (ditch) that used to handle stormwater runoff between the parking lot and the marina, and development of the passenger-only ferry service between our town and Seattle.

Although the ferry operation is still a work in progress and has had more than a few lumps along the way, all of the other projects have been accomplished. At the end of the day, I think we have a better place for people to enjoy our waterfront than we had five years ago.  At the time of this writing, we are not yet accepting the ORCA cards for ticketing on the SoundRunner passenger ferry, but the day is soon coming and we all hope that this event will bring more commuters to the service. If you haven’t ridden the boat yet, I hope you try it soon. We have had some of the most beautiful days on the sound during October and I hope this month brings more of the same.

Nautical term
In these days where the financial world is under constant scrutiny, and rightfully so, I found a nautical term that describes a foolish investment.

“Bottomry” was the term for using the ship as collateral to finance a sea voyage. In the days of square riggers and sailing barques, it must have been interesting and worrisome to make such loans when often times the collateral for the loan never returned nor was the voyage completed.  Well, here comes the edge of the page again. I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving holiday with friends and families. Be on the lookout next month for the new holiday light display that the staff has been working on. It just keeps getting better.

As always, thanks for taking a few moments to read this stuff. Someone told me today that he thinks I have a lot of fun writing these little bits. I do. I hope you enjoy them too.

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