Celebrate Tugboats at the Harbor Days Festival!

Harbor Days is an annual festival held Labor Day weekend in Olympia WA which celebrates tugboats and maritime history.

Tugboats are powerful little boats which guide large ships and barges into and out of harbors.

Harbor Days executive Director Carol Riley states the festival is the largest vintage tug and race on earth.

"In the late 1800's," Carol explains, "the harbor was really thriving for clams and oysters and timber. It was a very rugged place. The tall ships would come into Budd Bay, and as they entered the bay the tugboats would race out to the tall ships and guide (them) into the harbor. They didn't have any communication devices like we have, so the first tugboat to get to the tall ship would get the job. So every day was a tugboat race."

The 44th annual Harbor Days festival offered walk on tugboat tours, and boasted a plethora of food vendors, music and entertainment.

One tugboat we toured boasted 4300 Horsepower! Enough to tug a Carnival Cruise ship to sea!

With great horsepower comes great big engines. There is little room to move about on a tugboat. This was the furthest I could stand from it for the photo.