The Most Recent Ship Report Podcast:

The Vigorous drydock in Portland’s shipyard is an unusual maritime marvel

Today, an answer to a listener question about the Vigorous dry dock at the Swan Island shipyard in Portland. It's an engineering marvel, and the largest floating drydock in North America. We'll take a closer look.

Archive Podcasts:

Who will be coming upriver for Fleet week

Jun 05, 2023

Today 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

More on ship running lights at night

Jun 02, 2023

Today 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.

The wonderful back story of a “mystery ship”

May 30, 2023

Folks 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.

A closer look at unusual ship on the river this week

May 26, 2023

This 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.

The oft-misunderstood but essential lifejacket

May 24, 2023

In 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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