LAST SUNDAY NIGHT, the Holland America cruise ship MS Maasdam, while underway to Alaska, pulled into Port Angeles Harbor.
I surmise either a passenger or crew member required emergency medical services, which necessitated the unexpected stop in Port Angeles.
Wooden Boat Fest
The 40th annual Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend will soon be upon us.
This year, the festival will be held Sept. 9-11.
The reason I am mentioning this two months in advance is to give all you magnanimous waterfront types an opportunity to answer the call the Northwest Maritime Center has put out for volunteers to help out during the event.
Volunteers are needed in numerous categories including bartending crew, catering, boat shop crew, docks crew, hospitality crew, fix-it crew, harbormaster crew and medical crew, just to name a few.
If you would like to volunteer, go to www.NWMaritime.org and click on “Wooden Boat Festival.”
Far Niente
Earlier this week, Far Niente moored in the Port Angeles Boat Haven.
She is an 86-foot classic wooden boat that hails from San Francisco that will be here for about a week.
Far Niente, which means “pleasant idleness,” was built in 1939 in the Netherlands by the DeVries Shipbuilders.
I understand she recently had a $4 million retrofit, which included new engines, upgraded mechanical systems and a new interior throughout.
Platypus ships
As many readers of this column know, Platypus Marine, the full-service shipyard, yacht-repair facility and steel-boat manufacturer on Marine Drive in Port Angeles, for the past few years has been doing work for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard.
This week, they will begin doing work for the Army when they haul out ST-905 Scholarie, a 71-foot harbor tug that is attached to the 467th Transportation Company in Tacoma.
I understand she will be out of the water for two months to have a laundry list of mechanical issues attended to and the tug will be sand-blasted and painted.
Platypus has Motega sitting on the hard at their facility.
She is an 80-foot-long work boat that is part of the Arrow Launch fleet owned and operated by Jack and Terri Harmon of Port Angeles.
I understand she is out of the water to give personnel an opportunity to change the fluids in one of her drives.
In the middle of the week, Platypus hauled out Penny Lane, a 65-foot Fleming yacht.
She is going to be on the hard for about six weeks as personnel refurbish the teak decks and apply a couple of fresh coats of varnish to the cap rails.
On Wednesday, Platypus put Osprey back in the water.
She is an 87-foot Coast Guard patrol boat that has been in the Commander Building for the past six weeks where, among other things, she got a new coat of paint.
I saw her on Thursday at the guest dock on the west side of the Harbormaster’s Office in the Port Angeles Boat Haven, and she was a pretty sight to behold.
She will quite likely be back at her mooring in Port Townsend within the next couple of days.
Harbor happenings
On Friday, Tesoro Petroleum provided bunkers in Port Angeles Harbor to Yasa Gulten, a 600-foot bulk cargo ship that is flagged in the Marshall Islands and is on her way to Vostochny, Russia.
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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. News announcements about boating groups, including yacht clubs and squadrons, are welcome as well.
Email dgsellars@hotmail.com or phone him at 360-808-3202.
