A new local podcast has started by Jim Heumann. We asked Jim to give us an overview of the podcast and we’ll post notifications of new ones as they are published.
Want to hear some real-life sea stories from some amazing people in our community? Check out Maritime Voices, a new podcast. The goal of the podcast is to record the many accomplished and interesting people from Port Townsend and the Olympic Peninsula talking about their maritime related adventures and careers. In conjunction with the Jefferson County Historical Society we hope to preserve the stories for future generations.
Five hour-plus conversations have already been recorded. Bill Nance will tell you about his circumnavigation in the 1960’s. Dick McCurdy shares his sail around the world the 70’s. Diana Talley describes her non-stop 106-day passage in the 80’s from Panama to Port Townsend in a boat with no engine. Sean Rankins talks about sailing all over the world as a sailmaker supporting big regattas, including two Americas Cups. Leif Knutsen tells about sailing down the Columbia River in a canoe and ending up in Alaska (but not in the canoe).
They all worked in the marine trades, building, repairing, and skippering boats. Diana had her own business in the PT Shipyard and ran a commercial fishing boat, fishing as far away as Midway Island. Leif was a founder of the PT Shipwright Co-op, but also fished commercially, and repaired big fish boats in Alaska. Bill built several boats after his circumnavigation and was also a key player in building the largest boat ever constructed in Port Townsend (“Aviva”). Sean has been making sails for fifty years and has also been a keen racer and spent two years collecting motorcycles in India in the 80’s. Dick worked his way up from deck hand to skipper on tugs, then went on to a twenty-five-year career as a Puget Sound pilot.
There are several common themes that have come up. Getting pregnant while sailing, the old Town Tavern on Water St. in Port Townsend, the “Funky Boatyard” that existed in the early days at Boat Haven, navigating before GPS, and learning (and earning) by doing.
We are lucky to have such incredible people in our little slice of the world. Here’s your chance to hear their stories.
Best Quotes:
Diana – “…money was never that important to us, it was all about romance and pain.”
Leif – “I come from Scandinavia, those guys built boats thousands of years ago, I’m doing the same damn thing.”
Sean – “My whole life, when I think back about it, I was just wet all the time…everywhere we were, it was about water.”
Bill – Regarding his dismasting in the Indian Ocean: “It’s no good calling for Mama, she ain’t coming.”
Dick – “…honestly, all I ever wanted to do was go sailing.”
More conversations to come at https://maritimevoices.org
