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Monthly Archives: December 2013

Sea Eagle and her Christmas Lights at Dockton County Park

Sea Eagle and her Christmas Lights at Dockton County Park

Sea Eagle had been snug in her berth for too long, enduring weeks of freezing temperatures in the teens. I spotted a couple of days of decent weather in the forecast, so we cast off the lines and headed out to Dockton County Park for a Christmas Cruise.

Dockton County Park is a King County Park located in Quartermaster Harbor on Maury Island. It can get pretty loud and busy in the summer time, but on Christmas Eve, the dock was completely empty. We tied up, fired up the diesel heater and turned on the Christmas lights as the sun set on glass calm waters. The only other occupied boat in the entire harbor was a beautiful 60′ Selene Trawler, named Ellipsis, owned by Carl and Melody Gulledges from Seattle.

Sea Eagle alone on the County Docks, Christmas Day

Sea Eagle alone on the County Docks, Christmas Day

There are nine miles of hiking trails up above the park as well as a large number of wrecks (some still floating) in the harbor. A map of the hiking trails can be found here. Maury Island has a bit of drug and crime problem, and the park sometimes attracts meth heads at night, so keep yourself and your boat safe. Don’t leave anything valuable outside when leaving the boat.

We had a peaceful and quiet evening, enjoyed Carl’s company on Christmas morning, went for a nice hike and then headed back to Tacoma Christmas afternoon for dinner with friends. We have done hundreds of wreck dives in and around Dockton over the years, but this was the first time that we had actually stuck around and enjoyed the peaceful scenery. Dockton is very convenient from Tacoma and I’m sure we will be back again.

Sea Eagle with the resident mooring field at Dockton.

Sea Eagle with the resident mooring field at Dockton.