RESTORATION WORK – Father Herman Belt keeps an eye on Lincoln Street traffic this morning as workers use a Snorkel Lift to pull rotten pieces of trim from the facade of St. Michael’s Cathedral. Several pieces recently had fallen off the cathedral, which dates to 1976, causing concerns about other pieces possibly falling off and hitting pedestrians. Belt says the plan is to fabricate new wooden trim and properly flash it. East bound traffic was diverted up American Street during today’s work. Contractors may close the street again Wednesday morning. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
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Daily Sitka Sentinel
Tugboats Carry Weight Of Bright Sitka Tradition
By HENRY COLT
Sentinel Staff Writer
When Beverly Caldwell arrives at Sunday’s Boat Parade aboard Ambiance, her 42-foot Nordic tugboat, she’ll look for an inconspicuous spot toward the middle of the lineup.
Ambiance will not be the L.T.A.–Largest Tug in Attendance.
Though Caldwell has organized this year’s event, that title—and the title of Parade Leader—belongs to Salvation, Lee Hanson’s 69-foot behemoth.
The first installment of the parade will take place Sunday at 5.p.m., with another installment occurring the following Sunday at the same time. Caldwell thinks at least six boats will be participating.
The procession will begin in the channel outside the Longliner Lodge on Katlian, and will “most likely” parallel Halibut Point Road until Sitka Point, before turning back around, says Caldwell.
When Lee Hanson was a kid, there was an annual boat parade that followed a similar route. Back then he viewed the progress of the parade from the family car as the brightly lighted procession of boats moved along the Sitka waterfront.
“We’d drive all over!” recalls Hanson, who was born and raised in Sitka. “Once the boats would go out of view, we’d drive ahead and find a new spot, where we could see them coming. It was something fun we’d do as a family.”
Boats parade down Sitka Channel in 2017. (Sentinel file photo)
In the following decades, Hanson watched the Boat Parade cycle through a variety of iterations: some years it happened, some years it didn’t. A yacht club took it over, then lost interest. Some years it was even replaced by a terrestrial event, the Land Lubbers Parade.
But in 2013, a retired Army sergeant named John Rouse revived the maritime tradition, as a more or less one-boat show, that he continued in the following years.
Last December, Hanson saw Rouse’s ad in the Sentinel seeking boats to join him in the Boat Parade, and when he noticed that his friend Beverly Caldwell had already started decorating Ambiance, his enthusiasm grew.
As did the enthusiasm of Hanson’s two sons, Becket and Finn, who were ages 6 and 4. His daughter, Sailor, was six months old, and may not have been able to fully express her enthusiasm at the time.
But it wasn’t until the morning of the first boat parade that Hanson thought to himself, “You know, I’m just going to go do this.”
He rushed over to True Value to pick up a set of rope lights to outline the shape of Salvation.
Then he made an unexpected second trip to True Value.
Then he made a third.
At 69-feet, Salvation required many more lights than Hanson at first thought. (He recommends not waiting until the last minute to decorate one’s boat.)
When Salvation arrived in the channel outside the Longliner Lodge for the parade lineup last year, intermittent lightning bolts were punctuating a steady stream of hail.
John Rouse, who was slated to lead the procession, took one look at Hanson’s hulk-of-a-tug, and said, “why don’t you lead!”
Rouse and Hanson couldn’t have known it at the time, but this exchange would mark a passing of the torch: one month ago, at age 63, John M. Rouse died of pancreatic cancer.
Hanson was moved.
“Looking back at my own lifetime,” Hanson said today, “the things that stick out are these volunteer efforts, the things that people have taken their own time to do in order to make each season fun… It is important for Sitka to set aside time for smaller gestures like this.”
On Sunday, Salvation will once again lead the Sitka Boat Parade. Hanson will skipper. His wife, Ahna, will be on board, as will Becket, Finn and Sailor.
Viewers should keep an eye out for the simple white rope lights, and imagine Hanson and his 7-year-old son Becket putting them up together as their part in keeping a Sitka holiday tradition alive.
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20 YEARS AGO
April 2004
Photo caption: Sitka High students in the guitar music class gather in the hall before the school’s spring concert. The concert was dedicated to music instructor Brad Howey, who taught more than 1,000 Sitka High students from 1993 to 2004. From left are Kristina Bidwell, Rachel Ulrich, Mitch Rusk, Nicholas Mitchell, Eris Weis and Joey Metz.
50 YEARS AGO
April 1974
The Fair Deal Association of Sealaska shareholders selected Nelson Frank as their candidate for the Sealaska Board of Directors at the ANB Hall Thursday.