Coast Guard to commission new cutter on Saturday

Published 12:01 am Friday, July 22, 2005

PORT ANGELES — A new addition to Coast Guard Group/Air Station Port Angeles is slated to be welcomed into the fold at a commissioning ceremony at 11 a.m. Saturday.

The Coast Guard cutter Swordfish, a newly built vessel, also will have a new skipper, Lt. j.g. Sarah Salazar, 24, who most recently was an operations officer on the cutter Maple in Sitka, Alaska.

The 87-foot vessel, the fifth assigned to Group Port Angeles, can reach speeds of more than 20 knots. It was built in Lockport, La., earlier this year.

Salazar and her nine-person crew traveled to Louisiana to train on the vessel and deliver the boat to its first home port more than 6,000 miles away.

The 45-day voyage started in April. The crew passed through the Panama Canal and arrived in Port Angeles in late May.