The Most Recent Ship Report Podcast:

A gem from the Ship Report archives: Interview with a rescue swimmer

There are heroes among us - and we usually don't see them. USCG rescue swimmers go out in terrible conditions at sea to save lives, as part of highly trained rescue helicopter crews. Today, from the Ship Report Archives, we'll hear an excerpt from a 2009 interview with a rescue swimmer at Air Station Astoria.

Archive Podcasts:

Do all big vessels take a pilot on board?

Today, a listener question about marine pilots: which ships take them and which don’t?

In the majority of cases, it’s a matter of the law. And we certainly see a lot of local domestic vessels, like tugs and excursion vessels, and US-flagged river cruise ships, that don’t take pilots. Their captains know the river well.

But almost all large visiting vessels operating in land waterways, worldwide, use the services of marine pilots, for safety reasons.

A visitor asks about ships at anchor off Astoria

I got a question about ships at anchor off Astoria, one I’ve answered before… but it’s always good to revisit these very visible and wonderfully local examples of “how things work” on the river.

Today we’ll talk about tides and their effects on anchored ships, and what their appearance and position tell us about what is happening on the river.

Listener questions about marine pilots

Today, some questions about pilots from a new listener to the Ship Report. A great opportunity to talk about one of my favorite subjects.

Steve asked, “Are pilots onboard for the whole journey, say Astoria to Portland?  At anchorage, as well? Also, are there pilot “bases” in Kalama and Portland in addition to Astoria?” 

Today we’ll talk about these questions and more about the fascinating topic of marine pilots.

Ship gets tug escort on the river

Oct 07, 2024

The containership MSC Damla was supposed to head to Portland on Monday, but she had to remain at sea after she developed temporary steering issues as she was about to enter the river.

Experts on board fixed her steering issues, and the bar pilot got her safely back out to sea. Even though her steering’s fine now, she’ll have a tug escort on the river today.

Look for her passing Astoria around 7:30am on Tuesday, in Portland about about 1:30pm. Track her progress at marinetraffic or vesselfinder.com.

Photo of MSC Damla courtesy Wikimedia Commons.:This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. MSC Damla berthed at North Quay, in the inner harbour of the Port of Fremantle, Western Australia. Photographer: Bahnfrend

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