Photography 2

[Floorist]

Too pretty to shoot with anything but my camera.

 

[Jon]

You manage to get some great shots Rusty

 

[Floorist]

You manage to get some great shots Rusty

Thank you. I like taking pictures. My wife bought an expensive new camera and I bought one off a FB bidit site for $18. And some of my stuff comes out better than hers.

 

[Floorist]

Spring out my front window.

 

[highup]

Got bored a couple weeks ago, and was sittin home at the 'puter. Living a few miles away from the bay and ocean has it's perks.
Ships come in here on a regular basis to load logs and wood chips. Because of that, it's kind fun to watch the ships come into the bay.
I found a website that shows where ships are in real time. It shows the ships or boats as a cartoonish icon on a Google map. Clicking on the icon, it will show the ships track as it comes in towards the coast. You can click on the icons and it will show the ships speed at any point in time and the direction in degrees. This map also shows the local tug boats. If the ship or boat is underway, it has a boat shape icon. If it's docked, the icon turns into a square.

Long story short, as I was observing a ship on the computer approaching the coast line, the icon of one of the tug boat went from a square into a boat shape. That meant the tug was heading out to meet up with the ship. The ship was 10 miles out.
When a ship come into port, it needs a local ship pilot aboard to navigate the narrow channel in the bay.
The captains of these ships cannot bring their ship into port. Our pilots come on board their ship a mile or two offshore and tell the men aboard the ship what to do......... speed up, slow down, number of degrees to steer the ship along it's curvy course into the bay.
Once into the shipping channel, the local ship pilot in communication with the tug boat captains, eventually slow the ship, turn it around 180 degrees and very slowly push it sideways to the dock.
The ship needs to be turned around for it's voyage back out to sea, so they do this when the ship comes in and is empty.

Since I noticed the tug boat had just gotten underway. I knew the tug was heading offshore to put a pilot aboard the ship. It was a wood chip ship and I already knew where it was going to be docked.
Our channel is 15 miles long from the ocean entrance, but there are only two locations where chips are loaded. Other docks load logs and lumber. The local port commission has a website that tells approximately what day a ship is expected to arrive and where it will be docked. That's how I knew where this ship was headed.
(My "long story short", is gettin to be more of a long story winded isn't it?)
Decided that this was a good reason to make a trip out around the bay to watch them dock the ship. It isn't possible to get in close to watch at this point, so I put on the big lens.
The ships come through part of the bay at close to full speed, and this ship maxes out about 14 kts. I saw later on the compter when viewing the ships track that it was going over 11 kts down the channel. If they went slow, it would be harder to steer the ship.

If I got these in the right order, the first image is the ship close to the place where it will be docked, a couple images as it's being turned around 180 degrees, and the ship at the dock, with the bow lines being pulled tight.
It will take 3 or 4 tugs to dock a ship depending on it's size and the weather. I have a friend who is a ship pilot and he said they have brought ships in with 50+ mph winds.
When a local pilot is put aboard the ship, he alone determines if weather and sea conditions are OK to bring the ship in. No pressure from the ships captain can force him to bring the ship into port......... our local ship pilot makes the call and know one else can influence his decision, even if it costs the shipping company $10,000 a day to set offshore until conditions allow safe passage. (it's an international law)
This ship is probably close to 600 feet long. 600 to 650 is about average. The longest ship ever brought into port is probably less than 800 feet.

 

[highup]

I wrote all that because I figure that you guys are bored with an excess of photos and need to get some reading in.

 

[havasu]

I found it very interesting. Do you have any idea how much the local pilots charge for doing this? I would imagine he has a lot of weight on his shoulders and each trip must be very precise or he wouldn't be doing it tomorrow?

 

[highup]

I found it very interesting. Do you have any idea how much the local pilots charge for doing this? I would imagine he has a lot of weight on his shoulders and each trip must be very precise or he wouldn't be doing it tomorrow?

Probably close to $200,000 per year. In San Francisco close to $350,000
Locally, we have far less ships coming in than the busy years of the 60's and 70's. As a little kid in the 60's I recall a billboard sign in town at the city limits that said: Welcome to Coos Bay, worlds largest lumber shipping port. ..........not no more, because most of the mills have gone away. (thanks in part to the envirowacko movement)
Today, we ship out wood chips to be made into paper, a ship comes in every week or so to be loaded with logs, and occasionally a lumber ship.
There used to be four ship pilots here, then three, now one and one in training.
The pilot that lives here, works mostly in Portland about 225 miles away. He works 3 weeks on, then three weeks off. The pilots own their company but have to negotiate a contract with the city, so that the piloting fees are stable. During his work week, my friend is sometimes called home just to bring in a single ship or take one out, then drive back up to Portland. Currently we have one full time pilot and one in training. Two had retired in the past few years.
Ya don't 'bump' nothing with a ship. One small accident could easily cost you your entire carrier.
More stress than I would ever want.

 

[havasu]

Very interesting stuff to learn. Thanks for the info....

 

[highup]

Very interesting stuff to learn. Thanks for the info....

I did a small vinyl job recently for the pilot that I mentioned.

His dad retired a long time ago from the same occupation. I have worked for him a number of times over the years and it's fun to listen to his stories. I mentioned to him that someone needs to write a book about the local pilots before the history is all lost.

Well, I'll be darned............ when working on this small vinyl install, I discovered that his son and wife had just completed a book about the local piloting history here. It was hot off the press, and just arrived in the book stores here.
It starts in the 1850's and up to current. There is a short story about each captain and pilot, recapturing a moment or two in their career.
This area was deep into ship building way back then too, and also constructed fishing vessels and tugs.
My brother and I were working on one of the tugs back in the late 80's and as we were finishing up, the tug captain asked, "how long till ya finish?"
I said, "about a half hour"
He replied, "if you slow down about 15 minutes, you can stay on board and come out with us to take a pilot off a ship"
I didn't have enough time to go home and get my camera........... DAGNAMIT!
It's interesting watching the pilot climb down the side of the ship on a rope ladder and hop across to the tug boat. Not the safest job in the world, that's for sure.
He told us more than once that he piloted a ship out of the bay, and it ended up being too dangerous off shore to transfer back down onto the tug boat ...............so he had to stay on board till he got down to Francisco to get back off the ship .............that's 500 miles south of here.
I might have a photo with a ship listing in the waves off shore.
......aha! found it easy. They will put a pilot onto a ship when it's a whole lot worse than this. This is a sunny day. Can you imagine what it's like being on a tug boat and transferring onto a rope ladder with a ship rocking and rolling like this one is?

 

[highup]

I was wrong. San Francisco pilots make $450,000 per year.

 

[highup]

Here's something new I just learned for my pilot friend. They have to be recertified every 5 years. There's only a handfull of locations in the world that do this. They train using 1/25th scale ships. Ships identical to real existing ships......... just smaller. LNG tankers, bulk carriers, tankers and container ships.... every kind that you van think of.
Looks like it would be kinda fun driving a 25 to 50 foot long 'ship' on a lake.
http://www.portrevel.com/

 

[Ernesto]

I would be sea sick.

 

[highup]

I would be sea sick.

Not today, you wouldn't.
Took a drive to check on a ship that had been taking on logs this past week. The ship was at the red waterline mark and they were lifting long loops of cable aboard. That meant one thing. They were done loading, and were beginning to tie down the top of the load in preparation to depart.
How long does that take? Heck, I don't know. I figured at latest, they would be heading out tomorrow morning, possibly late tonight.
...........so, my brother and I left and took a drive out to the beach and stopped at the coast guard tower on the way out there to see what the ocean looked like today. It was calm as it could be. The coast guard tower sets on a cliff way up above the jetty so it can observe vessel traffic as they enter and exits the bar.................... no, no, no .......not that kinda bar! The jetty, the bay entrance .......that kinda bar.
So anyway, we went out, hit the Coast Guard tower and stopped at a few viewpoints along the way. Saw a few fishing boats way off shore, and a few whale spouts that were a long, long way out, then headed home after stopping for groceries.

I get home and go back on line and find out that a tug boat is headed back in to port, and that ship is already 5 miles off shore. Crap, they had already gone out, taken a pilot off the ship and were almost back at the dock, just a few hours after we saw them battening down the hatches. Story of my life......... I tell ya ... I don't get no respect.
Dang, those guys really moved fast. Had I known, we could have gone back to the tower, or stayed closer on the bay and watched it go by.
Here's what they look like going past one of the boat launches on the bay. This photo is of 1989 vintage.

 

[Jon]

I would be sea sick.

Some interesting stuff there highup
Is that a long bridge in the background?

Ernesto you should have come with us when we did that cruise from Australia around NZ and back to Aussie recently crossing Tasman Sea twice. It was like a mill pond
Learnt something from the Captain on this trip is that ships can not pull up their anchors again if its too deep. Too much weight. What do you reckon Nick? Was the captain telling lies?

 

[highup]

Some interesting stuff there highup
Is that a long bridge in the background?

Ernesto you should have come with us when we did that cruise from Australia around NZ and back to Aussie recently crossing Tasman Sea twice. It was like a mill pond
Learnt something from the Captain on this trip is that ships can not pull up their anchors again if its too deep. Too much weight. What do you reckon Nick? Was the captain telling lies?

Ya mean this bridge? It's about a mile long shore to shore. It's our lifeline to the north. without it, there's an old narrow two lane road around the bay. Not good if the bridge ever falls down from a large quake.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conde_McCullough_Memorial_Bridge

The bridge is 150 feet tall in the center, but was hit by a ship that was a teensy weensy bit to tall. The bridge was partially closed for a few months while a new center span was installed.
That was the day the ship hit the span. It was called the Elgaren. That tall loading ramp you see protruding above the wheelhouse was supposed to be lowered slightly before passing under the bridge. It didn't get lowered fast enough.

But first, there is a train bridge that ships pass between before going under the green bridge. This ship was extremely wide and the loading ramp needed to be raised up fully while passing through it. As soon as the ship cleared the train bridge, they were supposed to start lowering the ramp............ they started lowering it too late, and cars and trucks on the bridge got jiggled around a bit.
I think the captain said "oops" in some foreign language.

 

[highup]

The article I posted about the bridge said the tide was 3 feet higher than normal:

The McCullough Bridge was damaged on December 4, 1986 when a Swedish ship, the Elgaren, struck the bottom of the center span. The ship was entering the harbor on a day when the tide was 3 feet (0.91 m) above normal, and was unable to lower a vertically-stowed ramp in time after the ramp's mechanism malfunctioned. The bridge was closed for repairs.[1]

That's a bunch of bunkship. There is no such thing as a tide "3 feet above normal". Our entire downtown would be floatin if that happened.
It was totally the ships fault for not lowering the ramp in time. The local ship pilot asked over and over to the ships captain to get that ramp lowered. Everyone involved knew the height of that ships ramp was 3 feet taller than the middle span of the bridge that afternoon. Tide heights are always known when a ship comes in or out.

 

[highup]

Some interesting stuff there highup
Is that a long bridge in the background?

Ernesto you should have come with us when we did that cruise from Australia around NZ and back to Aussie recently crossing Tasman Sea twice. It was like a mill pond
Learnt something from the Captain on this trip is that ships can not pull up their anchors again if its too deep. Too much weight. What do you reckon Nick? Was the captain telling lies?

............so did he get the anchor back in? if so, he was fibbin.

What is the ships name? Type it into the search box at the upper left side.
It says go to port,
go to area,
and go to vessel. Just type the ships name into where it says vessel, and hit the return key.

Check the box just below that area where is says "Show ships names"

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/

If your ship shows up, it will show it's location on a map.

If you mouse-over and click the ship icon, it will bring up some of the ships data and photos of it if there are any.

Click where it says "show vessels track" and you will see where it's been and what it's speed is.

In the upper left, you can type in a zip code or the name of your port or harbor, then hit the return key.
Kinda fun to know what's going on out there.

 

[Jon]

............so did he get the anchor back in? if so, he was fibbin.
Kinda fun to know what's going on out there.

We only dropped the anchor in Sydney Harbour and at Akaroa NZ and the water wouldn't have been miles deep
This is the site I was using to track our ship to make sure it was heading in the correct direction to pick us up. I see it will be in Milford Sound again in the morning. Hope they get a good day like we had

http://www.seascanner.com/schiffsposition.php?schiff=Radiance of the Seas

 

[Nick]

Some interesting stuff there highup
Is that a long bridge in the background?

Ernesto you should have come with us when we did that cruise from Australia around NZ and back to Aussie recently crossing Tasman Sea twice. It was like a mill pond
Learnt something from the Captain on this trip is that ships can not pull up their anchors again if its too deep. Too much weight. What do you reckon Nick? Was the captain telling lies?

Big ones . I had anchor detail on a few occasions.
You just had to be on your toes in case one of the 90 lb chain links broke and sent the rest of the links racing across the deck and wiping out everything in it's path .