Zambesi, a 587-foot bulk cargo ship, moored to the Port of Port Angeles’ Terminal 3 on Monday for a 10-day stay to take on a cargo of debarked logs for the Asian market.
She is the sixth log ship to come to Port Angeles in 2014 for a load of logs bound for the Far East.
On Wednesday, Lanna Naree, a 587-foot bulk cargo ship home based in Bangkok, Thailand, moored in the west end of Port Angeles Harbor after making her way to the Pacific Northwest from her last port call in Safaga, Egypt, a port city on the coast of the Red Sea.
I understand she was undergoing a Coast Guard inspection Thursday, which is why the lids to her hatches were open.
Coast Guard personnel were making certain the vessel’s holds were free of invasive species and not otherwise transporting bugs or such critters that can be destructive to our nation’s crops and livestock.
She left Port Angeles late Thursday night bound for Portland, Ore.
Wooden Boat Wednesday
Elinor DeWire will be the featured speaker at Wooden Boat Wednesday at the Chandlery in the Northwest Maritime Center, 431 Water St., in Port Townsend, at noon Wednesday.
Her presentation in celebration of Women’s History Month is titled “Keepers in Skirts: Women in the Lighthouse Service.”
Hundreds of dedicated women have served at U.S. lighthouses, some of them in Washington state.
On Wednesday, attendees will be introduced to a few of these unusual “keepers in skirts,” including Grace Darling, the English maid who rescued shipwreck survivors off Longstone Light, and Ida Lewis, the shy heroine of Rhode Island’s Lime Rock Lighthouse.
Other tales to be told include that of Mabel Bretherton of North Head Light and the time one windy night when she faced down a cougar, as well as the story of the genteel Smith sisters who were appointed by their nepotistic brother Victor, the collector of customs for Port Townsend.
DeWire is the author of many books and articles about lighthouses and the recipient of the Ben Franklin Book Award, the Coast Guard Book Award and the Short Fiction Prize from the National League of American Pen Women.
“I first became interested in this topic in 1973 when I bought a copy of Edward Rowe Snow’s book, Lighthouses of New England, DeWire said.
“The final chapter of the book profiled Ida Lewis of Lime Rock Lighthouse. The idea of women as lighthouse keepers caught my fancy.”
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, at 360-385-3628, ext. 101, or emailing chandlery@nwmari
time.org.
Cricket in the water
Earlier this week, Platypus Marine, the full-service shipyard, yacht-repair facility and steel-boat manufacturer next door to Westport on Marine Drive in Port Angeles, returned Cricket to the water.
She is a 51-foot commercial fishing vessel that hails from Cordova, Alaska.
Brad Hale, who works in the marketing department with Marty Marchant, said personnel replaced the booms, refurbished the hydraulic gear and gave the vessel a complete paint job.
Brad also said she is now underway to Sitka, Alaska to participate in the herring fishery.
Yacht club event
The Port Angeles Yacht Club, in conjunction with retired Coast Guard Captain Peter Joseph, is sponsoring a free public event from 9 a.m. until noon Saturday, at their facility at 1305 Marine Drive, Port Angeles.
The program, “How to Avoid the Cruise From Hell,” is a hypothetical cruise of a pleasure boat from the Olympic Peninsula to Haro Strait.
Using a PowerPoint presentation, participants will be presented with a number of visual situations that could be encountered while underway.
Boaters will answer either individually, with crew members or working as table teams.
Specifications of the exercise vessel and answer sheets will be provided where detailed answers will be recorded.
At the conclusion of the cruise, participants will be asked to discuss their decisions and how they arrived at their answers.
The purpose of this exercise is to ensure boaters are prepared for these contingencies in the comfort and safety of the Yacht Club’s meeting room, thus allowing for a more pleasurable underway experience.
To reserve a space for the event, email signup@payc.org and include your name, number attending and “March 22 event” in the email message.
Your reservation will be confirmed if space is available.
Otherwise, you will be notified that the course is full and be placed on a standby list and notified if openings occur due to cancellations.
Tour boat on the hard
LuLu Belle, the 75-foot Alaskan Tour Boat owned by Fred and Megan Rodolf of Port Angeles, was hauled out of the water earlier this week and is sitting on the hard in the Port Angeles Boatyard.
Fred, with the assistance of Lisa Britton, one of the tradespeople who works in the boat yard, is making some minor fiberglass repairs to the vessel’s underbelly, and LuLu Belle will be getting a fresh coat of bottom paint before her annual trek to Valdez, Alaska where Fred and Megan have been operating Columbia Glacier and Wild Life Tours since 1986.
Mega yacht launch
Westport Shipyard on Monday morning launched the 12th in its series of 164-foot composite, tri-deck mega yachts manufactured at its Port Angeles plant on Marine Drive.
She was then taken to the fuel dock in the Boat Haven for a load of diesel fuel, and later in the week, she was seen in the Strait, no doubt undergoing preliminary sea trials.
On Monday, Tesoro bunkered Zambesi, the log ship currently taking on cargo at the T-Pier.
Tesoro petroleum provided bunkers Tuesday to Overseas Sifnos, a 600-foot petroleum products tanker that is flagged in the Marshall Islands.
Later in the day Tuesday, Tesoro refueled Puma, a 600-foot Panamanian-flagged petroleum products tanker that is due in Manzanillo, Mexico in the wee hours of next Tuesday morning.
Tesoro refueled Lanna Naree on Thursday prior to her departure to Portland, Ore.
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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 waterfronts.
Items and questions 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.
