In what I am beginning to call the “Amazing Saga of the Carnival Panorama,” the mechanically-ailing cruise ship that spent a week in Astoria trying to figure out a workaround to get to the shipyard in Portland, has “left the building,” at least for the moment.

She headed out to sea yesterday afternoon from the Port of Astoria, to make her way to British Columbia, to a shipyard that can remove her huge “whale tail” funnel so she can fit under the Columbia River’s fixed bridges.

Once that’s done, she’ll be back to the Columbia to head to drydock in Portland.

And yes, to anwer that quite reasonable question folks have been asking: she has to go to Portland. Other regional shipyards are apparently full. And she’s having steering and proplusion problems, so traveling far from the PNW to another yard is probably not an option.

Photo: Joanne Rideout. The Carnival Panorama at the Port of Astoria at dusk on Sunday, shortly before she departed for British Columbia.