Forecasters say the cloudy, cooler weather that's settled over Puget Sound will soon give way to summery sunshine and warmer temperatures.
Grey mornings and crisp, fall-like temperatures around Puget Sound over the last week might have boaters wondering if summer is winding down almost as soon as it started.
But local meteorologists say while the past few [...]

Jeff Barney, right, of Citizens for a Healthy Bay, talks with tugboat operator Steve Tate on a recent patrol of Commencement Bay.Spotting a tugboat operator waving from the shore, Jeff Barney motors his boat over to say hello.
The man, Steve Tate, gestures across the Hylebos Waterway in Tacoma where the decrepit ferry Kalakala is moored, [...]

As a child growing up on the water in Federal Way, Dave Petrich would look at the pilings next to his family’s property and imagine the days when steamships stopped at the dock that was once there.
Thoughts of the Mosquito Fleet, the thousands of privately run freight and passenger steamships and traveled from Olympia north [...]

Editor’s note: Day Hook is an occasional feature in which we visit urban cruising destinations around Puget Sound and check out things to do over a 24-hour visit.
Capital cities can be stuffy, but not Olympia. With its beloved farmers market, alternative ethos and some seriously good beer and coffee, Olympia feels more like Seattle’s scruffier younger brother than [...]

The head of the environmental organization that threatened to sue five Seattle-area boatyards abruptly left his position this week, following half a year of controversy and criticism.
Bob Beckman left his job as Puget Soundkeeper Alliance’s executive director on Wednesday, less than a year after taking on the position. Beckman has been at the center of [...]

The Washington Department of Ecology has fined Olympic Tug & Barge Company $15,500 for a spill of two gallons of diesel fuel to the East Waterway off Harbor Island in Seattle.
The incident, which happened on April 13, 2009, involved crew inattention during a fuel transfer between two tug boats, according to findings in an Ecology investigation.
“Washington [...]

There’s one important thing to remember if you’re planning a cruise in the South Sound — bring food.
There are very few restaurants or pubs in the small communities of South Sound. And unless you’re stopping in Olympia or Gig Harbor, which have grocery stores within walking distance of marinas (and in Olympia, a spectacular farmers market), you’ll [...]