Logship, Fisherguys, BigShips

Saturday remained a watercraft day. Went out twice more, first time down to the harbor to check on the loading of Astoria Bay. There was more simultaneous activity than I've ever seen at one of the logships, two loaders taking logs off two trucks at a time, seven or eight trucks lined up at once waiting to drive out onto the pier. Brakes puffing, engines rumbling, each truck hitting its horn when it is in position and all brakes set, ready to have its load lifted away.

May 18, 2013, Terminal 3 (the T-Pier) at the Port of Port Angeles. (Click for larger image.)

The whole process is mesmerizingly tangible, like watching a giant set of gears in some steampunk fantasy, and I love to watch it. The end result, of course, is that a couple of days later, a whole forest sails away to China.

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Back home for a couple of hours, I kept my eye on the clock, and on the shiptracker websites, and when the evening's flock of cruise ships rounded Point Wilson, at Port Townsend, I went down to Ediz Hook (map) to wait for them to pass by on their way to Alaska. It is a reliable entertainment for summer weekend evenings; every Friday Saturday and Sunday, these ships bigger than all downtown leave Seattle at 4PM, come in close to the Hook around 7:30 PM, one two three, so the pilot boat can go out to pick up the pilots who brought the ships out of Puget Sound; and away they sail for Alaska. In a week they'll be back, and do it again. May through September, over and over.

But I was early, Westerdam, Jewel and Star were not yet in view, and there was a whole lot of action on the small boat docks inside the Hook. These were the guys whose boats were not sitting around in the alley a few hours ago. Mostly they hadn't caught anything. One man said his son had caught a small halibut. One after another they hauled up the ramp and headed for town.

Returning fishermen, Ediz Hook, Port Angeles Harbor, May 18, 2013. The tanker Polar Enterprise and the bulk freighter Pacific Logger in the background of the images. (Click for larger image.)

I waited a while. Other shipwatchers came and went. There were two tankers and an empty log ship anchored inside the harbor. There were freighters and tankers on the move on the Strait.

It got blue out.

Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, across the Strait of Juan de Fuca (Click for larger image.)San Juan Island (US), across the Strait. (Click for larger image.)

The pilot boat Juan de Fuca, pulled out from the pilot station

Puget Sound Pilot Station (Click for larger image.)

and ran around furiously out on the Strait. Took pilots off two outbound ships, a freighter and a tanker. Came back in, dropped off those guys, went out again. Put pilots on two inbound ships, a container ship and a tanker; then, finally, rendezvoused with Holland-America Westerdam, Norwegian Jewel, and Star Princess, one after the other, to bring in their pilots.

Westerdam, with the other two cruise ships visible behind her. The Holland Americas all have white tops and dark bottoms, and are smaller than the others. (Click for larger image.) Norwegian Jewel. The Norwegians all have goofy colorful paint jobs on either side of the bow. (Click for larger image.) Star Princess. The Princesses are all white with a blocky stern and that sort of swooping crown over the logo on the stack. (Click for larger image.)

STX Harmony

When we flew in past the harbor on the 19th, I could see there was a fully-loaded log ship at the T-pier. The next day was devoted to errands. As I came down the hill, I could see that she was still there, so I went to look. The top of the load was aswarm with longshoremen lashing the logs down, beginning at the bow end. Suddenly two more log trucks came out onto the pier, and their logs were loaded as smaller parcels into apparent spaces along the top of the load further back towards the stern.

STX Harmony topping off her load, April 20, 2013 (Click for larger image.)

She sailed for Lanshan sometime that night, soon disappearing from the ship-trackers; came back into view as she passed through Umiak Pass on April 26, and is invisible to the (free) tracker websites again. Will arrive Lanshan about May 8.

STX Harmony near Umiak Pass on April 26, 2013. 10,000 thanksyous to marinetraffic.com (Click for larger image.)

Almost immediately another logship tied up. Pacific Basin Black Forest. She was already full yesterday evening, will surely sail today.

Being Here

While I was gone, and preoccupied, I kept setting aside links to stories from home.

The log yard is nearly empty. At least one logship loaded while I was gone, according to David Sellars' December 15th 'On the Waterfront' column. He says (near the bottom of the story) POS Jade was the 13th log ship of the year to sail from our harbor.

A big dock washed ashore down the wilderness Olympic National Park coast, somewhere nonspecified between Toleak Point and Hoh Head. Is it tsunami debris? Unknown but likely. Japanese writing found on it.

The elk herd in Sequim were hanging out by the highway. Motorists were warned to watch out since they seemed to intend to cross...

Discovered there is a weather station down on the harbor. Who knew? Apparently it's associated with the tide gauge. (1)(2)

'Tis the season to watch for high tide and heavy surf warnings. We had a king tide while I was gone, water splashing ashore in West Seattle, lots of debris and fresh erosion out on the Hook. With all these storms, there will surely be a Mavericks this year. My twitter stream brings me news of events in the rarified realm of big wave surfing, in this case a near-fatal wipeout on Cortes Bank; and I have resumed my not-so-secret winter habit of watching surf videos on youtube. I have watched Mike Parsons ride this wave very many times, and it is still breathtaking...

It's Not That There Haven't Been Sun Breaks

On the whole, it's been dull and gray and/or rainy for weeks. This is a good thing, oh yes water so glad you're here yes.

Precip numbers in the Northwest are good so far in this new water year, November 24, 2012 (Click for larger image.)

Certainly the situation in the rest of the country is frightening.

U. S. Seasonal Drought Outlook (Click for larger image.)

So not complaining. But every time a bit of blue appeared in the sky or out the window, my life happened to be organized wrong to take advantage. And no sooner were the prayer flags disentangled again than along came more wind, more rain.

Days like this. November 23, 2012 (Click for larger image.)

The log ship Astoria Bay is loading down at the T-pier. Yesterday afternoon they were working hard, two loaders, four cranes, two trucks at once on the pier, longshoreman waving and shouting in the dull gray light.

Loading Astoria Bay. November 23, 2012 (Click for larger image.)

Today it's blue out. Cue the tambourines and joyful dancing, oh yeah.

Tiny slice of the Strait of Juan de Fuca out my window. San Juan Island ghostly out there. November 24, 2012 (Click for larger image.)

Another Forest Sails Away

The log ship which arrived on September 1 was not fully loaded until September 8. Suddenly (well, I was thinking about other things until I noticed the work was finished) the loader machines were parked on the dock, onboard cranes shipped, workmen making last checks of the tie-downs.

Pacific Basin's Cape Flattery, getting ready to sail to Lianyungang, China, on September 8, 2012. (Click for larger image.)

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Hawsers still tied her to the dock, though, and there was no sign of the tugs; so I went out on the Hook. From the harbor side you could see how low she was riding in the water. The Crowley tug Valor was anchored near the eastern end of the harbor.

View from across the harbor. Valor at anchor. (Click for larger image.)

After a while the tug Response came in off the Strait and headed for Cape Flattery, and Valor came across the harbor from the other direction. Action time. I headed back to the dockside. It all happens very slowly. Another watcher pointed out a great blue heron on one of the floating booms. There was a kingfisher. And gulls. The birds on the floating booms did seem to be watching.

Valor lining up to pull the bow of Cape Flattery out from the dock. (Click for larger image.)

Slowly the ship began to move. She was all the way clear of the dock before the captain blasted her horn (startling the bejeezus out of me).

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And gone.

Dam News ; and Lunchtime at the Harbor

John Gussman has posted photos from a flight along the Elhwa River on a clear blue day (apparently July 5). Check out the Glines Canyon dam as seen from upstream, fifth image from the top. Go look right now, then compare it to dam cam's familiar angle on the downstream side. Woo hoo, Mr. Gussman, I totally can't WAIT for your film. [Much later: link doesn't work any more. Mr. Gussman's sharings are transient.]

Glines Canyon Dam, on the Dam Cam (Click for larger image.)

Happy to be home. I was at the tribal library in the morning, and messing around in the Electronic Documents Library database at the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary office in the afternoon. Lunchtime, met a friend down at the harbor. Pacific Basin's Astoria Bay is loading logs at the T-pier, though all was quiet when I passed by, they were on lunch break. When I got to the Landing, the ferry's doors had just closed, and he was about to set off for Victoria.

Astoria Bay, loading. (Click for larger image.)

Trees Are People Too: Each Log Has an Individual Identity. (Click for larger image.)

The ferry, Coho; two water taxis; and Expeditions Northwest's harbor cruise boat (Click for larger image.)

Formerly Known As

According to David Sellars who does the On the Waterfront column in the paper, the present log ship, the Astoria Bay, is the ship which was called Dry Beam when it suffered a rogue wave in February (see last section of article). Sellars says Dry Beam went off to Japan to be repaired, and came back under an alias :-) He says the logs left behind at Ogden Point in Victoria when they unloaded after the catastrophe were never sold or reloaded, they were ground into chips, profits of chip sale benefiting the Food Bank in Victoria.

I stopped down by the harbor to watch Astoria Bay load, and get some pictures for WC, who lives on the other side of the Strait and had had his eye on the logs that Dry Beam left behind on the cruise ship dock at Ogden Point in Victoria.

April 24, 2012. Loading Astoria Bay, in Port Angeles Harbor (Click for larger image.)

There were a lot more men visibly at work than is usual, both on the dock and directing the loading from atop the load. Are they particularly concerned after losing the previous load to the rogue wave? Or is it because this ship is configured rather differently than the Pacific Basin line ships? Anyway, two little movies, for WC. The color quality is the pits, but the action in the second one is primo...

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Yeah, I know. I should find it horrifying, and spare you the sight, the way I have come to spare you the pictures of dead birds when I'm doing beach surveys. But I find the loading process mesmerizing.

Watching Whole Forests Sail Away

In the late afternoon on Saturday, all was quiet at the T-pier. Three men were working across the top of Port Alice's load, checking the firmness of the tie-downs.

Port Angeles Harbor, March 24, 2012 (Click for larger image.)
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The access gates were closed, the big log-loader machines asleep out in the parking area.

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The man in the security shack said she was scheduled to sail at 5PM, so I came back at 4PM, parked where I had an angle view of the bow, and waited. Other watchers came and went. Ships came and went, some quite large. Polar Discovery came in off the Strait, anchored in mid-harbor; her tug Garth Foss left her there, and the fueling barge Brian S. came across to bunker her. Waited some more (finished reading a Paul Levine mystery, started a Kerry Greenwood). A loud horn blasted me out of the car thinking I was missing the magic moment, but no, lines still tied her to the dock. The pilot boat made a run across the harbor, presumably to deliver the pilot. The tugs Valor and Response appeared, and aligned themselves with their noses to the starboard side of Alice.

Here comes Juan de Fuca to deliver the pilot (Click for larger image.)Response and Valor. Polar Discovery in the background. (Click for larger image.)

Waited some more. We have tugs, we have a pilot, isn't it time?

Three crew members made their way to the bow. A forklift came along the pier, delivering some dockside guys to release the lines. The tugs were waiting. One by one the lines slurped up through the holes in the bow. It was 7:20PM, and I'd been waiting more than three hours.

But then. the tugs. TUGGED.

Response pulling Port Alice sideways. Coast Guard Station on Ediz Hook in the background (Click for larger image.)

Worth all that waiting to see it with my own eyes.

Away she ever so slowly went. Valor and Response kept her clear of the buoy near the pier, and helped her steer her way around Polar Discovery in the temporarily crowded harbor.

And off she sailed, heading for Taicang, north of Shanghai. I went home, hoping to spot her out on the Strait from my kitchen window as she sailed across the horizon of H Street; but the outbound shipping lane is far to the Canadian side of the Strait so she'd have been small by then and lost in the dusk, and anyway I was cooking dinner.

This is a working port in its very small way. Big tankers fuel up here, have maintenance done at Terminal 1, shelter from storms. And the log trucks come in from the west end, and the ships are filled with logs from the holds to the top of the stanchions. I've been watching the logships load, and whole forests sail away, and then tracking them on the shiptracker sites, for a couple of years now. Have hoped for a long time to catch this part of the process. Port Alice hadn't gotten far yet this morning; she was heading due west when she went off the tracker websites, though surely she'll veer north for the great circle passage through the Aleutians... Bye bye, Alice, bye bye.

Last glimpse of Port Alice, from marinetraffic.com (Click for larger image.)

Two Days, Four Places, Three (Then Four) Old Friends

On Monday we did at least three things. First thing, we heading up to Hurricane Ridge. It was overcast in town, and layers of cloud and fog as we drove up,

Dungeness Spit from the Road Up. Not All That Clear, But I Stubbornly Showed It To Them Anyway (Click for larger image.)

...and on top, OMG, there was glory. The Bailey Range was on full display, with Mount Olympus behind.

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We walked a tiny bit here, a tiny bit there, without ever in fact leaving the plowed-out parking lot area. Carloads of people arrived to snowbunny, donned masses of gear, and snowshoed off. A snowshoeing class for small children spent forever getting started, the ranger patiently refastening the tiny plastic shoeshoes over and over, calling the kids (who were more interestied in sliding around and falling down) to gather round and pay attention over and over.

Part 2. On the way back into town we picked up sandwiches and went down to the harbor to watch IVS Kwaito load. KF took so many photos and little movies that the workmen got paranoid. She explained she was assembling a presentation for her two-year-old grandson, who Loves Trucks.

December 19, 2011. (Click for larger image.)

Hey, I'm not a two-year-old boy, and I too love the kind of Trucks And Things that work the harbor. While KF was zeroed in on Kwaito, suddenly behind the waiting log trucks one of the big yacht lifts appeared, rolling away from Platypus Marine and out onto a pair of tracks; and lowered the boat into the water. Oh. Aha. That's how it's done.

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Part 3. There was not so much daylight left, but we headed off to walk in the woods a little, along Barnes Creek on the trail to Marymere Falls. It's not the rainforest, but we weren't getting to the rainforest on this visit. And there are some fairly big dudes in there.

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And on Tuesday, sea voyage to another country: the three of us went to Victoria to visit with WC. One of the rewards of being sort of Old is there can be Really Old Friends. We had a good time. Went inside the Empress, and the Parliament Building; spent a whole lot of time photographing ducks and swans at Esquimalt Lagoon, had a nice lunch in Metchosin and then back to the Lagoon. Then back onto the ferry, sea voyage home again.

The Empress Rules Victoria's Inner Harbor. As seen from the ferry... (Click for larger image.)Me and WC and AM on the lawn of the Parliament Building (Click for larger image.)