PORT ANGELES — Activities on and about the sea will be featured at the second annual Port Angeles Maritime Festival on Saturday and Sunday at City Pier.
Events include tours of the city’s working waterfront, access to and sailings aboard the tall ship Lady Washington, 90-minute kayak tours and offerings of ocean edibles from vendors at the Taste of the Crab Festival food court.
The food court, sponsored by the Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival, will include crab cakes from Bella Italia, fish and chips from Kokopelli Grill and chowder from Toga’s Soup House.
The festival kicks off tonight with an open house from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Port Angeles Yacht Club, 1305 Marine Drive, with food, beverages and music.
Activities continue from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the City Pier off Railroad Avenue and adjacent Hollywood Beach.
Shuttle-bus tours of 30-minutes will take participants to seven of waterfront industrial sites. The shuttles will leave on the half-hour from the Port Angeles Visitor Center, 121 E. Railroad Ave.
A sand sculpture artist will be shaping her creation Saturday and Sunday at Hollywood Beach in a new feature for the festival, Marc Abshire, Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce executive director, said Thursday.
Feiro Marine Life Center will offer special activities in its facilities on the pier.
Free tours will be offered of the docked tall ship Lady Washington, a replica of the first American ship to visit Japan and Honolulu and to make landfall on North America’s West Coast.
Lady Washington adventure sailings Saturday and Sunday require tickets costing from $49 to $74, with discounted prices for youth, seniors and military personnel.
Tickets can be purchased online at the festival website, tinyurl.com/PDN-Maritime.
The Hawaiian Chieftain, the Lady Washington’s sister ship, had to cancel an appearance at the festival.
The Coast Guard will conduct a helicopter search-and-rescue demonstration at 1 p.m. both days off the northeast end of the pier.
Numerous vendors will be set up at City Pier, and bike rentals will be available from Sound Bikes & Kayaks.
Live music will be featured.
The Caribe Steel Band will play from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
The U.S. Navy Band will play from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Luck of the Draw will play from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Kayaking
Participants must sign up ahead of time for kayak tours, which have 32 spaces available for both days. Call 360-417-3015 to reserve spaces and request a single or tandem sea kayak, owner Tammi Hinkle said Wednesday.
The kayak paddles of the harbor and waterfront cost $20 per individual and are sponsored by Adventures Through Kayaking.
They will launch from Hollywood Beach around 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. each day, following a brief instruction period.
Life vests, paddles, neoprene boots and kayak wetsuits will be provided.
“The harbor is quite a gem,” Hinkle said, adding the area is often overlooked as a kayaking site.
Kayakers will paddle into the harbor and along the waterfront, observing City Pier, which measures about 550 feet, from under the structure.
“There are lots of organisms that are all over the place down there,” Hinkle said.
“It’s pretty fascinating.
“Hopefully, it will just be calm winds, which opens us up to go anywhere.”
Also on Saturday and Sunday will be tours of the Coast Guard’s 64-foot Force Protection Boat and a trailered display of the Coast Guard’s 33-foot Force Protection Boat, the “Kraken” slide, a face-painting booth and a North Olympic History Center “Lighthouse” Display.
Port tours
During the 30-minute bus shuttle excursions on Black Ball Transportation vehicles, Port of Port Angeles Commissioners Connie Beauvais and Steve Burke will narrate tours of Port Angeles Boat Haven and boat yard, the Platypus Marine Inc. site and Westport Yachts shipyard, the Terminal 1 and 3 piers, the Marine Trades Industrial Park site and the maintenance shop and log yard.
The chamber is producing the festival in collaboration with the the Port Angeles Yacht Club, the Coast Guard, the Port of Port Angeles and the North Olympic History Center, formerly the Clallam County Historical Society.
For more information, see tinyurl.com/PDN-Maritime.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
