The Case of the Mad Boat Thief

In 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

This 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

Today 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

Yesterday, 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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Local fishing vessel could face $40k fines for shutting off AIS

Another local news story, this one with expensive consequences. The captain of a local fishing boat is facing a fine of more than $40k for shutting off his AIS transponder while the boat was underway near the mouth of the Columbia River. We’ll talk about AIS and why it’s so important, and why shutting it off is illegal.

Also, more on that big containership that’s being towed upriver today.

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Containership set to be towed up the Columbia to Portland early Tuesday

Very early tomorrow morning an unusual occurrence will happen on the river: Tugs will tow a large containership upriver to Portland to have her rudder repaired. She’s been towed all the way from Seattle and will end up at Portland’s Swan Island shipyard. Getting her all the way here with tugs helping her steer is a delicate matter, made more complex by the mighty, winding Columbia. We’ll talk a little about the process.

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A look at a beloved Astoria vessel that was a gamechanger: the pilot boat Peacock

As hometown boats go, the Peacock is a star. She’s moored on land permanently outside the Columbia River Maritime Museum, but during her career as a pilot boat here on the Columbia and out in the ocean, she set a new standard for access to the river during bad weather, which revoutionized ship traffic here. Tip your hat to her as you drive by. She deserves it.

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How can we make beachgoing safer? And when do we speak up?

Many of us who live here in coastal Oregon and Washington are too familiar with the sad stories of people, often children, being pulled out to sea by rip currents and sneaker waves on area beaches.

But residents who try to warn visitors of the dangers often get a hostile response. What’s the average citizen’s responsibility here? And is there more we can do as beach communities to warn people of the dangers without scaring them away altogether, when tourism is an important part of the region’s livelihood?

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A return to the era of sailing ships? A new cargo ship embraces sail

There’s a new RO-RO cargo ship under construction in Turkey, in what may be the first modern cargo ship to embrace sail as its primaryu mode of propulsion. (A RO-RO ship is a ship can can carry vehicles – Roll on, Roll off…)

We’ll talk about what thie new build will be like, and how it compares to the magnificent clipper ships of old, which were pretty darn fast in their own right – fast enough to compete with today’s engine-powered vessels.

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What if first responders couldn’t save you?

Today we hear a sobering message from local Oregon Coast first responders who respond to incidents where beachgoers are swept away by sneaker waves on beaches and jetties: sometimes conditions are so bad they can’t save you.

With King Tides still an issue locally, and sneaker waves a threat year round, we hear today from the professionals who do their best for us during tragic emergencies on the water.

For more information about the interviews you heard on today’s show, see the Tillamook County Pioneer online (tillamookcountypioneer.net). The featured video on their website is called: Safe Storm Watching. Watch it here.

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