We headed out from Lake Washington toward Lake Union, the Ballard Locks and Bainbridge Island on the first, official, day of summer. Weather was partly sunny (is this the only part of the country where we say that?) and warm (mid-70s).
Encountered some massive, low-frequency waves from a passing tanker that had our boat pitching rather dramatically. Slowed down quickly to avoid going airborne!
On our way back from Bainbridge Island, heading toward downtown Seattle, we encountered something we had never, ourselves, witnessed before – a submarine. Flanked by two Coast Guard vessels it was heading South toward Tacoma. We didn’t try to get to close because of its protected perimeter and the fact that we were in active shipping & ferry lanes. Still, it was impressive to see it off in the distance.
Submarine in Puget Sound June 21, 2012
Pacific NW Boater 
A reader emailed me and suggested this was a SeaWolf class submarine identified as SSN-21. If true that’s interesting because I worked on an imaging system in the early 90s that was used to store engineering drawings for Seawolf class submarines. Even spent some time in Groton, CT at Electric Boat!
Here’s a tee-shirt as a reminder: http://www.flickr.com/photos/whatcounts/80435459/in/photostream
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Perhaps it was headed south toward Bremerton? Puget Sound Naval Shipyard?
I do not know why it would be going much further south than the water between Bainbridge and Blake Islands.
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I snapped a picture of the same sub from the B.I. Ferry. I first thought it might be heading to Bremerton to be recycled … but it was under its own power, so I bet it is one of the 4 Sea Wolf class that are stationed and/or supplied out of Bremerton (all according to Wikipedia). Not a great number of sailboats out that day. Was this captured near Alki?
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Yeah, they kind of make you think.
I was in heavy fog in Rosario Straits across from Doe Bay near Cyprus Island in late September and slowly moving towards Deception Pass.
Signaling every two minutes, I got a response from a military cruiser heading north in the traffic lanes. I figured that was the only vessel coming, imagine my surprise when out popped a huge black submarine right behind, really only 500ft., away a couple of guys on the conning tower waved at me, that was the first time I’ve ever seen one, they are huge and awesome to imagine the power they yield, made me a bit queasy!
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That would be an amazing sight from 500 feet.
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