The tall ships are coming! The tall ships are coming!
And some will do battle in Port Angeles Harbor!
About 30 of the elegant vessels will sail to Port Angeles from a four-day festival in Victoria on June 27, pass customs and immigration inspections, then head east the next day past Dungeness Spit and Diamond Point toward Port Townsend and Puget Sound.
At least three of the ships will offer rides from Port Angeles to Port Townsend, dropping off the passengers at the Victorian Seaport before joining the rest of the sailing contingent to Tacoma for a six-day festival.
Plans in Port Angeles and Port Townsend are in the embryonic stages.
“It looks like this is going to be big-time,” said Bill Larson, a retired captain of such vessels who lives in Port Angeles.
“This may well be the biggest event in Port Angeles since the U.S. Navy filled the harbor with their fleet in the 1920s.”
The tour from Victoria to Tacoma via the North Olympic Peninsula forms part of the Tall Ships Challenge 2005, organized by the American Sail Training Association.
The sailing vessels are scheduled to race across the Strait of Juan de Fuca from Victoria to Port Angeles, where they will pass through U.S. Customs and linger for about a day before heading to Tacoma in time for a Fourth of July spectacular.
The Tall Ships Challenge will feature dozens of vessels, including entries from Mexico, Ecuador, Russia and New Zealand, as well as the state’s own Lady Washington.
