It looked like a barbecue was on.
On Thursday afternoon, about a dozen folks were standing around what appeared to be a makeshift fire pit in the yard at Platypus Marine off Marine Drive in Port Angeles.
Thinking that there might be food at the full-service shipyard, yacht-repair facility and steel-boat manufacturer, I dropped by.
Instead, I found out that a fire-watch certification class was in progress.
Setting my hunger aside, I stood on the periphery and listened as the trainer, Don Sly, instructed the personnel on the best practices when it comes to knocking down a fire with dry-chemical extinguishers.
He said when it comes to putting out a fire, “we live in a world of certainty; therefore, your best ally is water.”
Don went on to stress the critical aspect of dousing any remaining embers with water to eliminate the possibility of a flare-up.
Personnel standing fire watch are the first line of defense in protecting their fellow workers from injury, not to mention the project they are working on from being damaged or destroyed during “hot work.”
Hot work encompasses a number of activities including welding, the use of acetylene torches to cut steel and the use of power tools in which the operation produces sparks, such as a grinding wheel.
Don is one of four marine chemists who work with Sound Testing in Seattle.
Their responsibilities include assessing spaces aboard vessels and determining whether or not they are safe for personnel to enter.
This is important in the case of spaces that may have been oxygen-deficient or where the environment might have been compromised from the residue of a flammable or combustible product or cargo.
They also are called upon to determine when it is safe to perform hot work, especially aboard ships, tank barges and oil tankers.
Marine chemists typically have a degree in — yep, you guessed it — chemistry, with a particular emphasis on petroleum chemistry and industrial hygiene.
In Don’s case, he was a Chicago high school chemistry teacher who made his way to the Emerald City from the Windy City in 1973.
The tenuous economy of the time forced him to make a career change, so he went to work in the shipyards.
He melded his newfound skills with his degree in chemistry and has been a certified marine chemist for nearly 40 years.
It is interesting to note that there are only 97 certified marine chemists in the United States, one of whom is Don’s daughter Amy. She is the only woman to hold this certification since the profession was recognized in 1922.
Tug sans anchor
A couple of hours before sunrise Wednesday, the Puget Sound Pilots moored Gaviota to the Port of Port Angeles’ Terminal 1 North.
Gaviota (a Spanish word that translates to sea gull in English) is a 75-foot pusher tug that is flagged on the Mexican island of Isla de Cedros in the Pacific off Baja California.
I understand that she was on her way to Everett to pick up an old barge that is to be taken south for dismantling when she came to Port Angeles to clear Customs.
She was boarded by the Coast Guard, which found a number of deficiencies, not the least of which was the absence of an anchor.
One was located in Neah Bay and installed onboard the vessel Thursday afternoon.
Gaviota was due to resume her voyage Thursday evening, but I noted that late Friday afternoon, she was still at the dock.
Visiting yacht
Antares moored to the guest dock on the west side of the harbormaster’s office in the Port Angeles Boat Haven on Monday evening.
She is a 130-foot Westport yacht that was launched in 2008 at the company’s namesake town in Grays Harbor County.
Platypus Marine installed new batteries in the engine room, and the composite yacht got under way for Alaska.
I was told that when she was coming up the coast, she encountered 10-foot seas off Oregon and Washington.
The Inside Passage to Alaska will be a welcome respite.
Cat under construction
Earlier last week, I stopped by the large green building that sits on the south side of Marine Drive and just a bit west of High Tide Seafoods Inc.
Inside, Joe Kitchell and two skilled journeymen are in the early stages of building a composite catamaran.
The as-yet unnamed 72-foot-long boat will be used as a 90-passenger ferry providing service between Panama City and Las Perlas Islands, Panama.
Joe and the crew are now building the mold for the hull, a process that he said will take the most time.
They also are building many of the component pieces and panels, wrapping them in fiberglass cloth and then sealing them with epoxy.
To harden these components, they are placed in a temporary room that is set up within the building that measures 16 feet by 40 feet.
Flat work surfaces dominate the center of the room, which also has a number of heaters placed around the perimeter.
To aid in the hardening of the components and panels, the heaters are turned on, and a steady 110 degrees is maintained in the “oven” during the workday.
Joe said the boat is being built for Sea Las Perlas, a company that currently operates two ferries in Panama.
He said when the company decided to add another ferry to its fleet, Joe went in search of a spot in Southern California to build it.
After failing to find a location suitable for their needs, he expanded the search into Central California.
Ultimately, Joe scoured the California and Oregon coasts looking for a location before coming to Port Angeles.
He said that from his first meeting with the Port of Port Angeles, the agency has been very accommodating and happy to work with him.
And he couldn’t be more pleased with the reception he and his crew have received from the boating community.
Blast from the past
I was on the Port Angeles waterfront recently when the boats harvesting geoducks from state lands came into the Boat Haven to offload their day’s work.
One boat, Sea Fox, owned by Desi Mangini, caught my eye.
I had one of those déjà-vu-all-over-again things going on for a minute before I realized that what I was looking at was once a Vietnam-era gunboat.
My minimal exposure to the brownwater Navy does not allow me to definitively say what type of boat it is, but I believe it to be a river patrol boat (PBR) that was built by United Boat Builders of Bellingham, the builders of the Uniflite line of fiberglass boats.
But I could be wrong. Help me if I am. The Sea Fox is pictured in today’s gallery, accessible by clicking on the icon below the photo above.
Boater education
A public boating course offered by the North Olympic Sail and Power Squadron will be held Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Rainbow’s End RV Park, 261831 U.S. Highway 101.
State law requires that all operators born after 1962 of machinery-powered boats possess a state-issued boating proficiency card. This course provides a certificate that meets the state requirements for card issuance.
Cost is $41.
Email ussvirginia03PDN @yahoo.com or phone 360-457-1215 for more information and registration.
Harbor filler-up
Tesoro Petroleum on Monday provided bunkers in Port Angeles Harbor to Dublin Sea, a 125-foot pusher tug that is coupled to DBL 185, a tank barge with a cargo capacity of more than 6 million gallons of petroleum product.
Then Saturday, Tesoro refueled British Holly, a 787-foot-long crude-oil tanker that then got under way for BP PLC’s refinery at Cherry Point.
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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 waterfronts.
Items and questions involving boating, port activities and the North Olympic Peninsula waterfronts are always welcome. Email dgsellars@hotmail.com or phone him at 360-808-3202.
His column, On the Waterfront, appears every Sunday.