Today we celebrate the humble shipping container

Last week marked the 67th birthday of an invention that utterly changed shipping: the humble, ubiquitious shipping container. It’s advent, the brainchild of an efficiency-minded trucker, shifted how the world moves cargo, and led to the fast-paced world of ocean commerce we have today.

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

The extraordinary story of the man who came in second

One more story from the Golden Globe Race: soon after Kirsten Neuschafer made history with her win in the Golden Globe solo round the world sailing race, another contender came across the finish line, a day later.

His story is a startling and amazing true tale: Abilash Tomy, Indian Navy officer, aviator, and accomplished long distance sailor. He came back from a tragic accident in the last GGR in 2018, a traumatic event that left him initially unable to walk. Four years later, he came back to compete in what is probably the most grueling boat race in the world, and after 8 months at sea and many setbacks, made it across the finish line to win second place.

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

Kirsten Neuschafer wins the Golden Globe

Yesterday, solo sailor Kirsten Neuschafer won the Golden Globe Race, after spending 235 days alone in a small boat sailing round the world. In doing so, she became the first woman to ever finish the race, the first to ever win it, and the first woman to win any solo round the world sailing race.

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

High tech thrusters make maneuvering easier for cruise ships

Monday we saw a pretty darn big cruise ship leave Astoria, with gusty winds and current among her logistical challenges.  She did it smoothly and without tug assistance. Today we’ll talk about thrusters – high tech sideways propellers that have been a game changer for ship maneuverability.

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

Sick at Sea

When you get sick at home, you can probably hit the couch for a few days and recover. Hopefully you’ll have sick leave at your job. But what if you work on a ship? How is illness or injury handled when a ship is far from shore? We’ll talk about the options on cruise ships and cargo ships.

And we’ll hear a parting audio glimpse of the cruise ship Royal Princess, which visited Astoria yesterday.

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

There’s a big cruise ship in town in Astoria – how big is she?

Today the Port of Astoria hosts the Royal Princess, a pretty large cruise ship by anybody’s standards. We’ll see how she stacks up against another really big ship we saw here recently, the containership MSC Katie.

Photo credit: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

A closer look at today’s Ship Schedule

We haven’t taken a close look at our ship traffic lately, so let’s see who’s on the river today. Turns out some interesting ships and other vessels will grace the river, part of the continuing chain of commerce.

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

More from the buoy deck of the USCGC Elm, Astoria’s buoy tender, Part 4

Today, more from Lt. Junior Grade Kirsten Sharp about the basic work of a buoy tender: what happens on the buoy deck, and how the ship manages to stay upright when she’s hauling a 5 ton buoy up  deck in rough seas.

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

We continue our spotlight on the USCG Buoy Tender Elm, Part 3

More from my interview with Lt. Junior Grade Kirstan Sharp, operations officer on board the USCGC Elm. Today we go from the bridge to the buoy deck to talk about this ship’s important mission.

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More