Fisherman poets and musicians participated in the 12th annual "Stories of the Sea" event at Fishermen's Terminal's Highliner Pub & Grill on Wednesday, May 9th.

Presented in cooperation with Pacific Marine Expo, the Stories of the Sea contest is part of the Seattle Maritime Festival and challenges story tellers, poets and musicians to tell the funniest, heart-warming, or harrowing tale about life at sea.

Each performer was given 10 minutes to perform and their performance was judged based on creativity, presentation, imagery and poetic design by a panel of guest judges.

This year’s judges were longtime local fisherman and professor of Anthropology at Seattle Central Community College Pete Knutson, commercial fisherman and professor of English and Journalism at Seattle Central Community College, Jeb Wyman, and Bruce Buls, editor-at-large for Workboat Magazine.

The house was packed and old favorites like Charlie Sheldon and emcee John Van Amerongen took to the stage along with many newcomers.

This year’s winner was Dan Blanchard, for his true tale that was part eulogy to the Safari Spirit, which caught fire two weeks ago at Fishermen’s Terminal, and part story of survival, as he and his chief engineer narrowly escaped.

The runner-ups were second place winner John Pfaff for his sing-along celebration of the historic and troubled ferry, Kalakala; and third place winner Jay Ubelhart, for his poem about the Washington State Ferry system.

Seattle music legend Knute Bell also took the stage to entertain the crowd with maritime-themed music.

The 2012 Maritime Festival culminates on Saturday with Family Fun Day, featuring the largest tug boat race in the world. For more details, check out their website at: http://www.seattlepropellerclub.org/maritimefestival.html