What a wet March that was.  If you have an open boat tied up in the marina, I hope you have been going down to make sure that your bilge pumps are working properly and your scuppers are running clear. I think it was last year that the Department of Transportation determined we could leave studded tires on our cars for two weeks after April 1. Hopefully that won’t be the case this year.

On the last day of February, the Passenger Only Ferry Advisory Committee reported to the Commission in a public meeting at Kingston Cove Yacht Club with their recommendations as to the future of the Sound Runner service.  The committee members pooled hundreds of hours of very professional, all-volunteer analysis of the passenger ferry project and presented a very detailed report to the commission. Each commissioner has studied the report from the committee and at the monthly general meeting on March 24, we will have voted on how to proceed.

I was disappointed to see only 20 or so community members in attendance at the Feb. 28 meeting. When I meet people around town, they seem very interested in the things that are happening but say that they never hear about when our meetings are.  For this particular event, there were announcements in the Community News, the North Kitsap Herald, the Sun newspapers (both online and in print), Facebook, Twitter, the Chamber of Commerce email alerts and on the Port of Kingston website.

I am not sure what else can be done in the way of notification.  Sometimes I think there are just too many ways to communicate these days. I wonder if we should just go back to posting a notice on a bulletin board at the library.

At any rate, our monthly general meetings are usually held on the fourth Wednesday of each month. Occasionally, the date slips a day or two depending on commissioners’ availability.

Down at the port, these are the days the staff is getting everything ready for spring and summer.  The spring bulb plants are starting to poke their green heads up in the promise of a lot of colors in the days to come. The trees are beginning to sprout the new spring growth and show small leaves and blossoms. Hopefully the grass will dry so dogs, kids and Frisbees can get busy enjoying our parks.

A new business is starting up in town this month and it will interact with facilities at the port.  Kingston Adventures will be opening shop in the space at the corner of State Route 104 and Illinois Ave.  Their plan is to place six to eight kayaks in the Port of Kingston Kayak Facility near “A” dock in the marina.  They will provide opportunities for group kayak adventures out of Apple Tree Cove and offer customers chance to explore North Kitsap shorelines. I saw them painting in there as late as 10 p.m. a couple nights ago.  It is great to see the energy of a new business starting.

Since I was talking about all the ways we have to communicate, I thought that this month’s Nautical Term of the Month should follow that theme:

Semaphore flags is a means of transmitting information at a distance by using two hand-held flags. Signalers communicate by pausing the flags in certain positions. Semaphores were adopted and widely used in the 1800s.  The first recorded use of Semaphore signals was at the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar where British Lord Admiral Nelson defeated both the Spanish and French navies and established the British as the dominant world naval power for a century.  A rather bad day at sea for Napoleon I. Semaphore flags are still used during underway replenishment at sea and for emergency communication.

I doubt that we will get to a point where our Harbormaster Kevin is standing in the gazebo with semaphore flags announcing the events that are happening down at the port.  But who knows?

Well, that’s about it for this month’s edition. As always, thanks for taking time to read this stuff.  I hope that you found something here that you didn’t already know.  Happy spring – bring on the sun!

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