Notes from the Island — Sept. 20

• The saga of the sunken Aleut­ian Isle fish­ing ves­sel con­tin­ues. After being raised to the sur­face over the week­end and hav­ing near­ly 800 gal­lons of con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed water removed, recov­ery crews deter­mined that inac­ces­si­ble pock­ets of water still on board the ves­sel made it too heavy to lift onto a recov­ery barge. Crews addi­tion­al­ly dis­cov­ered that the cur­rent place­ment of the rig­ging places excess stress on the ves­sel’s struc­ture, which could cause it to break apart when raised. Yes­ter­day the ves­sel and recov­ery crane were moved to shal­low­er water in Mitchell Bay, where it will be pos­si­ble for crews to de-fuel, de-water, and re-rig the ves­sel, and sur­round the entire oper­a­tion with booms to pre­vent con­t­a­m­i­nants from escap­ing the area.
• The Nation­al Trans­porta­tion Safe­ty Board has released a pre­lim­i­nary report about the Labor Day week­end crash of a float­plane that had depart­ed from Fri­day Har­bor. Recov­ery efforts for the plane are expect­ed to begin next week.
• The third annu­al scare­crow con­test takes place this Octo­ber. The Cham­ber of Com­merce will be accept­ing reg­is­tra­tions from Oct. 8–15, and then the scare­crows will be on dis­play around town for com­mu­ni­ty judg­ing from Oct. 20–28. Email becki@sanjuanisland.org to learn more about reg­is­tra­tion. The con­test is also spon­sored by the Friends of the San Juan Island Library.
• Saltaire Vine­yard is host­ing an open house this week­end — Fri­day through Sun­day — from noon to 6 p.m. each day. There will be vine­yard tours, wine tast­ing, and bot­tle sales. You can bring a pic­nic with you if you’d like. Saltaire is locat­ed at 3166 Pear Point Rd.
• The Land Bank’s San Juan Island stew­ard­ship staff invite the pub­lic to a tour of the upcom­ing eco-restora­tion of Gar­ry oak habi­tat on the west side of Mount Grant Pre­serve. The event takes place on Fri­day, Sept. 30 from 2–4:30 p.m. and advance reg­is­tra­tion is required.
• Thanks to our adver­tis­ers for their con­tin­ued sup­port of the San Juan Update — includ­ing Simon­son & Zam­brovitz.

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