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Who will be coming upriver for Fleet week
Jun 05, 2023Today we’ll hear about when ships will be coming upriver for Fleet Week for the Portland Rose Festival.
(The image here is the USS Lake Champlain, currently at the Port of Astoria.)
Here’s a quick look at the ships that will be coming in from out in the Pacific and heading to Portland as part of the Rose Festival Fleet:
Tuesday
- HMCS Yellowknife – Vancouver BC to Portland – Ast~5:30am/Ptld~2pm
Wednesday
- HMCS Nanaimo – Canada to Portland – Ast~5:30am/Ptld~2pm
- HMCS Edmonton – Canada to Portland – Ast~5:30am/Ptld~2pm
Thursday
- USS Lake Champlain – Port of Astoria to Portland – Dep Ast~8am/Ptld~4pm
This schedule is for ships entering the river from the Pacific Ocean to attend the Rose Festival. There will be other vessels in attendance at the festival that are already on the river and will be in Portland.
For more info about Fleet Week, here’s their website: https://www.rosefestival.org/events/2023/fleet-week2
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Rose Festival Fleet week is here
Today, an overview of what ships we’ll see here in the river for Fleet Week, a cherished part of the annual Rose Festival in Portland.
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More on ship running lights at night
Jun 02, 2023Today we hear more from retired Columbia River Bar Pilot Captain Robert Johnson about lights on ships at night, including some interesting detail about bar pilot boardings in the ocean at night. We’ll hear about measures taken on board ships so that pilots and their helicopter crews can see what they are doing as they handle pilot operations in the dark on a moving vessel.
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The bulbous bow
Jun 01, 2023We see this every day on the river and probably don’t notice it. But it’s a really important design feature on all the ships we see: the bulbous bow.
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Running lights, vital equipment for night time travel on the water
May 31, 2023Today we take a look back in the Ship Report archives to an interview about running lights, with retired Columbia River Bar Pilot Capt. Robert Johnson.
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The wonderful back story of a “mystery ship”
May 30, 2023Folks were tlaking recently about a ship that appeared off the coast in the ocean off Cannon Beach and appeared to be running back and forth up and down the coast in a small area.
While it turned out to be one of our Military Sealift Command vessels waiting for a berth in Portland, there’s a wonderful backstory about why the ship was so close to shore. A reminder that just because we don’t know why something is happening, that doesn’t mean the worst.
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A closer look at unusual ship on the river this week
May 26, 2023This week some shipwatchers noticed the GSL Eleni coming down river: an odd sight, she was a containership with no containers on board. We’ll talk a little about her backstory.
Photo of the GSL Eleni, courtesy Gregg Akehurst, shared with permission from the Ship Report Community Photo Page on Facebook. The ship is heading downriver on the Columbia with a support tug on her stern.
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A look at marine pilots on the river
May 25, 2023Today we take a look at something that goes relatively unnoticed here on the river every day: the work of marine pilots on ships here on the Columbia River. They are part of a network of marine professionals who work behind the scenes to ensure safe transit of vessels from the ocean to ports and back again.
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The oft-misunderstood but essential lifejacket
May 24, 2023In most drowning accidents, the victim was not wearing a PFD, or lifejacket. It’s a sad and somewhat bewildering statistic that most people don’t wear a lifejacket when boating or otherwise in the water. Today we talk about some of the misconceptions about the lowly PFD. It’s an often-ignored piece of ordinary gear that could save your life.
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Drought at the Panama Canal
May 23, 2023The Panama Canal region is in the midst of a drought, and there simply is not as much water in the canals and lakes as ships are accustomed to. Starting this week, they’ll have to load less cargo. This will have a ripple effect through the shipping industry that will cause costs to rise for some goods.
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