Tonight and Saturday night, we Washingtonians can enjoy free front-row seats as Portland’s annual Christmas Ships Parade gets underway.
Whole flotillas of privately owned boats lit up like ornaments cruise along the Columbia and Willamette rivers many nights in December.
The Columbia fleet and the Willamette fleet usually do that separately, but tonight and Saturday they’ll form a combined fleet and head to this side of the Columbia River to make a couple of extra-big splashes just for us — tonight in west Vancouver and Saturday at the Port of Camas-Washougal.
Leading a river parade may sound like boatloads of fun, but it’s also been a serious skill builder for Columbia fleet skipper Doug Romjue of Vancouver.
Christmas shipping “makes people better boaters,” he said. “Most don’t normally go out at night, let alone navigate some of the tricky things we navigate.”
“Tricky things” include forming an orderly yet leisurely line of vessels that stays safe while also accommodating speedier river traffic, he said.
“River traffic is coming around us all the time. They radio us and sometimes we’ve got to figure out how to split up the line. I’ve got to get 30 (boats) out of the way,” Romjue said. “Sometimes you’ve just got to move over.”
And sometimes the challenge isn’t other boats, but Mother Nature. Last year’s parade launch ran into a stiff wind blasting from the northwest, Romjue said.
“There were 3-foot swells coming up the river,” he said. “Everybody was fine, but you had to be really careful. It was a little scary.”
None of which has dissuaded Romjue from being a Christmas shipper for 28 years and the Columbia fleet’s skipper for 20.
“It’s my family Christmas tradition now,” he said. “If you ask somebody to come over to your house at Christmas, they might be like, ‘Well, I’m kind of busy.’ But if you ask if they’d like to go out for a night on a Christmas ship, they’ll say, ‘How many people can I bring?’ ”
Romjue expects a big year.
“Our total sign-ups are pushing 70 and the Columbia fleet might have as many as 40, which is the most I’ve had in a long time,” he said.
Big splashes
Watch this space nearly every day between now and Dec. 22 for Columbia River parade route maps (except Sunday, Monday and Dec. 16, which are parade days off).
Tonight at 7, the combined fleet leaves Portland’s M. James Gleason Boat Ramp for Vancouver’s Marine Park, then moves west past our old and new restaurants, condominiums and pedestrian pathways — all of which make excellent viewing stations. If you’re determined to get a great view, plan to be in position plenty early.
The same itinerary — across to Vancouver and west along our waterfront — is set for Tuesday and Dec. 17 and 19, but it will only be the Columbia River fleet participating on those dates, not the combined fleet. (The whole combined fleet sails again Friday, but sticks to the Portland side, visiting North Portland Harbor.)
Saturday is probably our side’s biggest, best parade night, with the whole combined fleet showing off farther to the east, in front of the Parker’s Landing Marina at the Port of Camas-Washougal. That gets underway at 6 p.m., but the port will open doors at 5 p.m. for the annual viewing party — complete with cider, cookies and carolers from Washougal High School — in its big-windowed meeting room. That’s a free event. (The first 100 children will get a free book courtesy Printforia, a port tenant.)
Later in December
After this weekend, the mass flotilla mostly splits in two. The Columbia fleet usually departs at 7 p.m. from Portland’s M. James Gleason Boat Ramp.
On Wednesday and Dec. 18, the fleet will loop in front of Wintler and Marine parks before heading west as usual to visit the new waterfront.
On Dec. 13, the Columbia fleet heads even farther east, under the Interstate 205 Bridge, and past Steamboat Landing for a turnabout off 164th Avenue.
On Dec. 14, the whole combined fleet assembles at St. Helens, Ore., and visits the RV park at Woodland (weather permitting).
In case you want to travel farther to catch it, the Willamette fleet usually launches at 7 p.m. from RiverPlace Marina in Portland, and generally heads south to visit Milwaukie and Lake Oswego.
Christmas shippers always love greeting their fans. Meet-and-greet mixers are scheduled for 8 p.m. Dec. 21 and 2 p.m. Dec. 22 at the public dock in front of RiverPlace Marina.
The new Maryhill Winery at The Waterfront Vancouver will host dinner-and-viewing events every day the Christmas Ships are scheduled to swing by: Friday and Dec. 10, 11, 17, 18 and 19. The $85 ticket gets you a dinner buffet, live music, two glasses of wine and a chance to view the ships from either the warm tasting room, or the nippy outdoor patio.
WareHouse ’23 also hosts a special viewing party and dinner, with live music, on Dec. 11. That’s a fundraiser for the Police Activities League, and prices start at $75.
