The 580-foot Japanese cargo ship IVS Kwaito will moor to the Port of Port Angeles’ Terminal 3 on Monday for a week to take on a load of logs harvested from private timberlands in Western Washington.
The Panamanian-flagged ship is making her way to Port Angeles by way of Crockett, Calif. — home to the corporate headquarters of C&H Sugar, where she offloaded her cargo of sugar.
IVS Kwaito is the 20th ship to dock in Port Angeles this year for a load of logs bound for the Asian market.
And that’s not all: Two additional log ships will make port before the end of the year — Mount Fisher, which will moor in the wake of IVS Kwaito, and Pacific Logger, which will follow at the end of December and remain into the new year.
Each of the ships will load approximately 5 million board feet of logs which, when combined with the most recent year-to-date totals provided by the port, will bring the grand total for log exports close to 80 million board feet.
I did not include the approximate load total for Pacific Logger as I suspect those totals will be included in 2012 figures.
The impact to the local economy of nearly two dozen cargo ships being loaded with logs on the North Olympic Peninsula cannot be overstated.
It goes well beyond the paychecks earned by longshoremen loading the logs or adding to the port’s coffers — and by extension to the public’s beneficial interest — with needed cash for infrastructure maintenance and future expansion.
For each log ship, an untold number of log trucks are required to make hundreds of round trips from various log yards to transport the export logs to the staging area on T-Pier for loading onto the ships.
Fuel is purchased for these vehicles as well as tires and repair parts, and mechanics are employed to keep the trucks running in tiptop shape.
The Port Angeles waterfront abounds with stories of ships’ personnel who come ashore with shopping lists from friends and family and return to the vessel in vehicles loaded to overflowing with everything from perfume to fishing gear, clothing, jewelry, camping gear and high-end electronics.
Each ship requires tens of thousands of dollars worth of fuel, supplies and stores during her stay.
The total value to Port Angeles of each ship’s visit is beyond my ability to calculate, but I am ever so confident that it is significantly more than a blip on Clallam County’s economic radar.
Despite a softening demand for logs within the Asian market during the past few months, the outlook for next year is positive with the expectation of at least a dozen log ships coming to Port Angeles for cargo, according to Mike Nimmo, marine terminal manager for the Port of Port Angeles.
With the closure of Peninsula Plywood on the horizon, some readers have called to ask what will become of the debarking machine at the mill that is used to peel the bark off logs to be exported to China. Such debarking is an export requirement.
I contacted Grant Munro, a log buyer, whose company, Munro LLC, brokers logs to Asian clients.
Grant said the current owners of the mill sold the debarking machine last year to Dkoram, a U.S. subsidiary of a South Korean company that imports logs into South Korea and China.
Grant also said he sees no change in the business model and that the closing of PenPly would have no effect on log exports.
Out of the water
Platypus Marine hauled out Surfbird last week, and she is sitting on the hard at the marine repair company’s yard on Marine Drive in Port Angeles.
She is a 115-foot expedition yacht available for charters in Southeast Alaska from late spring to the end of the summer season.
According to Capt. Charlie Crane, Platypus’ director of sales and marketing, Surfbird will be out of the water for the next couple of weeks to have her bottom painted and new zincs attached.
Personnel will also polish the stainless steel anchor pockets after repainting the identifying marks on the anchor chain.
The swim step requires minor repair work after a season in Alaskan waters, and some exterior surfaces topside require a bit of paint.
Capt. Charlie said two topside containers that each holds a 10-person life raft were removed and sent to a service center in Seattle for their annual inspections.
Marine life rafts exist in a harsh environment and are subjected to wide fluctuations of outside temperatures as well as the dynamics involved in the normal aging process of the life raft’s fabric.
Life raft containers are known to leak as well as have condensation issues. They can also become damaged when subjected to rough weather conditions and through improper stowage, which can cause sharp edges to chafe the life raft or create another avenue for water intrusion.
In spite of all this, the life raft is designed to perform under conditions when the main vessel would not survive.
There is no way to determine if a life raft remains in optimum functioning condition without having it serviced regularly.
Of the three important functions of a life raft, the first and foremost is that the life raft must inflate. The inflation system is the key to this process.
Inflation cylinders are manufactured from either steel or aluminum. Both of these materials suffer from corrosion and/or electrolysis when put in the marine environment.
Making certain that the inflation cylinder and the life-raft inflation system are in working condition is the first priority when servicing the rafts.
Once the initial inflation of a life raft has occurred, then it must continue to remain inflated. Abrasion of the life raft while stored inside the container and damage due to moisture are the two biggest problems.
Additionally, as a life raft ages, the material can become porous or develop weak spots. Allowing the life raft a chance to dry every year along with repairing abrasion issues and those caused by aging before they become irreparable is of extreme importance.
Finally, the equipment stored in the life raft must function and has a designated service life.
Items such as flashlight batteries, flares, repair kit cement, food and water must be replaced at designated intervals.
Having a life raft serviced on an annual basis provides the greatest likelihood that everything functions correctly.
Harbor fill-ups
Tesoro Petroleum was busy fueling large ships visiting Port Angeles Harbor last week.
On Monday, Tesoro bunkered Alaskan Navigator, a 941-foot crude oil tanker that departed Port Angeles and arrived in Valdez, Alaska, on Saturday to get another load bound for West Coast refineries.
On Tuesday, Tesoro refueled Gemini Pioneer, a cargo ship that is 623 feet long and due in Subic Bay, Philippines, on Boxing Day (that’s the day after Christmas for all the non-British and non-Canadians out there).
Then on Thursday, Tesoro bunkered Durbin Star, a Bahamian-flagged cargo ship that is 590 feet long with a 66-foot beam.
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David G. Sellars is a Port Angeles resident and former Navy boatswain’s mate who enjoys boats and strolling the waterfront.
Items involving boating, port activities and the North Olympic Peninsula waterfronts are always welcome.
Email dgsellars@hotmail.com or phone him at 360-808-3202.
His column, On the Waterfront, appears every Sunday.
