EDITOR’S NOTE: The app is labeled as “United States Coast Guard.” For more information and to download the Coast Guard’s boating safety app, go to http://www.uscg.mil/mobile/
The Coast Guard has gone high-tech for the average mariner with a smartphone.
It released its first-ever boating safety app for mobile devices Saturday.
The free app is available on Apple App Store and Google Play online store, and is designed to provide boating safety resources to mariners.
Features include state boating information, a safety equipment checklist, free boating safety check requests, navigation rules, float plans and calling features to report pollution or suspicious activity.
When location services are enabled, users can receive the latest weather reports from the closest National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather buoys as well as report the location of a hazard on the water.
The app also features an emergency-assistance button that will call the closest Coast Guard command center, again if location services are enabled.
“The release of this mobile application is a step forward for the Coast Guard as we embrace new technologies,” said Capt. Joe Raymond, commander of Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound and captain of the port.
“The intention is to make the information and resources more accessible to the boating public.”
The app is self-contained, so personal information is stored on the phone and not sent to the Coast Guard unless the user chooses.
The Coast Guard does not track a user’s location, Raymond said, and the app won’t track when it’s not in use.
We’ve come a long way from the pocket compass.
Gone, not forgotten
Port Angeles Harbor is as back to normal as it ever gets now that the giant oil rig Polar Pioneer has been taken to the Port of Seattle to make headlines there.
When dawn broke Thursday morning — the Pioneer had already slipped out shortly before 2 a.m. — the lone telltale sign that Port Angeles Harbor had played host to the rig for the past month or so was the presence of Aiviq, the 360-foot-long blue and white icebreaking, anchor-handling tug supply vessel that was used to free the rig’s anchors from the harbor’s bottom.
Like the rig itself, the vessel is under contract to Royal Dutch Shell to support its Alaskan oil exploration program in the Chukchi Sea.
Aiviq soon motored over to Elliott Bay and was anchored off West Seattle’s Harbor Avenue Southwest not far from the rig in the Port of Seattle on Saturday.
She will accompany Polar Pioneer and companion rig Noble Discoverer to Alaska when the outfitting of the rigs in Seattle is concluded.
Interesting factoid: Aiviq was built by North American Shipbuilding in Larose, La., a company that is owned by Edison Chouest OffShore — the same company that is now the majority shareholder of Westport LLC, formerly Westport Shipyard.
From the emailbag
I’ve received a number of emails from readers asking why the Polar Pioneer didn’t remain in Port Angeles for outfitting, thereby avoiding the contentious atmosphere in Seattle.
The best guess on the waterfront is that most of the final supplies are coming by rail, and the cost of shipping the material to the North Olympic Peninsula would have been excessive.
North to Alaska
I stopped at Crozier Craft’s facilities on U.S. Highway 101 west of Port Angeles last week and spoke with Chad Crozier.
He and his crew had recently completed building a 28-foot aluminum monohull boat for a client in Ketchikan, Alaska.
Olympic Boat Transport of Port Townsend took the boat to Seattle on Friday, and on Monday, the vessel will be put aboard an Alaska Marine Lines barge for shipment to Ketchikan.
Chad said once the owner takes possession, he will power the boat with twin 175-horsepower Yamaha outboard motors.
Chad said the client owns a cabin on Meyers Chuck from which he hunts and fishes.
His commute from Ketchikan to his cabin will probably be down to about a nanosecond with all the power he has on the boat.
Snaring a Moose
Platypus Marine, the full-service shipyard, steel-boat manufacturer and yacht-repair facility on Port Angeles’ Marine Drive, hauled out a 16-foot aluminum Moose Boat — named for the San Francisco-area manufacturer — upon which Platypus is initiating corrosion control processes and painting from the rub rail down.
The boat is the second in a series of eight such vessels that the company will be refurbishing in the near future.
Moose Boats are used for security at Kitsap-Bangor Naval Base.
Platypus also put Pathfinder back in the water.
She is a 65-foot yacht that was designed by renowned naval architect Ed Monk Jr. and built by Jones-Goodell Yachts in 1988.
I understand that while Pathfinder was in the Commander Building, personnel repaired the deck and the swim step and upgraded the electrical and mechanical systems.
Adventurer to speak
The next installment of Wooden Boat Wednesday at Port Townsend’s Northwest Maritime Center & Wooden Boat Foundation will happen this Wednesday when Marrowstone Island resident Branan Ward, author of Explorer: Adventures of an Impetuous Geographer, will share tales from his book that apparently begin when he runs away from home at age 5.
He has spent nine decades running — not from anything but toward a rich and full life.
His memoir is a true account of how big dreams can lead to unforgettable experiences, as he finally, at age 77, fulfilled his lifelong goal of visiting the Potala Monastery in Lhasa, Tibet, during a solo trip around the world.
Now 91, Ward keeps active by painting portraits and the occasional mural — and by inspiring everyone around him to stay young at heart.
Wooden Boat Wednesday is a free event that begins at noon and typically lasts for 90 minutes at the beautiful Northwest Maritime Center, 431 Water St. in Port Townsend.
Harbor scuttlebutt
Word around Port Angeles Harbor and Ediz Hook is that emergency repairs will be made to the little bridge that carries Marine Drive over the Nippon Paper Industries canal.
It seems that water has intruded behind sheet pilings, causing erosion.
Although no details were given in a notice from Port Angeles City Hall, the bridge is likely closed for a spell while the repairs are made.
Check the PDN later this week for an update.
Wave action
The Point Wilson Sail and Power Squadron will host speaker Jay Jacobs — a sailor, maritime lawyer and author — at the Port Townsend Yacht Club, 2503 Washington St., at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
The presentation, “The Little-Known Danger of Near Shore Coincident Waves,” focuses on how, when and where deadly coincident waves occur and how to avoid them.
All are invited to this free event.
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David G. Sellars is a Port Angeles resident and former Navy boatswain’s mate who enjoys boats and strolling the area’s waterfronts and boat yards.
Items and questions involving boating, marina and industrial activities and the North Olympic Peninsula waterfronts are always welcome. Email dgsellars@hotmail.com or phone him at 360-808-3202.
