AS THE SUN crept over the horizon Thursday morning, Northern Legacy quietly slipped out of Port Angeles Harbor bound for Dall Island, Alaska.
Following in her wake was a mixture of sportfishing boats and utility vessels that, together with Northern Legacy, comprise Alaska Far West Fish Camp, a sportfishing enterprise that hosts guests for three- and four-day fishing excursions.
This is the 20th season that Pete and Joan Hanson of Port Angeles have operated their camp near the legendary Cape Muzon fishing grounds in southeast Alaska.
Pete was at the helm of Northern Legacy, an 85-foot aluminum boat that will serve as the camp headquarters and mother ship until the camp shuts down in early September.
Joan typically stays behind to handle the day-to-day details that come with the scheduling, care, feeding and transporting of employees and guests by floatplane in and out of the remote Alaskan wilderness.
Pete and Joan have the moving of boats, supplies and personnel from Port Angeles to Alaska down to an imprecise science.
The morning and evening meals are prepared and served aboard Northern Legacy.
She also is where most of the crew will sleep during the trip to and from Alaska.
Northern Legacy also has a 10,000- gallon fuel tank that is used to refuel the boats at the beginning of each day.
The voyage north to Ketchikan, Alaska, will probably take six days if weather and circumstances work in their favor.
Along the way, each night will be spent in a sheltered harbor or cove.
I’m guessing that the first night probably was spent a bit north of Nanaimo at Nanoose Bay, B.C., and Friday night was probably spent in Port Harvey, which is an excellent anchorage but open to the westerlies from Johnstone Strait.
After hopscotching their way through the Inside Passage for the next four or five days, the boats will moor in Ketchikan for a couple of days
In Ketchikan, just about everyone will play tourist for a day or two while Northern Legacy is refueled and her stores replenished.
The last leg of the trip from Ketchikan to Kaigani Point on Dall Island is where the boats will encounter the most active seas, especially as they round Cape Chacon in Dixon Passage.
It is during this final eight to 10 hours of the trip that Pete will encourage the following boats to stay in his wake as he negotiates the tides and currents and leads them through the numerous rock outcroppings.
Once all of the boats have run this gauntlet, they will find themselves in the shelter of Kaigani Point and the home of the Alaska Far West Fish Camp.
It will take a couple of days to set up the camp.
Numerous tasks abound, including setting out a couple of anchors to keep Northern Legacy in place.
Also, floats that have been stashed on the island over the winter will be put in place, and 1,400 feet of garden hose will be stretched from a freshwater spring to the mother ship.
Pete, ever mindful of the old proverb — all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy — makes absolutely certain that those who helped ferry his boats north and set up the camp get in a couple of good days of fishing before heading back to the Lower 48 with a box full of fresh Alaskan fish.
If you would like more information on the Hansons’ world-class fishing experience, you can contact them via www.alaska
farwestfishing.com or 360-457-6585.
E-scuttlebutt
Phishing scams abound in this age of computers.
I received an email last week that had “very urgent” in the subject line from the schooner Alcyone.
The text of the email said that the sender was stranded in France and needed a short-term loan of $1,000 (or whatever could be sent) that would be “refunded” upon her return.
It was signed Leslie.
I called Leslie McNish, one of the owners of the schooner Alcyone, who said that her email had been hacked and the miscreant is using her address book to send out requests for funds.
If anyone out there received an email from Leslie, you may be disgusted to learn that she is the victim of a computer hacker — yet no doubt pleased to hear that she is not stranded in France and doesn’t need your money.
The Alcyone was launched in 1956 and calls Port Townsend home.
For nearly 30 years, she has been a fixture in the annual Wooden Boat Festival and also has won Best of Sail five times at the Victoria Classic Yacht Festival.
The 82-foot vessel was built by Frank Prothero, whose brother, Bob, established the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building in Port Hadlock in 1981.
Hitting the water
This Thursday, the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building will host the Spring Launch of the boats that were built by the students in the class of 2013.
The launches will begin at 6 p.m. at the Port Hadlock launch ramp adjacent to the school, 42 N. Water St., and across the road from the Ajax Cafe.
Students in the school’s Traditional Small Craft program, which is led by senior instructor Jeff Hammond, will launch a 14-foot Alaskan-style Davis boat, a 14-foot Sid Skiff sloop and a 12-foot Grandy lapstrake skiff.
Tim Lee’s Traditional Large Craft program will launch three classic Whitehall pulling boats, two of which are 21 feet long and the third 16 feet long.
The Whitehalls were built for the British Broadcasting Corp. and will be used this summer in Arizona to film a re-creation of Civil War veteran John Wesley Powell’s 1869 expedition down the Colorado River that included the first-known passage through the Grand Canyon.
Visitors are welcome to attend Thursday’s launches and can visit the school’s lower shops, which will remain open for guests until 7:30 p.m.
Marine swap meet
Steve DeBiddle of the Port Angeles Yacht Club told me last week that there are still a few spots available to peddlers of marine-oriented paraphernalia at the yacht club’s seventh annual Marine Swap Meet.
The event will be held this Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the yacht club’s parking lot, 1305 Marine Drive, at the west end of the Boat Haven.
It’s a great opportunity to be a vendor for a day, selling or swapping marine-related equipment and memorabilia to like-minded individuals.
Additionally, the PAYC Ladies are having an indoor yard sale in the clubhouse with treasures that are not necessarily marine-oriented.
Boat safety inspections will be conducted for vessels sitting on their trailers in the parking lot.
The inspecting North Olympic Sail and Power Squadron is empowered to affix a 2013 safety decal to compliant vessels.
Coffee and doughnuts will be available.
For additional information or to reserve a $10 space, phone DeBiddle at 360-477-2406.
Harbor fueling
Tesoro Corp. on Friday provided bunkers to the Crowley-owned articulated tug and barge Vision.
She is one of 10 of the 650 Class of barges and was launched in the late summer of 2011.
When coupled together for operation, the tug and barge duo is 689 feet long and has a cargo capacity of more than 7½ million gallons of petroleum products.
Today, Tesoro is scheduled to bunker the BP PLC-owned British Beech, a 787-foot crude-oil tanker that is flagged in the United Kingdom.
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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.