FRIDAY HARBOR — Port Townsend’s 95-year-old gaff-rigged schooner Adventuress, which ran aground Monday in the San Juan Islands, was expected to return home today to be hauled out and given a U.S. Coast Guard inspection.
None of the 133-foot maritime and environmental education vessel’s 12 crew and 15 passengers aboard was hurt when it ran aground hard on submerged rocks in Wasp Passage near Shaw Island at about noon.
Passengers included youths from around the region, and among the rescuers were two Washington state ferries, which diverted and launched lifeboats.
A diver’s initial inspection Monday afternoon showed that hull damage was minimal, said Elizabeth Becker, special projects director for Port Townsend-based Sound Experience, the nonprofit educational operation that owns and manages the schooner and its programs.
“So far we do not know of any damage,” Becker said.
“The diver said she was looking good.”
Once the Adventuress was moored in Friday Harbor late Monday afternoon, a second diver’s inspection revealed no damage as well, said Catherine Collins, Sound Experience executive director.
“She was leaning over on her keel on a flat rock,” Collins said, explaining why there was no damage.
