Two parts that become one pulled into the Port of Port Angeles last week to end a six-week voyage from the shipbuilder in Texas.
The pusher tug MV Cavek is 76 feet long, and her companion barge, AVEC-208, takes an additional 208 feet.
Together, the articulated tug and barge resemble a landing craft complete with bow loading ramp.
The two were built at Sneed Shipbuilding in Orange, Texas, and moored to the port’s Terminal One North on Tuesday.
According to Stacey Smith, manager of Vitus Marine in Anchorage, Alaska, the pair will be used to deliver fuel and freight for the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative (AVEC), an electric utility company that provides service to 53 rural communities in Western Alaska.
Stacey said a second articulated tug and barge combination is scheduled to leave Sneed Shipbuilding and arrive in Alaska within the next couple of months.
She will join Cavek and AVEC-208 in supplying the fuels used to power the generators that light much of the remote areas of Alaska.
When both of the articulated tugs and barges are online, they will be responsible for delivering about 5 million gallons of fuel annually to the 53 members of the AVEC communities.
Additionally, Vitus Marine will use the vessels to deliver freight and equipment for AVEC as the utility moves forward with plans to bring a stable supply of electric power to additional remote Alaskan communities.
Log ship visits
At the beginning of last week, Pacific Logger moored to Port of Port Angeles’ T-Pier, and she is expected to depart for China on Monday.
She is a 577-foot log ship with a 98-foot beam and is flagged in Hong Kong.
Longshoreman are loading the ship from dockside as well as from the waterside with logs that were harvested from private lands owned by Merrill & Ring in Western Washington.
Vessel launched
Speaking of landing crafts, Armstrong Marine, the aluminum-boat fabricator on U.S. Highway 101 between Port Angeles and Sequim, last week launched Arctic Solution, a 60-foot-long landing craft-style vessel that is 19 feet wide.
She was built for Arctic Marine Solutions in Seward, Alaska, and will be used on Prudhoe Bay to transport equipment and personnel to the region’s various oil producing facilities.
Because of the vessel’s overall size, Armstrong personnel constructed her in two sections — the hull and the house — and had them taken to the Port Angeles boatyard by Associated Boat Transport of Seattle for final assembly.
Three removable pods also were built for the landing craft that seat 12 workers each and are affixed to the vessel’s deck for ferrying personnel to drilling sites.
Arctic Solution, which has a 40,000-pound payload, can reach speeds of 30 knots. She is powered by three Scania diesel engines, each of which is rated at 650 horsepower and is individually coupled to an Ultrajet 410 propulsion system.
As of Friday, the landing craft was in Yakutat, Alaska, waiting for 14-foot seas to subside before making the final run to Valdez.
The original delivery plans called for Arctic Solution to be put aboard a truck and taken via the Dalton Highway — more commonly known as Haul Road — to Prudhoe Bay.
Because of weather-related issues, it is likely that the vessel will sit on the hard in Valdez for the winter and be delivered to Prudhoe Bay next spring.
Preparation for sale
Estancia, a Westport 112, has been sitting at Westport’s dock in the Port Angeles Boat Haven for the past 10 days or so.
According to Katie Wakefield, an administrative assistant at Westport Shipyard, the current owners are removing their personal property from the yacht prior to the vessel being taken to Florida to be offered for sale.
Some sad news about another Westport-made yacht:
On Aug. 8, while anchored off Santa Teresa di Riva, in Messina, Sicily, the Westport 130 yacht Godspeed was destroyed by fire.
Six crew members and six guests were taken off the burning yacht by nearby boaters. There are unconfirmed reports that the fire was electrical in origin but the cause of the conflagration (video of which can be seen at http://tinyurl.com/
yachtfire) remains undetermined.
Darryl Wakefield, president of Westport Shipyard, issued the following statement:
“Westport Shipyard has been informed that a fire occurred on a 2005, 130-foot yacht while cruising in the Mediterranean Sea. We are thankful that all crew members and guests made it off the vessel safely with no reported injuries.
“While the loss of a vessel is far from insignificant, Westport is diligently working to help determine the cause of the fire.”
Godspeed was launched in Grays Harbor County in 2005 as Sea Quest, and subsequently was sold and renamed Freedom.
She was in the Miami and Palm Beach boat shows in Florida this spring, was sold in April and renamed Godspeed.
Boat with a history
Platypus Marine has I.F. Mariner on the hard at its yard on Marine Drive, Port Angeles.
She is a 76-foot wooden boat with a 23-foot beam that is owned by Tom White of Sooke, B.C. Although she has the look of a commercial fishing vessel, ‘tis not quite so.
I.F. Mariner was launched in 1956 as Silver Viking, and for a couple of years she was operated as a seiner.
However, she was built with untreated steel fish tanks that soon rusted, which contaminated the boat’s catch. ‘
As a result, the owner, who had financed the boat with government guaranteed loans, lost the boat to the Canadian government, which then placed her in the service of the biological branch of the Canadian Department of Fisheries and renamed her AP Knight.
She was subsequently transferred to the enforcement division of the Fisheries Department, posted to Queen Charlotte City and renamed Arrow Post.
She was taken out of service in 1990, and Tom acquired her as surplus in 1992 — when Tom was contemplating a career change.
He had been working in the bush for more than 25 years as a tree faller and was going to convert his acquisition into a fish packer.
However, by the time he had fulfilled the terms of a contract that concluded in 1995, the bottom had fallen out of the fishing industry and, for the lack of a better phrase, he was stuck with the boat.
Tom said that during the intervening years, he has taken I.F. Mariner out a few times and even took her up to Prince Rupert once, but for the most part he’s just been maintaining her and keeping her in good shape.
While she’s at Platypus, company shipwright Cliff Dodson replanked a couple of areas on the starboard side, refastened a couple of planks on the port side and made two Dutchman repairs on the port side as well.
A Dutchman repair is a type of patch in which damaged wood is routed away and a new piece of wood is fitted into the cavity. When done properly, a Dutchman repair will typically outlast the surrounding wood.
Tom and his boat will probably be sitting on the hard for another week.
It will give Cliff time to finish caulking the hull so that personnel can top off her stay in Port Angeles with a fresh coat of bottom paint.
Busy fueling week
Last Sunday, Tesoro Petroleum provided bunkers to the new articulated tug and barge, Vision, which is now underway for Martinez, Calif.
On Monday Tesoro refueled Alaskan Navigator, a 941-foot crude oil tanker, and on Tuesday, it bunkered Kodiak, an 869-foot tanker that was formerly named Tonsina.
On Wednesday, Tesoro refueled the Bahamian-flagged, 600-foot tanker, Mariposa, and on Friday, the company had its refueling barge alongside the Crowley-owned articulated tug and barge Commitment.
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David G. Sellars is a Port Angeles resident and former Navy boatswain’s mate who enjoys boats, ships and strolling the waterfront.
Items involving boating, port activities and the North Olympic Peninsula waterfronts are always welcome. Email dgsellars@
hotmail.com or phone him at 360-808-3202.
