Trinidad Celebrates The 27th Annual “Blessing of the Fleet”

Overlooking the Trinidad harbor on a sunny Thanksgiving day, the Greater Trinidad Chamber of Commerce invited the community to share blessings and give thanks to the fleet of local fishermen for all of their efforts and safety. 

“Happy Thanksgiving and welcome to the 27th annual blessing of the fleet,” Susan Rotwein of the Chamber of Commerce said. “Can you believe it? 27 years.”

The event started with a traditional Yurok native blessing from the Cher-Ae Indian Heights Community; having the crowd face North, West, East and South to spread to all. 

 The blessing continued with other prayers and a fly over from the Coast Guard.

Every Thanksgiving, local fishermen receive these blessings as well as gifts and traditional crab-shaped cookies before the start of the next crab season.

The founder of Blessing of the Fleet, Margarette O’Brien,  was thrilled to see such a great outcome and to know that the community continues to come together each year to participate. 

“My family history is Italian and I know they bless their boats in Italy, so I thought we need to bless our boats here so that we can keep them safe,” O’Brien said. “It’s really all about community and everybody’s blessings really makes a difference.”

After a break to see family and friends, fishermen will head back on their boats during the start of December.