Rose Festival Fleet Summary:
Today (Monday) we will see the visiting ships from the Rose Festival Fleet head downriver and out to sea.
There was a change of plans for the USS Mustin over the weekend. She was slated to leave on Sunday morning from the Seawall in Portland where the ships were tied up in Tom McCall Park for tours.
Turns out she is leaving Monday with the rest of the visiting fleet. Apologies to anyone who was inconvenienced by that, which I originally announced as happening Sunday morning. I was using the best information I had at the time. But plans change often with ships – they are not like mass transit – operating on set schedules. Their plans change according to their priorities and we have to roll with that as shipwatchers on land.
But I’m pretty confident that we’ll see her pass by on Monday with the rest of the departing fleet.
So here is the rundown as I know it at the moment:
Monday morning around 8 am, the US Navy missile destroyer USS Jack H Lucas will depart from the seawall and head downriver.
Around 9, the USS Mustin is scheduled to depart. She is also a US Navy missile destroyer. Both of these ships were previously docked at the Port of Astoria on their inbound trip to the Rose Festival.
Around 10 am, the USCG Barque Eagle will depart Portland from that same area.
And also around 10 am the Canadian Navy Coastal Defence Vessel HMCS Nanaimo departs Portland.
We should be able to track these ships on AIS sites like vesselfinder and marine traffic. And while the Eagle I believe has her name in her AIS label, the other ships may use the words Govt vessel in their names on AIS. Or they could turn off their AIS entirely because they are active duty vessels.
Estimates for times are about 1.5 hours to Longview/Rainier, and 6 hours to Portland. But this varies with conditions on the river, so transit times vary.
More about the Eagle since I know that’s really high interest:
The Eagle looks as though she is heading out to sea Monday, according to the available info I have – since she has a week before she needs to be back in Astoria for tours, so they may be working with the cadets at sea during that time. But I’m not entirely sure, so let’s watch what she does as she passes Astoria.
According to the Eagle’s Facebook page they’ll be back on Friday, June 13 in Astoria!
Come see us at Pier 1 where we’ll be offering free public tours during the following dates and times:
• Friday, June 13: TBD
• Saturday, June 14: 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
• Sunday, June 15: 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
No tickets are required and tours are free of charge. See you then! But a reminder that you need to have a Real ID or a passport to get on board, according to current federal regulations.
You can follow the Eagle on Facebook by going to “United States Coast Guard Barque EAGLE.”
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