PORT TOWNSEND — Twenty-nine hours after the schooner Adventuress went aground Monday in the San Juan Islands, tension turned to joy and relief when a U.S. Coast Guard inspector emerged late Tuesday afternoon with good news.
“Just a little ding,” Steve Carlson told an elated Catherine Collins, executive director of Sound Experience, who embraced him for clearing the vessel so it could sail on to the Victoria and Tacoma tall ship festivals.
Young members of the crew who had waited quietly throughout the inspection burst out in a cheer.
Sound Experience is the nonprofit organization that owns and operates the 95-year-old educational and environmental gaff-rigged schooner based in Port Townsend.
Cleared of any major damage, the Adventuress was expected to set sail by noon today, tides allowing, for Victoria for the tall ships festival scheduled from Thursday through Sunday.
“We’re thrilled to be back on schedule,” said Collins, joking that the haul-out, inspection and haul-in was “the quickest turn-around in maritime history.”
