THE HARBOR COLUMN:Shoving off and casting out for Make-a-Wish

Ahoy.

While most of you are sipping your coffee and reading this column, I am heading south for the San Diego Yacht Club to board a vessel entered in the Make-a-Wish Tuna Challenge. The nice motor yacht is owned by the Maritime Institute and is used as a training vessel.

We will have a motley crew aboard, including Ray Tsuneyoshi, the Boating and Waterways Director for California, and Chandler Bell, the radio show manager.

Unfortunately, the owner of the Maritime Institute, Rags Laragione — who planned the fishing trip — will not be able to join us as he had to fly north for a family emergency.

So the fateful voyage is mostly in my hands — with the help of the others — and we are cutting the dock lines tonight to be in position of the 5 a.m. lines in the water start on Saturday.

We will determine once we start reeling in the fish as to when we will return to the dock. Weigh-in cut-off is 10 in the morning on Sunday, so we may spend a night at sea.

I am worried that if we catch a nice tuna that Ray will eat most of the fish as sashimi before we can reach the weigh-in station. So, I will have to keep an eye on him, and the rules do state that all marlin are to be in the catch-and-release category.

This event is now the largest tuna tournament in the continental United States, and the Tuna Challenge of 2005 raised $300,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of San Diego.

This money was able to fund 25% of their wishes this year, which is very commendable to those who participate in the tournament and the awards dinner auction on Sunday.

On another note, I can’t believe the continuing flood of letters in the Forum section of this paper about Rupert, the swan who was accidentally killed by a Harbor Patrol boat responding to an emergency.

I have been receiving a number of e-mails about this incident, and you should hear the conversions on the docks throughout the harbor — and other harbors. The talk of this incident has spread outside of Newport Harbor, and I would not be surprised to see the BBC trucks roll up in Balboa.

In my column last week, I discussed what I believe are some of the behind-the-scenes issues that this incident has raised and the motivation of some of the letter writers.

However, from what I am reading, plus the e-mails that I am receiving, the vast majority of people are not on the side of the Harbor Patrol, which is not good news.

The boating community and the community at large must trust and support the city’s law enforcement officers, whether it’s the Police Department or the Orange County Sheriff’s Department operating the Harbor Patrol in the county’s three harbors.

The harbor master has an opportunity to smooth the waters by making a statement or responding to the issues raised by the public. I think that a response would help quell most of the concerns or questions, but staying mum is generating a lot of bad feelings in the community.

The news of the week is an amazing new diving record set by a Navy diver on Aug. 1, when he reached the depth of 2,000 feet. The diver was wearing a new diving suit and plunged the depths off the coast of La Jolla. This is amazing, and this suit will change the rescue techniques for submarines stranded on the sea floor. I am curious how long it takes to launch and recover a diver who is going into those depths.

Remember to tune in to the No. 1 boating talk radio show in the nation at noon Saturdays. “Capt. Mike Whitehead’s Boathouse Radio Show” is on KCBQ-AM (1170) and can be heard online at www.boathouseradio.com.

Safe voyages.