EARLIER THIS WEEK Liberty Bay, a 790-foot crude oil tanker, moored to the Port of Port Angeles’ Terminal 1.
During her brief stay, personnel erected scaffolding around her stack and then encased the stack and scaffolding in a plastic shroud beneath which painters repainted the stack with Crowley Alaska Tankers colors.
Likewise scaffolding was erected and encased at the stern to allow painters to paint the new name of the ship — Washington — on the stern.
Liberty Bay was owned by SeaRiver Maritime Inc., a subsidiary of ExxonMobil. In late 2017, Crowley Alaska Tankers purchased three tankers from SeaRiver Maritime.
They are the aforementioned Liberty Bay and Eagle Bay, each of which have a capacity of 33,600,000 gallons and transport crude oil from Alaska to West Coast refineries; and the tanker American Progress, which has a capacity of 14,364,000 gallons and transports refined petroleum products between the U.S. Gulf and East Coast ports.
The freshly painted Washington moved out to anchorage in Port Angeles harbor early Thursday evening and Eagle Bay moored to the Port of Port Angeles’ Terminal 1.
Eagle Bay will undergo the same face lift as Liberty Bay and in the process be renamed California.
Cable Innovator, the 476-foot cable layer that has been in port for the past month or so, left Port Angeles on Friday morning for her home port of Victoria, B.C.
I understand she plans on returning in May, if there is a berth available.
I have received a number of phone calls and emails asking me my thoughts about the idea of selling John Wayne Marina to a private party. With rare exception I keep my private thoughts private, otherwise I’m likely to alienate someone and lose a reader to the column.
Therefore on the subject I offer the following:
In 1975, iconic film actor, director and producer John Wayne donated acreage at Pitship Point on Sequim Bay to the Port of Port Angeles for the purpose of building a marina.
During his lifetime, the “Duke” owned two yachts, Norwester, a 76-foot yacht, and Wild Goose, a 136-foot converted WWII mine sweeper.
It was during his tenure as the owner of Wild Goose that he developed his fondness for the Pacific Northwest. For years he spent the summer months cruising the local waters, visiting Victoria and Vancouver, B.C., and steaming up the Inside Passage to Alaska.
When he was filming, Wayne made arrangements to fly in to meet up with the yacht on weekends. His contribution of the marina property is the legacy of his love for the majesty of the Pacific Northwest.
As an aside, in the late 60s I worked for Capital Iron in Victoria. One of the projects I worked on was in the Empress Hotel.
During the course of the project I was working with a fellow we’ll call JB and one afternoon we saw John Wayne coming out of the hotel, no doubt to go across the street to the marina where his boat was.
JB said he was going to ask for his autograph, I told him to leave the man in peace. JB couldn’t help himself and approached the Duke. Instead of an autograph, JB got a business card; he was sorely disappointed.
Platypus Marine, the full-service shipyard, yacht repair facility and steel-boat manufacturer on Marine Drive in Port Angeles, has Quivira on the hard. She is a 116-foot Benetti yacht that is getting a fresh coat of bottom paint and a marine surveyor is doing a survey for insurance purposes.
Platypus is also working on Schocking, a West Bay 45. Personnel, in addition to removing and rebuilding the swim step, are working on the captain’s list of maintenance items that need to be resolved.
Platypus has Defiant in the Commander building. She is a 58-foot commercial fishing vessel that hails from Petersburg, Alaska. Personnel installed new electronics and rebuilt the interior of the wheelhouse.
Saturday, Tesoro Petroleum bunkered Consolidator, a 623-foot bulk cargo ship that is flagged in the Marshall Islands.
They also refueled Lime Galaxy, a 477-foot petroleum products carrier that is flagged in Hong Kong.
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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.
Email dgsellars@hotmail.com or phone him at 360-808-3202.