On a bluebird Sunday, a few dozen people gathered at the Small Boat Harbor for the Blessing of the Fleet.
There was some confusion among people who attended about when exactly the tradition started in Haines – but many said the weather was the nicest it has been in years on the day of the ceremony. The annual gathering is sponsored by the Haines Ministerial Association and brings a multi-denominational crowd.
“One of my favorite things about it,” said Haines Presbyterian Church Pastor Dana Perreard, “[is] you get folks who aren’t regular churchgoers because they want to honor their family members and remember them.”
Karl Johnson, who had a palm leaf tucked into his back pocket for most of the service, walked up to drop it into a basket as the bell tolled for his friend Richard “Dick” Boyce. Boyce was a commercial fisherman who drowned after falling off of his boat in 2012.
Johnson choked up when he talked about Boyce.
“He was a good friend and a father of three, like me,” he said.
Boyce was also in one of the boating safety classes Johnson taught for many years in Haines. It was a struggle to see someone he taught die at sea.
Karl walked away from the harbor holding his wife Bonnie Johnson’s hand after the ceremony. The couple said Boyce isn’t the only person they wanted to remember.
“One of many,” he said. “We know too many names on the list.”
That list — there are 35 people on it this year — seems too long to Perreard, too.
“That impacts me every year,” he said. “I think, ‘man this town is not that big.’ It’s quite a few for a town this size.”