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Archive Podcasts:
King tides, atmospheric river, sneaker waves, oh my!
Jan 12, 2021Today’s weather and tides are wreaking havoc in coastal Oregon and Washington today as an atmopsheric river dumps up to 10 inches of rain in our area. We’ll talk about what ships do when the weather gets awful, and what to expect if you’re on land.
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Shipyards: another vital and unseen aspect of the maritime industry
Jan 11, 2021Today we talk about the building of a new USCG ship in a shipyard, and the important ongoing role a shipyard plays in a vessel’s life, long after she’s first built and underway.
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A look at local river tides
Jan 08, 2021Today we take a look at local tides on the Columbia River: a complex and powerful subject.
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Anchoring series: how the chain holds the ship in place
Jan 05, 2021Today we talk with retired Columbia River Bar Pilot Capt. Thron Riggs about how the anchor and chain hold the ship in place. Hint: the chain does the bulk of the work, because of its massive weight.
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New Year’s Eve Ship Horns on the Columbia
Jan 04, 2021Astoria embraced a long standing tradition again this New Year’s Eve, ushering in the new year in maritime style on the Columbia River. ‘Round midnight, an ethereal mix of sonorous ship horns, spontaneous fireworks and midnight revelers in the streets filled the air, transforming a typically rainy Pacific Northwest winter night into something special to be remembered.
Note: if you want to skip ahead to hear the New Year’s ship horns segment, listen in at about [2:49] in the recording.
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New Year’s Eve on the Astoria Waterfront – will we have ship horns?
Dec 31, 2020A look at plans for ship horns on the waterfront tonight for New Year’s Eve in Astoria.
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The Coastal Jet
Dec 30, 2020Today we’ll listen to a clip from the Ship Report archives: part of a talk Columbia River Bar Pilot Capt. Thron Riggs gave at the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, talking about a local weather phenomenon called the Coastal Jet. It involves fast winds close to the coast, creating a counter intuitive situation where ships approaching the Columbia River Bar often find worse weather near shore than they experienced way out at sea.
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Anchoring series: Why ships always anchor in the same places
Dec 29, 2020More from retired Columbia River Bar Pilot Capt. Thron Riggs on anchoring ships, and why ships anchor generally in the same part of the river and not just anywhere.
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Anchoring series: how pilots decide where to anchor
Dec 28, 2020More on anchoring from Capt. Thron Riggs, retired Columbia River bar pilot. Today we talk about how pilots decide where to put a ship when they reach an anchorage area.
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A Coastal Christmas
Dec 24, 2020Just in time for Christmas Eve, a reading of “A Coastal Christmas,” by Long Beach Peninsula author Lynette Rae McAdams (the book is illustrated by Astoria artist Sally Lackaff).
It’s a retelling of the traditional Night Before Christmas story. But in this Pacific Northwest version, Santa gets rescued by some fishermen and the US Coast Guard.
Graphic: the cover of the chapbook, A Coastal Christmas, by Lynette Rae McAdams, illustrated by Sally Lackaff.
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