Spring is finally here! I know because I had to go buy some antihistamines the other day.

There seems to be a lot of pollen in the air this year. I wonder if that is one of the effects of a mild winter. It’s great to see all of the spring flowers in bloom and folks out whipping their yards into shape.

Our first local event of 2013 is happening probably on the day after you get your copy of Kingston Community News this month. It is the annual “Kites over Kingston” festival. Our local Windermere real estate office sponsors this event and it is always fun for the whole family.  I hope to see you down there.

Our dredging project is still in the planning and permitting process.  Hopefully everything will be in place to take care of the silting problems by mid-July.  Meantime, if you are launching or retrieving a boat at our launch ramp, make sure you pay close attention to the green buoys and stay to the left of them as you go outbound and keep to the right of them when you return. Waiting for the tide to come in and re-float your vessel may not be the worst thing that can happen to a boater, but it sure can screw up a nice day of fishing.

You may have seen a boat out near the marina last month with a big “A” frame rig on the bow. Those were the folks taking soil samples to analyze what we plan to dig up. Tests showed that the soil is free of contaminants, which means we can transfer the stuff to a designated site near Everett; it may go to Port Gamble, to replace dredged sediment contaminated with wood waste.

By the time you read this, the Spirit of Kingston, our white catamaran passenger ferry should be fully transferred to the King County Water Taxi Service.  Having King County take the boat relieves the Port of Kingston from any potential reimbursement to the Federal Transit Administration for the value of the grant that enabled us to buy it.

We have already had nearly a dozen yacht clubs or other cruising groups come to the Kingston Marina for enjoyable weekends.  It sure is fun to see visitors exploring our little village and having breakfast, lunch, dinner or evening fun in our local establishments. I was talking with some members of the Puget Sound Sailing Group a couple of weeks ago. They were here in early March and plan to come back two or three more times before October.

Nautical term
The nautical term this month is an oldie: Larboard.

The left-hand side of a ship (to a person on board and facing the bow), “larboard” was first used in the 13th century. It was also commonly the loading side, if this was the side on which goods were loaded onto a ship, from laden “to load” and board “ship’s side.” It was altered in the 16th century on influence of starboard and largely replaced by the term port to avoid confusion of similar-sounding words.

Next month, the Farmers Market opens. I can’t wait.

I appreciate you taking a few moments to read this stuff and hope that you found something interesting.

— Pete DeBoer is a Kingston port commissioner. Contact him at pete@petedeboer.com.