PORT ANGELES — Montana Gasper longs to return to his life at sea.
Since the Dec. 14-15 storm, Gasper has not had the chance to return to his home — a 36-foot boat known as the Montana Drifter.
Gasper had lived on the boat for several months before the storm, which grounded two other boats on the shores of the Port Angeles Harbor.
After waves and wind grounded it near the Rayonier Inc. property at the foot of Ennis Street, he slept the first couple of nights on City Pier before a couple of strangers got him a room at the All View Motel on Lauridsen Boulevard.
“They said it was too cold to be sleeping down there,” he said.
Although Gasper managed to get his boat off the rocks and re-anchored in the bay, it is listing because it has begun to take on water, he said Tuesday.
“I need a pump, and some gasoline, and some propane,” Gasper said, describing what it would take to get him back on board.
Gasper said he lived on the boat alone, save for a cat named Lucky.
“I had to give up the kitty, because it just wasn’t safe to live out there,” Gasper said.
“I had it since he was a little kitten.”
Gasper said his dinghy sank during a storms, so he had feared he would have to swim to the boat the next time he wanted to get out there.
“But luckily, I’ve had some guys offer to take me out once the snow melts a little more,” Gasper said.
“But I need help from someone. I only have $2 to my name right now.”
In addition to the fuel and a couple of pumps, Gasper said he was also seeking someone who could help tow his boat to a safer spot in the Port Angeles Harbor.
Gasper is staying in Room 107 of the All View Motel. To contact him, phone 360-457-7779.
Gasper said he was inspired by the help that the boating community offered to Doug and Melanie Zimmerman when their boat washed up on Hollywood Beach during the same storm.
Zimmermans’ boat
Offers of help abounded when the Zimmermans needed to quickly remove their boat.
The Esther Marie was built by Doug Zimmerman’s father and named after his mother.
Fred Rodolf, owner of the Lu-Lu Belle, helped tow the Esther Marie from the beach and to deeper water in the harbor.
Many other people contributed food, drinks, shoes, anchor gear and much more to help the boat get re-anchored, Doug said.
Now that the Esther Marie is out at anchor, the Zimmermans said they don’t know what they will do with it.
“My dream would be to find a facility to store it in until the kids are older because I’d like to retire in that boat,” Doug Zimmerman said.
“But she deserves to be in use, and so we might look for another owner for her.”
Boat was son’s
A third boat that washed up in Port Angeles during the same storm remained beached near the foot of Oak Street on Tuesday.
The boat, which doesn’t have a name and is a former commercial vessel, is owned by David Reese of Port Angeles, said Port Angeles Police Officer Duane Benedict.
Officers have been working with Reese to have the boat removed.
“The difference with that and the other boats is that if something happens, really, the only thing it will damage is the boat,” Benedict said.
Benedict was concerned that the other two boats could wash into City Pier or injure a passerby on Hollywood Beach or on the Olympic Discovery Trail.
Reese said that he inherited the boat from his son, Tad, who died in May 2007 of cancer.
“We really don’t have the means to hire someone to help us get it off of the rocks,” Reese said.
Some damage has been done to the boat, which he hopes to have repaired at the Port Angeles Boat Yard if he can get it removed.
“We have tried at high tide every day,” Reese said.
“But so far, it hasn’t been high enough to get it out of there.”
Reese said if repairs are too costly, the family might consider selling the boat, but that he hoped to keep it.
“We have kind of gotten attached to it lately, going out there and painting it and fixing it up a little bit,” he said.
To contact Reese, phone 360-452-3319.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
