Equipment problems plague cargo ship at Port of Astoria

The CL Lindy, the cargo ship carrying wind turbine blades that made an unscheduled stop at the Port of Astoria last week to resolve some cargo issues, is still there. She’s waiting on repairs to a broken crane on board. Until that’s fixed, she’ll stay in Astoria. Depending on how quickly those repairs happen, she could be on her way soon. If she is still here by the end of the day today, she will move to the Astoria Anchorage temporarily to make way for a cruise ship that is calling at the Port on Tuesday.

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

Unusual cargo transfer at the Port of Astoria today

Today, in a very unusual maneuver, a bulk carrier will stop at the Port of Astoria and unload six wind turbine blades onto a barge for transport to Longview.

It should make for an interesting sight for folks who can stop by the port docks for a peek. Look for the CL Lindy around 8 am at the Port.

The reason she’s stopping there is that some of her cargo is blocking visibility from the bridge and that has to be remedied for safety reasons. It will be a time consuming and delicate operation.

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

Spring brings a dangerous combination: hot weather and very cold water

Today we’ll talk about cold water immersion issues when the air is hot and the water is cold. We’ll talk about why that can be a dangerous combination.

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

Two cruise ships for the price of one today in Astoria

Today we’ll see two huge cruise ships in town for the day, potentially doubling the population of Astoria in visitors. One ship will anchor off the downtown waterfront, and take passengers back and forth between the ship and land by boat.

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

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