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The USCGC Healy, US Coast Guard icebreaker and the Guard’s largest vessel, comes to the Columbia
Today we’ll see the USCGC Healy, a Coast Guard icebreaker and the US military branch’s largest vessel, enters the river early this morning on her way to the Vigor shipyard in Portland for about 8 months of repairs and maintenance. She’s an unusual vessel with some interesting history behind her name.
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The Columbia River Bar is on Red status, so what happens now?
Yesterday the Columbia River Bar was on Red status, per the Columbia River Bar Pilots. It’s the most severe restriction on ship traffic they can impose, and it means most, if not all, ships will be restricted from coming in or out of the river till the weather improves.
We have a big potential ship schedule today, meaning lots of ships want to enter and leave the river. Today we’ll talk about the effect a temporary, weather-related closure like this has on vessels, and what they do while they wait.
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A look at how marine pilots decide which ships will cross the bar in challenging weather
We’ve got another round of inclement weather coming in, and it’s a good time to talk about how our marine pilots, who are in charge of assisting ships in and out of the river, decide when the weather is too difficult to allow ships to transit until things calm down. We’ll talk about that today.
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Who’s on the river and some weather comin’ in, during which it will rain until it stops
Now that the fleeting festivities of New Years have faded away, let’s turn our attention to the workhorse ships that continue to do their work despite holidays, weather and other distractions.
Also, we’ll look at the weather, which is worsening a bit again – and we’ll talk about my favorite KMUN inclement weather forecast ever.
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New Year’s Eve Ship Horns in Astoria
Hear Astoria’s visiting ships ring in the new year with the sonorous sounds of their horns at midnight on New Year’s Eve on the Columbia River.
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How many ships will be off Astoria on NY’s Eve? And, a look at the Dungness crab fishery
Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, and we’ll hopefully hear some ship horns off the Astoria waterfront. Today, we’ll also take a look at the Dungeness Crab Fishery, which kicked off in the local area this past weekend.
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End of the year stuff: New Year’s Eve ship horns, and – the Ship Report is now on Substack
I’m gearing up once more to record ship horns on the Astoria waterfront again this year, when the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve – an annual tradition I happily seek out.
I’ll share the recording with you on January 5th, when the Ship Report returns for the New Year. We never know what it will like: how many ships will be there, how many will choose to participate. So it’s always a surprise. Let’s hope for good sounds and let’s send our good wishes to the mariners on those ships for a good year for them as well as for all of us.
Also, the Ship Report is now on Substack, an easy place for you to go to see all that I create, and other info I share – whether it be podcasts, marine weather, ship schedules and more. Look for The Ship Report on Substack and you’ll find my new page.
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A new storm looms for the coast, and – Santa is saved by the US Coast Guard
Well, weather watchers are tracking an approaching storm that might (or might not) bring damaging winds to our area. We’ll see how that shakes out.
And today we’ll hear a Ship Report holiday tradition: “Coastal Christmas,” a retelling of the story of The Night Before Christmas, coastal- style. It’s a book written by Long Beach Peninsula author Lynette Rae McAdams, illustrated by local artist Sally Lackaff.
In this updated telling of the age-old tale: Santa is saved by the US Coast Guard after his sleigh ends up in the water, essentially saving Christmas. And Santa gets to head home to the North Pole with Dungeness Crab for Mrs. Santa.
Happy Christmas to all!
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‘T is the season, for Dungness crab, that is
Today we’ll talk about the opening at the end of this month of the 2025-26 Dungeness crab fishery in our local area. And hear an excerpt from a 2016 interview I did with a commercial crabber. His name is John Corbin, and he’ll tell us a bit about the process of catching and harvesting Dungeness.
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More weather as our next atmospheric river arrives today
The fire hose of rain is aimed south of us in Clatsop County this time, but meteorologists predict we are looking at about and inch and half in Astoria, and 3 inches or more Tillamook and points south.
The big deal right now is a matter of time, rain and its long term effect on soils. It’s been raining for awhile now and we are seeing the effects of saturated soils on trees, roadbeds and power lines. I read an interesting piece about how the more soaked the ground gets, the less wind it takes to know down a tree. And we are seeing older roadbeds collapse and landslides claim land and dover roads. So be careful out there – things in the landscape may not be the way you last saw them when you next venture out.
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