Pray for Seattle, Washington
Fleet Week, July 2026
The burden to pray for Seattle, Washington began on Monday, July 20.
While in the midst of worship at a local home Church, a holy hush came over the room. In an instant, I was overcome with an intense burden to pray for Seattle, Washington. Why?
My prayer was simple. That from Austin, Texas we would extend a measure of peace over the waterways and shipyards in Seattle, Washington. When odd, unprecedented words come from my lips, I take note. A brief internet search brought me to Seattle’s Fleet Week.
Two Hulls on the Sound
On Tuesday—the day after my prayer—a gray hull ghosted up the Sound, past West Seattle, silent as the fog, with a Coast Guard cutter riding by her side. By afternoon the USS Cincinnati and USCGC Stratton were moored to Pier 66 and Fleet Week officially began in Seattle for the 77th time.
From July 21 through 24, the Navy and the Coast Guard bring their ships into Elliott Bay and let the city climb aboard.
What’s Actually in the Water
The 2026 Fleet Week is led by two ships matched in size, hull for hull. The USS Cincinnati is a 418-foot littoral combat ship, a fast trimaran built for the shallow edge of the ocean where most of the world's real fighting happens. Beside her sits the USCGC Stratton, a National Security Cutter of the same length, down from her homeport in Alameda.
They did not come alone. Other Coast Guard vessels and a Seattle fireboat rode in with them for the Parade of Ships arriving Tuesday. Public tours run Wednesday and Thursday; on Friday, the ships are slated to slip their lines and put to sea.
The Dates on the Hull
Of the two main ships in the berth this week, the USCGC Stratton piqued my interest. Her keel was laid on July 20, 2009. Seventeen years later to the day—on July 20, 2026—the sudden burden to pray for Seattle’s shipyards came over me.
One year after the original keel-laying—on July 23, 2010—Michael Obama smashed a bottle on her bow and christened her, the first “First Lady” ever to sponsor a Coast Guard cutter. The ship carries a feminine legacy, named for Captain Dorothy Stratton, who led the Coast Guard’s women’s reserve in the Second World War.
July 23 comes around again this week on a Thursday. Tomorrow is the last day the public can board her at Pier 66, the same date she was christened. Fun fact: this year, July 23rd is also the 9th of Av. Tisha B’Av is the fast on which Jewish tradition mourns the destruction of both temples in Jerusalem along with a litany of other atrocities over the centuries.
A Navy Town’s Oldest Rite
Seattle has hosted this spectacle since 1950. Seafair was born as a civic summer rite in a Navy town, Puget Sound thick with yards and sailors. Fleet Week joined that very first year and has been an annual installment ever since.
This summer marks the 77th Fleet Week in Seattle, Washington.
For those with an ear to hear, I have much to share about an occult ritual tied to the number seventy-seven. Is this the one? Time will tell. Either way, pray.
A Show of Might
This week, ships sit like ducks in the harbor, if sitting ducks were built of reinforced steel and could travel at forty knots. This year’s annual exhibition is especially poignant as we’re in July, celebrating the 250th anniversary of American independence.
Consider this the opening act.
The show of force comes next week during Apollo’s Mechanical Cup when Blue Angels take to the sky over Lake Washington and hydroplanes race the waterways, jets above and boats churning below at speeds reaching nearly 220 MPH. This is when we see America’s full flex in the Pacific Northwest.
PRAY: Join me in praying for the waterways and shipyards of Seattle, Washington.
Pray today, while the water is calm.
I’m Gr8ful.