OLYMPIA, Wash. — As the owner of a marina, Kate Gervais is used to seeing boats in the water. But for the last couple of days, she's been seeing them in the air.

The Washington Department of Natural Resources this week used one of its firefighting helicopters to haul abandoned boats off an uninhabited island in the southernmost reaches of Puget Sound, where the vessels came to rest after drifting with the currents, and fly them to the mainland to be deconstructed later.

With 14 vessels removed, it was the agency's largest operation of its kind, officials said.

"It was a very, very weird sight," said Gervais, who owns Boston Harbor Marina, just north of Olympia. "The sail boat with the mast was the weirdest one to see."

A boat removal by helicopter is typically done by a private pilot,

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