Avast! This August 3 and 4, come down to beautiful Blaine Harbor for the Drayton Harbor Maritime Festival. A celebration of all things maritime, the festival brings family, mateys, and community together for raft races, treasure hunts, pet parades, and a visit from the tall ships.
“It’s a celebration of all things maritime,” says Carroll Solomon, Blaine Chamber Secretary.
Everyone’s encouraged to dress up like a pirate and watch the Prestigious George Raft Race. Named after the Hollywood actor and modeled after the Devonshire’s River Lyn annual raft race, the race was brought to Blaine nearly 20 years ago. Pirate-clad participants race through the marina with homemade rafts made from recycled materials, and must make their way to the finish line without sinking. First place gets a trophy they can keep for a year—before passing it on to the next winner.
“Sometimes they sink and sometimes they make it,” says Solomon. “You got people lined up and down the marina cheering on their favorites.”
The Drayton Harbor Maritime Festival began with the raft race. Back then, the festivities used to be called Plover Days. People paid in pledges to see who would win, and money went to the funding the Plover, one of the original cannery boats, back when they were trying to make it seaworthy again. The organization that owns the Plover was called the Drayton Harbor Maritime Association, where the festival got its name.
The tall ships are another weekend highlight. Traditionally rigged sailing ships, the Lady Washington and the Hawaiian Chieftain come nearly every year, and are big favorites on both sides of the border.
“They are kind of the star attraction for that event,” says Solomon. “People in Canada can see them from miles away. We get phone calls from people in White Rock that see them sailing in to port.”
The Lady Washington is a full-scale replica of the original, which became the first American vessel to make landfall on North America’s west coast and the first American ship to visit Honolulu and Japan.
The replica has been in movies and TV, including Pirates of the Caribbean and Star Trek: Generations.
The Hawaiian Chieftain, built in 1988, was originally designed for cargo trade among the Hawaiian Islands, and its design was influenced by early colonial passenger travel among Atlantic coastal cities and towns.
Today, both ships are a celebration of history.
“Blaine, going back to the turn of the century, was one of the main seaports for the West Coast, back when ten thousand people lived in Blaine,” says Solomon. “Those ships are from that era, because they’re 18th century boats, though these were built after that. The Lady Washington was a real ship back in the 1700s, and the first ship that took goods overseas.”
Fleets of sailing ships like the Lady Washington were built in Blaine for the Alaska Packers Association cannery across the harbor. The cannery ran where the Semiahmoo Resort stands today. It felt right for it to be part of Drayton Harbor’s celebration, Solomon says, as they were right in the same era of history.
The parks department will have a “Pirate Day” on Saturday, inviting kids to come down to the Marine Park playground and dress up in pirate costumes for a treasure hunt. The newly christened seadogs also get invited onto the tall ships for a private tour. There will be games, a costume contest, and prizes.
“A lot of other people go with the pirate theme as well,” says Solomon. “We have two groups who come—I guess this is a hobby for them. They dress up like pirates and they go to various events and just walk in like ‘ho ho ho, here we are, let’s have a sword fight!’”
Also featured are Plover rides, food and arts-and-crafts vendors, and a model boat collection displayed in the Blaine Harbor Boating Center. Sunday will have a pet parade, too. Bring any kind of pet, dress them up, and show off their tricks for cute prizes. Though you’ll mostly see dogs, last year’s winner was a snake, Solomon says.
Be sure to visit downtown Blaine while you’re at it. Grab a bite to eat at the Bordertown Mexican Grill or Drayton Harbor Oyster Company and finish it off with ice cream from Edaleen Dairy. There’s plenty of shopping too, from organic clothing and lifestyle options at Rawganique to thrifty finds at the Wildbird Treasure Nest Boutique.
Join in on the maritime fun at Drayton Harbor Maritime Festival, kicking off August 3 and 4.
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