LEGACY CONTRACTING OF Stayton, Ore., is replacing the wooden pilings on the Port of Port Angeles’ Terminal 1.
The complex project entails removing all of the wooden pilings and replacing them with steel pilings that range in length from 60 to 119 feet.
Depending on placement and length of pile, it will be driven into the ocean floor between 15 and 40 feet.
When Legacy is through rebuilding Terminal 1, it will have installed approximately 273 steel piles.
If I’m not mistaken, the last major pile replacement project on Terminal 1 was more than 40 years ago, which leads me to believe that it’s more than likely that more than a few of the wooden piles that are being replaced were installed when Terminal 1 was built in 1926.
PA Boat Yard
Lu Lu Belle has been on the hard in the Port Angeles Boat Yard for the past couple of weeks.
The 75-foot boat is owned by Fred and Megan Rodolf of Port Angeles.
Fred typically hauls her out every year to paint the bottom and install new zincs and to give the Coast Guard an opportunity to perform its annual inspection, which focuses on the soundness of the vessel’s hull and the integrity of her shafts, bearings and through-hull fittings.
Fred is quite a talented fella.
He designed and built Lu Lu Belle.
In November 1976, he purchased a Kelly Hull in Westport, Grays Harbor County.
Ten months later, the vessel was certified by the Coast Guard as a passenger vessel.
In 1978, Lu Lu Belle was sport fishing out of Westport.
From 1979 through the 1985 season, Fred and Lu Lu Belle worked for two different Alaskan tour boat operators.
In 1982, Lu Lu Belle was chartered by Washington state to operate as a passenger ferry between Clinton, Whidbey Island and Mukilteo.
The state ferry system was rebuilding its dock, and for two months, the tour boat made 28 crossings a day on the ferry run that had the highest volume in the state ferry system.
In 1986, Fred and Megan opened Columbia Glacier and Wildlife Tours in Valdez, Alaska.
Fred and Megan will head north to Alaska around the first of May and likely arrive by the middle of the month, at which time they will spend the better part of a couple of weeks getting their office shipshape for the tourist season, which for them will begin on Memorial Day weekend.
Tip of the hat
Thanks and a tip of the bosun’s cap to Jon Cash, who wrote and asked a couple of questions.
He asked the meaning of Spanish reef, which is an overhand knot in the head of a jib used in emergencies to shorten sail.
He also asked the meaning of a Portuguese bridge.
As I understand the term, it’s a walkway in front of the bridge windows generally separated from the foredeck by a waist-high bulwark.
Splash of color
One of the pastimes that has been trending of late is adult coloring books.
My wife recently bought herself one, and I complimented her on how well she could color the pictures.
She suggested that perhaps I, too, might enjoy a coloring book. I said maybe so.
Now I have my own coloring book, which is titled North American Lighthouses.
The book includes in its offerings Point Wilson and North Head lighthouses in Washington, and the lighthouse on Race Rocks in British Columbia.
Now I’m on the hunt for some crayons.
Race to Alaska prep
Wooden Boat Wednesday at Port Townsend’s Northwest Maritime Center & Wooden Boat Foundation continues on Wednesday with a presentation by Jake Beattie, executive director of the maritime center, who will discuss the plans for the second annual Race to Alaska from Port Townsend to Ketchikan, Alaska.
The race gets underway June 23, 2016.
The rules are quite simple: No engines are allowed.
The first to sail, paddle or row his or her vessel of any size to Ketchikan will receive the first prize of $10,000.
The second-place finisher will win a highly revered set of steak knives.
This event is being billed as the Iditarod on a boat with a chance of drowning, being run down by a freighter or eaten by a grizzly bear.
Realistically, who in their right mind wouldn’t want to participate?
Along the way, there is some beautiful scenery to go along with the squalls, killer whales and tidal currents that run upward of 20 mph.
Wooden Boat Wednesday typically starts promptly at noon and lasts for 90 minutes. It is held at the Northwest Maritime Center 431, Water St., Port Townsend.
Harbor happenings
On Monday, Tesoro Petroleum in Port Angeles Harbor provided bunkers to Beijing 2008, a 751-foot Liberian-flagged cargo ship.
It also bunkered Young Harmony, a 675-foot cargo ship that is flagged in South Korea.
On Saturday, Tesoro was scheduled to refuel Sunrise Sky, a 623-foot bulk cargo ship that is flagged in Singapore.
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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’s waterfronts and boat yards.
Items and questions involving boating, marina and industrial activities and the North Olympic Peninsula waterfronts are always welcome. News announcements about boating groups, including yacht clubs and squadrons, are welcome as well.
