Wednesday
Draw favors Neah Bay
Rain continues to fall across Peninsula B10
Red Devils boys basketball gets favorable matches B1
PENINSULA DAILY NEWS March 2, 2016 | 75¢
Port Townsend-Jefferson County’s Daily Newspaper
Wetter winter seen in area
BIG things on the horizon
High rainfall, but no records BY ARWYN RICE PENINSULA DAILY NEWS KEITH THORPE/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
The London-flagged container ship Benjamin Franklin passes by Ediz Hook in Port Angeles as ship watchers, from left, Kathy Durr and bobbi fabellano take a selfie, and Richard Partridge, Carol Kubicka, Val Jackson and Nancy Jackson watch it pass Tuesday. The ship, among the largest container vessels in the world, swung by Port Angeles to drop off a pilot after unloading cargo in Seattle. The cargo carrier was scheduled to proceed to the port of Xiamen, China.
Hulking ship, among world’s largest, brings out onlookers Pilots man the most mammoth vessel to ever visit continent BY LEAH LEACH PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
les on Tuesday. “It was flawless. It went off without a hitch,” said Capt. David Grobschmit, president of Puget Sound Pilots, who was on the ship during its trip into Seattle. “It was awesome. It’s been the lifelong goal of every pilot to handle a ship of that size,” Grobschmit said.
Guiding 200,000 tons
PORT ANGELES — Directing the largest ship to ever dock in North America into Elliot Bay in Seattle was “awesome,” said the president of the Puget Sound Pilots on Tuesday. Pilots boarded the Benjamin Franklin, one of the largest container ships in the world, in Port Angeles at about 3 a.m. Monday morning. They steered the huge ship on its inaugural run into Seattle and returned with it as the behemoth sailed past Port Townsend, Dungeness Spit and Port Ange-
The 200,000-ton ship was maneuvered into its berth at Pier 18 on Harbor Island by lead pilot Capt. Jim Schaffer, Grobschmit said. Electronics pilot Capt. Ed Marmol recorded the journey. Grobschmit and Shaffer got off in Seattle, where the ship was unloaded of electronics and other goods for such stores as Target and Best Buy and loaded with some of Washington state’s biggest exports, including lumber and apples.
“It was flawless. It went off without a hitch. It was awesome. It’s been the lifelong goal of every pilot to handle a ship of that size.” CAPT. DAVID GROBSCHMIT president, Puget Sound Pilots Capt. Peter Giese, accompanied by Marmol — who kept filming — piloted the ship out of the Port of Seattle. North Olympic Peninsula residents oohed, ahhed and snapped photos of the 1,310-foot-long cargo ship — which is twice as long as the Space Needle, nearly three times longer than the largest Washington state ferry and wider than a football field — as it made its way through Admiralty Inlet and the Strait of Juan de Fuca on Tuesday. TURN
TO
SHIP/A7
The sound of rain and sight of snowcapped mountains are indeed signs of a wetter-than-normal winter, according to the National Weather Service. But precipitation isn’t even close to a record on the North Olympic Peninsula, said Brent Bower, a weather service hydrologist. This season’s rainfall on the Peninsula ranges between just above average to the top third of rainfall records, Bower said. In Forks, where records have been kept since the late 1800s, 62.50 inches of rain had fallen during the “meteorological winter,” which is measured from Dec. 1 through the last day of February, according to National Weather Service records.
Standing records The average for the period is 48.24 inches of rain, with a record high of 86.83 inches in 1998-99 and a record low of 22.73 inches, 1914-15. “In that record-high year, they got almost 30 inches of rain a month for three months,” Bower said. Bower noted the record year — 199899 — was a La Niña year that shattered many rainfall records. That includes the record of 51.08 inches of rain at Quilcene, on the east side of the Peninsula, where the rainfall was plentiful this year but did not approach a record. In Quilcene, the weather service recorded 30.71 inches of rain during meteorological winter. TURN
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WINTER/A7
Two sent to hospital by Highway 19 wreck Two-vehicle crash impacted traffic for an hour near Port Townsend BY CHARLIE BERMANT PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT TOWNSEND — Two people were sent to a hospital Tuesday morning after a two-car wreck that slowed traffic for about an hour. At 9:02 a.m., a black Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck driven by Gabriel Shepherd, 19, of Port Townsend struck a Nissan Altima driven by Shantelle T. Hall, 18, of Chimacum. Both were traveling northbound on state Highway 19 just
past the access road to Jefferson County International Airport.
Heavy traffic
care hospital. The hospital did not respond to a request about the patients’ conditions Tuesday afternoon. Shepherd was cited for speed too fast for conditions, according to Winger. The northbound lane was blocked and traffic was alternately routed to the southbound lane until 9:59 a.m. when the area was cleared. Both vehicles were severely damaged and towed away, the State Patrol said.
Hall had slowed almost to a stop because of heavy northbound traffic, but Shepherd did not slow and struck her from behind, according to Trooper Russ Winger, State Patrol spokesman. ________ BILL BEEZLEY/EAST JEFFERSON FIRE-RESCUE Shepherd received facial lacerations and Hall complained of Jefferson County Editor Charlie Ber- A Nissan Altima was rear-ended by a Chevy pickup truck head and neck pain. Both were mant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or Tuesday morning, severely damaging both vehicles and sending the drivers to the hospital with minor injuries. transported to Jefferson Health- cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
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BUSINESS CLASSIFIED COMICS COMMENTARY DEAR ABBY DEATHS HOROSCOPE LETTERS NATION/WORLD
B10 B5 B4 A9 B4 A8 B4 A9 A3
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A2 B6 B1 B10