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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Interview on board the USCGC Elm, Astoria’s buoy tender, Part 2

Today we’ll hear more from my tour of the USCGC Elm, Astoria’s hometown buoy tender with Lt. Junior Grade Kirsten Sharp. We’ll learn about the bridge, and how a 215 foot long ship can spin on a dime, thanks to cool technology and a joystick.

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A close up look at the USCGC Elm, Astoria’s buoy tender

Today we begin hearing excerpts of my interview with Lt. Junior Grade Kirsten Sharp, operations officer on board the USCGC Fir, Astoria’s buoy tender. This week we’ll learn about what buoy tenders do, and about opportunities for women in the Coast Guard.

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Woman, Captain, Rebel: a new book about a female Icelandic sea captain, Part 2

Today we hear Part 2 of an interview with anthropogist and author Dr. Margaret Willson about her new book, “Woman, Captain, Rebel, The Extraordinary True Story of a Daring Icelandic Sea Captain.”

We’ll take a look at what it was like to commercial fish during the early 1800s in Iceland. People went to sea in open rowboats, clad in woolen clothing with animal skins for protection against the elements, with the fish piling up around their feet as they worked, often in wintry conditions..

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