Driving through the Port Angeles Boat Haven last Sunday, I noticed that the near horizon had undergone an abrupt change.
It took me a few seconds to realize that it was the void created by the absence of Northern Legacy, the turquoise and white Metalcraft boat owned by Pete and Joan Hanson of Port Angeles.
The 85-foot aluminum boat, the mother ship for the Hansons’ flotilla of boats they take to Alaska each year, had departed Port Angeles for the Land of the Midnight Sun.
For 19 years, the Hansons have been operating Alaska Far West Fish Camp at Kaigani Point on Dall Island.
Guests fly in to the camp’s sheltered location from Ketchikan, Alaska, on a float plane for three- and four-day fishing excursions from June until the small fleet of boats returns to Port Angeles in late August or early September.
The journey will take Pete and his group of volunteer boat drivers about six long days to transit the Inside Passage to Ketchikan.
Once there, they will probably spend two or three days stretching their legs, refueling the boats and replenishing stores aboard Northern Legacy before making the one-day run in open ocean around Cape Chacon to Cape Muzon and the refuge of Dall Island.
I spoke with Pete during the week leading up to his departure amid the controlled chaos that is otherwise known as making preparations for getting under way.
A couple of guys were on the dock painting the hull, freezers for preserving clients’ fish were being loaded onboard, and stores were being stowed away for the trip north.
The boats making the journey were being given the once-over, and a couple of them were hauled out at the Port Angeles Boat Yard for zincs and bottom paint.
Pete told me that 2011 was the best year for fishing he had experienced in his 18 years.
“King salmon were everywhere,” he said, and early indications are that 2012 will be at least as good.
For more information about Pete and Joan Hanson’s fish camp in Alaska, visit their website at www.alaskafarwestfishing.com.
Memory lane in PT
Arlene Lochridge will be the featured speaker at Wooden Boat Wednesday on June 20 at the Chandlery in the Northwest Maritime Center in Port Townsend.
Arlene recently penned a book, A Fish Out of Water, based upon the diaries of her 1940s Seattle socialite aunt, Hazel Stone, who became a commercial fisherwoman.
Hazel had never fished a day in her life, but two days after her marriage, she and her equally inexperienced husband, Carl, headed off on the adventure of a lifetime.
She cooked with icicles hanging inside the galley, cleaned fish, endured unending rain for days on end and discovered that her spouse was prone to tipple.
And these were just a few of her experiences.
Hazel’s niece, Arlene, a former schoolteacher from Escondido, Calif., weaves personal and family recollections as well as intriguing historical perspective into her aunt’s diary entries.
Additionally, there are glimpses of a nation embroiled in World War II: The book reveals formerly classified information about the bombing and occupation of Alaska by the Japanese that was censored at the time.
Arlene’s presentation will include historic photos and stories from her aunt’s diaries, the entire collection of which will be on display.
Her 90-minute offering is sure to provide a fascinating view into the lives of Alaska’s commercial fisher folk in and around 1940s Ketchikan.
Wooden Boat Wednesday is a free event that begins promptly at noon and typically lasts for 90 minutes.
Seating is limited and requires advance registration by phoning the Northwest Maritime Center, 431 Water St., Port Townsend, at 360-385-3628, ext. 101.
Or send an email to chandlery@nwmaritime.org.
Boat launched
Lee Shore Boats of Port Angeles on Friday launched its most recent project, a 30-foot swift loader that for us Navy types resembles a landing craft.
According to Joe Beck, who heads up the sales and design department, the shallow draft boat is to be used as a gold dredge in Nome, Alaska, and was built for Blue Water Gold, a company based in Austin, Texas.
The vessel’s well deck is outfitted with a sluice box, Palfinger boom, pump and a Volkswagen engine to power the pump.
Additionally, there is a suction nozzle that is fabricated from high-abrasion-resistant steel that when in use is attached to the leading edge of the sluice box and lays across the open bow door.
An 8-inch hose is connected to the nozzle, and divers working in up to 30 feet of water will vacuum the gold-bearing sands into the sluice box.
Because gold is roughly 19 times heavier than the medium from which it will be extracted, it will settle into the filters at the bottom of the sluice box, and the tailings will exit the boat through a moon pool to the ocean floor.
Blue Water Gold will use the vessel to take samples from its claims in the Bering Sea. When it chooses an area to mine, it will send in a 50-foot pontoon boat to do the actual work.
Sitting on land
Platypus Marine Inc. in Port Angeles has Robert Magnus sitting on the hard.
The 58-foot commercial fishing boat was built by Fred Wahl in Reedsport, Ore., and is used to longline black cod and halibut, seine for salmon and — once back in the water — will seine for sardines off the Washington and Oregon coasts.
Seth Wyman and Peder Thorstenson own the boat, and I chatted briefly with Seth.
He said Robert Magnus was on the hard to replace the sonar, have zincs installed and perform routine maintenance.
Seth told me that the boat was named after Peder’s father, Robert Magnus Thorstenson, who passed away in 2009.
Robert’s entire career was spent in the commercial fishing industry, and, in 1965, he formed a group of fishermen to purchase the Petersburg, Alaska, processing plant from Pacific American Fisheries.
The new entity was named Petersburg Fisheries and subsequently became Icicle Seafoods, which was sold to American Gold Seafood of Seattle in 2007.
Harbor filler-up
Tesoro Corp., which provides fuel to ships anchored in Port Angeles Harbor, on Monday refueled Polar Enterprise, an 894-foot crude oil tanker that arrived in Valdez, Alaska, at 8 a.m. Friday morning to load cargo.
Several Port Angeles Harbor-watchers on Thursday noticed the CASV Rio Blanco, a square-shaped roll on/roll off (ro/ro) vehicle carrier that came in for Tesoro bunkers.
The 2-year-old Liberian-flagged ship is 597 feet long.
She took off later Thursday and is due in Vladivostok, Russia, on June 18 with a load of Jeeps that were rolled onto the vessel from the rail head in Grays Harbor.
Tesoro on Friday bunkered Nemtas 2, a Turkish-flagged bulk cargo ship that is 623 feet long with a beam of 105 feet.
Tesoro also bunkered the Crowley-owned articulated tug and barges Vision and Commitment, both of which are flagged in the United States.
Tesoro on Saturday refueled Polar Discovery, the third of the Endeavour class of double-hull tankers.
She was launched in April 2002 and the sister ship to Polar Enterprise, both of which serving the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline System, or TAPS, route.
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David G. Sellars is a Port Angeles resident and former Navy boatswain’s mate who enjoys boats and strolling the waterfronts.
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.
