PRINCESS, A 42-FOOT fiberglass commercial troller is moored in slip N-4 on the west side of the Port Angeles Boat Haven.
For the next eight or nine days, the owner, Heather Sears, along with her lone crew member, Mariah Warren, will exchange their piscatorial chapeaus for those of a fishmonger to sell fresh sushi quality albacore tuna off the stern of the boat.
The fish was caught a few leagues west of Cape Flattery (at a super secret spot) and flash frozen to minus-40 Fahrenheit.
Tuna loins and whole fish ranging in size from 8 to 30 pounds will be available.
Heather came by her trade the old-fashioned way — it was passed on to her by her father.
She first went fishing with Dad out of Morro Bay, Calif., when she was 8.
It is reasonable to question how helpful it was for her to be sitting around attempting to revive cod in a bucket of water so that she could then throw them back into the sea.
By the time she was 10, she had grasped the concept of her future vocation and spent the summer months fishing salmon from Morro Bay to Eureka, Calif.
After high school, Heather crewed on various commercial boats, trawling for herring in and around San Francisco Bay and working the salmon fisheries from Fort Bragg to Eureka.
She then had a vision of selling packaged fish to the general public.
Making her rounds to various farmers markets at least four days a week convinced her that a fixed location would be more to her liking.
That’s when Julie came into her life.
Julie was a 28-foot wooden double-ender built in 1930 that was used as a salmon troller.
Heather purchased the boat to use as a floating fish market at the docks in Fort Bragg.
The vessel seemed ideal — it was the perfect size to work from and could easily hold a thousand pounds of fish.
A person’s past often times has a way of catching up to him or her, and such was the case with Heather.
Before the fish market opened for business, Heather said former fish mates and friends coaxed her into putting Julie to work as a troller.
The year was 2000.
The West Coast was experiencing record runs of salmon, so the time seemed right to take the plunge into commercial fishing.
For the next four seasons, Heather trolled for salmon along California’s coast.
In 2004, Julie was sold, and Papoose, a 38-foot wooden salmon boat, was acquired.
Heather continued fishing salmon from Santa Cruz to Fort Bragg.
Papoose only lasted a year. Heather said it was a “death trap.”
So she got rid of it and purchased Monique, a 40-foot steel commercial troller and crabber.
Monique’s gray and pink color scheme was the butt of endless remarks and good-natured ribbing among those who traveled and fished with Heather.
With a more stable platform from which to work, Heather began fishing Alaskan waters as far north as Yakutat.
With an Alaska power troll permit issued to her in 2006 and thus the ability to fish all five species of salmon, Heather has become well versed in the ways of fishing Alaska’s treacherous waters.
The lady in pink, Monique, was sold in 2008 and Princess is now the boat from which Heather ventures forth.
Princess is a Canadian-built commercial troller which she purchased in Nanaimo, B.C., in 2008.
One of the selling points was that the boat is equipped with the flash-freezing system that allows her to freeze her catch to minus-40 within a four-hour window.
With this system she is able to stay out at sea longer and consequently make a little more money — and it gives her the option to sell fish off her boat.
Not to be overlooked is the ability to keep ice cream really, really cold.
Warren, the lone crew member, grew up in Alaska and has fished commercially for the past five years.
She joined up with Heather last year, and, at least for the time being, doesn’t want to own her own boat.
Heather hasn’t quite given up the whole fish-mongering storefront idea.
She said that when she grows up she would one day like to fish commercially for about four months of the year and process her own fish for sale to her own customers, including restaurants.
Princess will leave Port Angeles about Sept. 29, taking a rambling route to Seattle.
Heather hopes to find a slip in Port Townsend from which to spend a few days selling her cargo, and she may also head up to Bellingham.
She is also likely to stop anywhere along the way that strikes her fancy — or that looks like it needs a tuna fix.
Platypus activity
Platypus Marine hauled out Wild Waves last week and stowed her in one of the company’s portable shelters.
The 90-foot, Italian-built yacht has been in Lake Washington for an extended period of time.
It is out of the water to have her hull sandblasted and a new coat of paint applied.
Last Monday, Pacific Concept, a 57-foot long-liner that hails from Victoria, was out of the water for a few hours.
The commercial fishing vessel hung in the slings of the 330-ton TraveLift while personnel at Platypus Marine repaired the rudder.
Silverado, a 120-foo Willard is in the Commander Building for the next five or six weeks for significant repairs and maintenance.
Personnel will be pulling the shafts, rebuilding the gear box, balancing the propellers and rebuilding the rudders.
The carpentry shop will build and install new counters in the wheelhouse, and all the deck trim will receive a fresh coat of varnish.
Out in the harbor
Alaskan Explorer dropped anchor in Port Angeles Harbor on Friday to pick up equipment and personnel from Washington Marine Repair, the topside repair company on the waterfront.
According to Chandra “Hollywood” McGoff, personnel will install an electrical panel and cabinet to allow for the simultaneous operation of two cargo pumps for loading and unloading cargo.
While in the harbor, the 941-foot crude oil tanker will also receive bunkers from Tesoro Petroleum.
“Hollywood” said she sent five boilermakers to Honolulu to work on the 185-foot tug, Nunui.
It is owned by K-Sea Transportation.
“Hollywood” also said personnel were aboard the Port Angeles-based Coast Guard cutter Active doing a hot engine flush.
Tesoro refueling
Last Sunday, Tesoro Petroleum refueled Zaliv Amurskiy, a 797-foot oil tanker.
On Thursday, Tesoro provided bunkers to Catherine Scan, a 212-foot cargo ship flying the flag of Antigua.
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David G. Sellars is a Port Angeles resident and former Navy boatswain’s mate who enjoys boats and strolling the waterfront.
Items involving boating, port activities and the North Olympic Peninsula waterfronts are always welcome.
E-mail dgsellars@hotmail.com or phone him at 360-417-3736.
His column, On the Waterfront, appears every Sunday.