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The USNS Mercy heads to Portland
Mar 22, 2024The US Navy hospital ship the USNS Mercy is slated to enter the Columbia River Friday morning. If she arrives according to the schedule, she could pass Astoria around 7:30am Friday. She’s headed to the shipyard in Portland at Swan Island. We’ll talk about this iconic ship and her important role in the US military and the world.
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Beautiful, mysterious river fog: we’ll look at what makes that happen
Mar 21, 2024The other morning in Astoria, residents and visitors were treated to a lovely natural event: the river and surrounding areas were shrouded in thick, velvety fog.
Ships sounded their fog horns while they made their way through it, while the hillside above the river enjoyed bright sunshine and blue skies.
Today we’ll talk about river fog and what causes it.
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More on dredging
Mar 20, 2024There’s so much to talk about when it comes to dredging the river… so here’s more nuts and bolts of dredging as a follow up to Monday’s program. We’ll talk about how deep the channels are, other channels on the Columbia besides the main ship channel, and why the Columbia will never be able to accommodate some ships that are just too big.
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The present and future of ship emissions
Mar 19, 2024Sharp-eyed ship watchers concerned about pollution noticed a ship traveling in the river yesterday, emitting what looked like smoke from its stack. As it turns out, seeing that was good news, since it shows the ship has an emission scrubber on board, and what folks saw was mostly steam.
But that sighting opens the door to talk about recent international regulations that have reduced pollution in shipping, with plans for even more reductions by 2050.
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Dredging on the Columbia, and a new beneficial use for dredge spoils
Mar 18, 2024Today the answer to a listener question about dredging on the Columbia River, and a look at new beneficial use for dredge spoils: the many tons of sediment vacuumed off the river bottom annually.
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The rhyme and reason of ship names
Mar 15, 2024Today we’ll talk about a ship in the Astoria Anchorage that’s garnered some attention lately because of her name: the bulk carrier Kobayashi Maru is out there waiting to go upriver and pick up her cargo.
That’s prompted shipwatchers locally to wonder whether she was named by a zealous Star Trek fan, or whether her name is simply a charming term of endearment in Japanese.
The whole thing offers a great excuse to talk about ship names, so that’s what we’ll do today.
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Abandoned ships and crews: a global problem
Mar 14, 2024Today, a listener question about a dilapidated looking ship in the Astoria Anchorage. Does a ship’s appearance signal problems on board? Possibly, but not necessarily. She could just need a good paint job. The ocean is hard on ships.
However, the question speaks to what’s become a global issue: ships being abandoned by their owners with crew on board. In some places in the world it’s reached crisis proportions. And at least once, it happened here.
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Trouble at the Suez and Panama canals affects the whole world
Mar 13, 2024Today we’ll take a look at how and why recent shipping troubles at the Suez Canal and Panama canals affect us all.
Ships now must use alternate strategies to get around two of the most vital waterways in the world, and the effect could be higher inflation and increased costs for consumers.
Photo: Locomotives Tow Container Ship through Miraflores Locks – Panama Canal – Panama.
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons: Adam Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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Car carriers, ballast water, and the complexity of modern ships
Mar 12, 2024Today, a listener question about car carriers and ballast water. We’ll talk about how highly automated many systems are on modern ships and how a computer malfunction can lead to dangerous ballast water problems.
Photo: The Cougar Ace car carrier on its side in the Pacific after a computer issue in 2006 caused her ballast water tanks to become unbalanced. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
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Running aground: how it can happen and what ships do about it
Mar 11, 2024Today, a question about ships on the Columbia running aground: why it sometimes happens and what ships do about it.
It’s not a common occurrence but when it happens, it’s a maritime emergency, and pilots and crews take swift action to get things under control.
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