The boats moored at the dock are still in the dark as an early morning sunrise lights up the sky. I took this photo from our flybridge…if you look carefully, over the breakwater, you can see lights of an anchored oil tanker on the left, and lights from the refineries on the right. The outline of Mt. Baker is also visible toward the right of the skyline. What an inspiring way to start the day!

We are both Twitter subscribers (Alice at @page7ladybug and Jim at @halfwave468) and follow the Cliff Mass Weather Blog, which provides some great insight into Pacific Northwest weather.

Some recent posts mentioned that smoke from wildfires in Asia has drifted toward the Pacific Northwest this summer, resulting in air quality degradation as well as more vivid than usual sunsets. After reading the Twitter posts, I found more information about the smoke in an article in the Seattle Times: Siberian smoke means spectacular Seattle sunsets.

It is challenging to find a place at Anacortes Marina where we can see a horizon to capture a good view of either sunrises or sunsets, but we still see the rosy sky, and sometimes it’s quite inspiring. I snapped a recent early morning photo where the sunrise lit up the sky, and wondered if the smoke also has affected the morning skies.

What do they say? Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning; red sky at night, sailors delight? On the afternoon this photo was taken, we saw increased winds in the marina, with higher winds reported in the east end of Juan de Fuca Strait. Perhaps the saying is right…