A look at today’s ship schedule, including a luxury cruise ship, and a chance for northern lights this week

A luxury cruise ship arrives in Astoria today. She’s on her way south to San Francisco, where passengers will board her for a 20-day trip through the Panama Canal to NY. If you have a spare $8K you’d like to spend, that’s what costs to book passage.

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A trip to Samoa on the training ship Golden Bear, and becoming a Golden Shellback

Today, in the final installment of an interview with Samaro Bannister, the captain of the Cal Maritime training ship the Golden Bear, Captain Bannister describes the ship’s two-month intinerary around the Pacific, ending up in Astoria for the 4th of July holiday.

The trip included a rare honor: students became “golden shellbacks” after the ship crossed the spot where the Equator and the International Dateline intersect in the open ocean north of Samoa. It’s a traditional milestone of experience in the lives of mariners, and one that not that many people in the world can say they’ve done.

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More about life at sea aboard the Cal Maritime training ship, the Golden Bear

Today we hear more from my interview with Captain Samaro Bannister – she’s the master of the Cal Maritime training ship, the Golden Bear, which spent 5 days in Astoria pver the 4th of July holiday weekend. Today we talk more with Captain Bannister about running a training ship, where your cargo is students who need to learn all they can during the “at sea” portion of their education.

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A chat with the captain of the Golden Bear

Today we’ll hear the first segment of an interview with the captain of the Cal Maritime training ship, the Golden Bear. Captain Samaro Bannister is a 2000 graduate of the school with an impressive career in the maritime industry.

She holds an unlimited masters license, which allows her to serve as the master on any ship of any tonnage, size, or type, anywhere in the world. And she’s the first woman ever to hold the position of captain on a Cal Maritime training ship.

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Cal Maritime training ship the Golden Bear visits Astoria

We have a special visitor in town for the 4th; the California Maritime Academy’s cadet training ship the Golden Bear is in town. She’s docked at the Port of Astoria until Wednesday. The school is a four-year university that teaches students who want to work in the maritime professions.

Image: The original uploader was Frijole at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

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ATBs& ITBs: cargo, ballast, double and single hulls, and storms at sea

Today we conclude our chat with marine Chief Engineer Bill Young, with a wide ranging talk about liquid cargoes, ballast, double hulled vessels, storms at sea, and seasickness.

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ATBs & ITBs: more questions answered

Today we’ll hear more from my interview with marine Chief Engineer Bill Young, about the technology and uses of ATB and ITB technology in the shipping industry.

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More about ATBs and ITBs from marine chief engineer Bill Young

This week we’re talking about a specialized type of vessel we see here on the Columbia, the ATB (articulated tug and barge) and the ITB (integrated tug and barge). We’ll learn more about how they work, and about the use of the super hard tropical wood, lignum vitae, for high stress bearings and other uses, in the maritime industry.

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A maritime expert talks about ATBs and ITBs

Today we begin a series on ATB and ITB tug and barge rigs: articulated and integrated tug and barge units. We see a lot of them on the Columbia, and they kind of look like a ship, but they’re not. Chief Engineer Bill Young will be talking with us about them this week. A look inside the maritime industry with an expert.

Photo credit: Joanne Rideout. ATB Ocean Reliance, a Crowley Maritime-owned vessel.

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Kirsten Neuschafer honored for Golden Globe Race victory

This past weekend in France, a huge crowd gathered on the beach, in the seaside town of Les Sables d’Olonne,  for the awards ceremony honoring the sailors who competed in the 2022 Golden Globe solo round-the-world sailing race. The race began and ended there after sailors circled the planet in small boats. Out of 16 entrants, 3 finished the race.

At the top of the list: Kirsten Neuschafer, the South African contender who became the first woman to complete and win the grueling non-stop race, after 235 days at sea, during which she backtracked for over a day to rescue a fellow competitor whose boat sank.

Photo credit: Image of Kirsten Neuschafer on the awards stage in Les Sables d’Olonne. Photo courtesy PPL Photo Agency, Tim Bishop/GGR/PPL

Note: Many thanks to Don McIntyre, Golden Globe Race founder and chairman, for permission to use GGR awards ceremony audio, and to Lennie Gallant for permission to use his song, “Minnehaha,” in this podcast. 

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