HANSVILLE — Whales are a common sight in Hansville. Cruise ships, submarines and Coast Guard cutters are all old hat. But the 288-foot-tall radar station that rumbled past Point No Point on Tuesday was something no one in town had seen.

“I’ve seen some weird stuff go by,” Hansville resident Kate Higgins said. “But this was the weirdest.”

Dozens of North Kitsap residents turned out to the shoreline to watch the station creep by with an escort of tugboats, en route to a Seattle shipyard. Some had heard about the floating oddity on the news and were awaiting its arrival, others saw it from their kitchen windows and headed to the beach for a better look.

“The whole town came out it looks like,” Mary Williams said.

The sea-based radar station is operated by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and is part of the nation’s ballistic missile defense system, according to an agency release. The station will be moored at Vigor Shipyards in Seattle for the next three months, undergoing maintenance and repairs.