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Why bad weather closes the river bar here on the Columbia
Feb 14, 2023The Columbia River Bar is on Red status until the weather clears sometime this morning. We’ll take a look at why our river’s mouth is considered the most dangerous river entrance in the world by marine insurer Lloyd’s of London.
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Wintry weather could slow ship traffic
Feb 13, 2023We’ve got a little bit of everything on our weather plate today, on land and sea: High Surf Advisory, Winter Weather Advisory, Columbia River Bar on Yellow status, which means ship traffic maybe asked to wait. We’ll see what happens as this Alaskan weather system spins through our area today.
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Tides, weather and ships in the anchorage
Feb 10, 2023Today a look at tides and how they affect ships in the anchorages. And more on how weather can affect tides too. Watching the tides is one way to feel a little more connected to our natural world.
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What looks like smoke from ship stacks on the river has a much better cause: IMO 2020
Feb 09, 2023Today we’ll talk about a recent sight on the river that caught my attention and the attention of some other people too: what looked like white smoke pouring from a ship heading upriver. Turns out it has a much better explanation: it’s steam from scrubbers that are pulling pollutants out of the exhaust to meet new emissions standards enacted three years ago.
Today we’ll revisit the maritime industry game-changing regulation that cut certain damaging ship emissions in half: IMO 2020.
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Knockdowns, broken gear and injuries highlight the tough Golden Globe solo race
Feb 08, 2023With skippers having traveled about 20,000 miles in this grueling solo round the world race, boats remaining the race are approaching Cape Horn. This stretch is possibly the most treacherous part of their path to circle the globe without stopping or accepting outside aid. Already boats have suffered damaging knockdowns and endured 60 knot winds.
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Lost fishing boat highlights the connection between our lives and and their work
Feb 07, 2023A fishing boat was lost at sea on Sunday off Willapa Bay, with two survivors and a lost crewman who has been the subject of an ongoing Coast Guard search. Tragedies like these remind us how much we owe our hardworking fishing families. It’s a sad fact that news stories like these are often overlooked by mainstream media, because death and tragedy at sea are not uncommon. It’s up to us, their local communities, to honor their loss.
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The Case of the Mad Boat Thief
Feb 06, 2023In one of the most bizarre maritime stories to ever happen here on the lower Columbia, a wanted fugitive from Canada, who was also wanted by local police, allegedly stole a boat in Astoria and ended up being rescued by the Coast Guard near the mouth of the river after somehow making it across the infamous Columbia River Bar.
It’s an odd cautionary tale that has something to teach us about what we can expect from the Columbia River Bar and boats in bad weather.
And incredible kudos to our local Coast Guard pesonnel for a dramatic and successful rescue under harrowing conditions.
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An ususual ship that does a lot of important work
Feb 03, 2023This week you might have seen a ship with a black hull and a red stripe sitting seemingly motionless in the river, unlike most vessels that are on a journey form one port to another. If you’d been able to get a closer look at that ship, you’d have seen people hard at work on an important project.
The ship was the USCG Cutter Elm, a buoy tender, maintaining and repairing navigational buoys in the river. It’s essential work that saves lives, but goes largely unnoticed by those of us on land.
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Why pilot and other specialized mariner expertise is so important in waterways like ours
Feb 02, 2023Today a look at disaster averted in the UK, where pilots and tug crews kept a big containership from running aground. Expertise like this is part of doing business every day here on the river, and most of us have no idea it’s happening.
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The GSL Eleni and her day on the river
Feb 01, 2023Yesterday, people along the Columbia River saw an unusual sight, a 1000-foot long containership being towed to Portland by four tugboats, in a fascinating and complicated example of coordination between multiple highly-skilled and experienced marine professionals.
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