The Power of the Pacific Ocean and the Passage of Time

• Washington Our Home
• May 25, 2012
• Ocean, Western Washington
• 1
• 1071

We began building our Ocean Shores home in 2008.  When we moved our borrowed 5th wheel trailer to the construction site in October of that year, we started daily beach walks.  The beach nearest our home is part of the Oyehut Wildlife Recreation Area, managed by the WDFW as a subunit of the John’s River Wildlife Area nearer to Westport, Washington.

Almost immediately upon taking these walks, we started seeing the power of the ocean as it brought us what we humorously call ‘beach treasures’, and made daily changes to the look and feel of the beach near the mouth of Grays Harbor.  Most of these treasures are worthless and are made of some form of plastic.  We have posted entries many times asking everyone to engage in the proper disposal and recycling of plastic containers, which make up the majority of our treasure line on any beach walk along the salt water.  

The Coastal Interpretive Center located at Damon Point, in Ocean Shores has an excellent display showing the history of the local coastline, including a satellite photo with historic coastlines superimposed in differing colors from ten year increments.

One of the first items of interest we came across was this derelict fishing boat.  In the picture below, taken in October, 2008, you can see that it is sitting pretty high on the sand, and what you probably can’t see is that the bow is facing east.  Interestingly, the last Washington State sticker attached to the bow was from 2001, a full 7 years before we found the boat.  We wondered how long the boat had drifted in the Pacific before it landed on our beach!

Well, time went by, the house got built, we moved in sometime around April of 2009.  The tides came and the tides went.  Storms came and storms came and storms came… get the picture of the coast yet?

Taken in 2009, and the bow is facing west!  The tides had lifted the boat higher up the beach, and spun it completely around.

Taken in 2010, and my grandson, Parker is standing on the sand which has accumulated inside the boat.  The sand makes the boat heavier and the tides and storms won’t move it anymore.

Linda and I took this beach walk recently (May of 2012) and you can just see the lip of the gunnel of the boat, sticking out of the sand, and the dune grass is beginning to grow over the top of the burial site!  We hope the owner isn’t still looking for their lost boat.