Rounding the Cape of Good Hope

As the mega containership Ever Given remains stuck in the Suez Canal, ships are backing up on either end. With no clear end in sight to the grounding, some ships are taking the long way ’round, around the Cape of Good Hope, the southern tip of Africa.

While waiting is expensive, making the extra long trip around the bottom of Africa is expensive too, and dangerous, especially at this time of year. We’ll talk about what the risks are.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons – Cape of Good Hope, South Africa (near Cape Town). HDR composite from multiple exposures.

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The Ever Given: what caused her to run aground

Today we’ll talk a bit about factors at play in the Ever Given mega containership grounding in the Suez Canal.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons, NOAA.

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Mega containership aground in Suez Canal

Today we’re talking about the mega containership, the Ever Given, that is hard aground in Suez Canal. It’s a nightmare scenario for a vital internation trade chokepoint, and ships are already backing up on both ends of the blockage as crews try to free the ship, which is wedged sideways in the narron canal.

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Let’s talk about the weather

Today’s weather is dynamic on land and sea, we’ll talk about what’s happening on the river and in the ocean, and how it may affect ship traffic.

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U.S. Coast Guard presence on the lower Columbia

Today we’ll talk a little about the tremendous and comprehensive presence of USCG personnel and training opportunities here in the Lower Columbia region.

Within a relatively small geographic area, the USCG offers motorlifeboat school, rescue swimmer school, buoy tender services and an air station, along witha formidable complement of rescue and law enforcement resources.

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Seafarer Centers – a place of refuge in port

In ports in the US and around the world, there are organizations who work to help make seafarers feel a little at home when they come to town. They’re called seafarer centers and they provide a place for mariners to get off their ship in port and take a break. One really nice one is located at the Port of Vancouver, Washington, right here on the Columbia.

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What it takes to be a ship’s cook

Commercial vessels that spend long periods at sea have a kitchen on board called a galley, and a person or a crew of people who cook meals for the sailors on board. Today we take a look at a real help wanted ad for a ship’s cook, and talk about what it takes to make it in this challenging and (if done right) much-revered position on board.

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Seaspeak: the special jargon that helps sailors communicate

On ships worldwide, where mariners hail from many different countries, there is a standard “language” of shortcuts that are universally used to help sailors understand radio communications between people who may not share a common language. It’s called Seaspeak, and it’s based on English, the international language of aviation. Using these agreed-upon terms can avoid daingerous misunderstandings.

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Japan to release more radioactive water into the sea

Today we note the 10 year anniversary this week of the earthquake in Japan in 2011 that caused a devastating tsunami there and sent small tsunami waves across the ocean as far as the Pacific Northwest. A decade later, Japan still struggles with a damaged nuclear reactor and plans to discharge still more radioactive water itno the sea.

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Reducing Ship Pollution

Today we talk about international efforts to reduce ship pollution. If the world’s shipping fleet were a country, they would be the 6th largest polluting nation in the world. We’ll talk about efforts to get that under control.

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