The Most Recent Ship Report Podcast:

Holidays at sea

It's a good time of year to talk about holidays at sea, for sailors who are often far from home.

Archive Podcasts:

A Coastal Christmas

Dec 24, 2020

Just 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.

Search and Rescue off Astoria

Dec 15, 2020

I had occasion to observe an SAR (Search and Rescue) operation being conducted by the US Coast Guard in the Columbia River off Astoria. They were searching for possible lost kayakers who may have been swept away by King Tides running strong in the river. It was heartbreaking to watch the light fading on a winter day, and the helicopter searching, searching, and finding no one. A cautionary note about paying attention to conditions before you go out.

Situational awareness – an essential quality for mariners

Oct 27, 2020

Today’s show is about situational awareness, the skill of paying attention to what’s happening around you even when your tendency might be to daydream. It’s a factor in maritime accidents, and avoiding them, and is just part of the challenging work that mariners do. We’ll talk about how maritime accidents can happen. And how mariners think ahead to avoid problems, in a work environment where tremendous forces are at play.

The 114th anniversary of the wreck of the Peter Iredale

Oct 26, 2020

Yesterday marked the 114th anniversary of the wreck of the sailing cargo ship Peter Iredale, which ran ashore in foggy conditions on the ocean beach at Clatsop Spit on October 25, 1906. Parts of her steel frame remain on the beach as a reminder of the hazards of operating ships in the Graveyard of the Pacific. Today we remember the Iredale in the words and music, fromĀ  local historian Frank Lehn, and local band the Brownsmead Flats.

Photo courtesy of historian Frank Lehn and the Long Peninsula Friends of Facebook.

Harrowing beach rescue equipment from bygone days

Oct 20, 2020

Before we had the modern ships, planes and helicopters the USCG uses now to rescue people in trouble at sea, we had the US Lifesaving Service, which operated locally here on the Long Beach Peninsula and other area beaches. Today we take a look at the equipment they used then to save lives. Some options presented almost as frightening a prospect as a wreck itself.

Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Source: Library of Congress, 1919.

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