The Ship Report

We’re seeing unusual ships arriving in the river this week so far. Yesterday it was the USCGC Healy, the Coast Guard’s biggest ship, headed to the Swan Island shipyard.

Today it’s the USNS Grasp, a highly specialized rescue and salvage ship, whose job it is to save people and ships when they get in trouble on the water.

Image: the USNS Grasp, photo courtesy of US Navy photo gallery.

The post The USNS Grasp, a Military Sealift Command rescue and salvage ship, comes to Portland appeared first on The Ship Report.

Today we’ll see the USCGC Healy, a Coast Guard icebreaker and the US military branch’s largest vessel, enters the river early this morning on her way to the Vigor shipyard in Portland for about 8 months of repairs and maintenance. She’s an unusual vessel with some interesting history behind her name.

The post The USCGC Healy, US Coast Guard icebreaker and the Guard’s largest vessel, comes to the Columbia appeared first on The Ship Report.

Yesterday the Columbia River Bar was on Red status, per the Columbia River Bar Pilots. It’s the most severe restriction on ship traffic they can impose, and it means most, if not all, ships will be restricted from coming in or out of the river till the weather improves.

We have a big potential ship schedule today, meaning lots of ships want to enter and leave the river. Today we’ll talk about the effect a temporary, weather-related closure like this has on vessels, and what they do while they wait.

The post The Columbia River Bar is on Red status, so what happens now? appeared first on The Ship Report.

We’ve got another round of inclement weather coming in, and it’s a good time to talk about how our marine pilots, who are in charge of assisting ships in and out of the river, decide when the weather is too difficult to allow ships to transit until things calm down. We’ll talk about that today.

The post A look at how marine pilots decide which ships will cross the bar in challenging weather appeared first on The Ship Report.

Now that the fleeting festivities of New Years have faded away, let’s turn our attention to the workhorse ships that continue to do their work despite holidays, weather and other distractions.

Also, we’ll look at the weather, which is worsening a bit again – and we’ll talk about my favorite KMUN inclement weather forecast ever.

The post Who’s on the river and some weather comin’ in, during which it will rain until it stops appeared first on The Ship Report.

Hear Astoria’s visiting ships ring in the new year with the sonorous sounds of their horns at midnight on New Year’s Eve on the Columbia River.

The post New Year’s Eve Ship Horns in Astoria appeared first on The Ship Report.

Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, and we’ll hopefully hear some ship horns off the Astoria waterfront. Today, we’ll also take a look at the Dungeness Crab Fishery, which kicked off in the local area this past weekend.

The post How many ships will be off Astoria on NY’s Eve? And, a look at the Dungness crab fishery appeared first on The Ship Report.

I’m gearing up once more to record ship horns on the Astoria waterfront again this year, when the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve – an annual tradition I happily seek out.

I’ll share the recording with you on January 5th, when the Ship Report returns for the New Year. We never know what it will like: how many ships will be there, how many will choose to participate. So it’s always a surprise. Let’s hope for good sounds and let’s send our good wishes to the mariners on those ships for a good year for them as well as for all of us.

Also, the Ship Report is now on Substack, an easy place for you to go to see all that I create, and other info I share – whether it be podcasts, marine weather, ship schedules and more. Look for The Ship Report on Substack and you’ll find my new page.

The post End of the year stuff: New Year’s Eve ship horns, and – the Ship Report is now on Substack appeared first on The Ship Report.

Well, weather watchers are tracking an approaching storm that might (or might not) bring damaging winds to our area. We’ll see how that shakes out.

And today we’ll hear a Ship Report holiday tradition: “Coastal Christmas,” a retelling of the story of The Night Before Christmas, coastal- style. It’s a book written by Long Beach Peninsula author Lynette Rae McAdams, illustrated by local artist Sally Lackaff.

In this updated telling of the age-old tale: Santa is saved by the US Coast Guard after his sleigh ends up in the water, essentially saving Christmas. And Santa gets to head home to the North Pole with Dungeness Crab for Mrs. Santa.

Happy Christmas to all!

The post A new storm looms for the coast, and – Santa is saved by the US Coast Guard appeared first on The Ship Report.

Today we’ll talk about the opening at the end of this month of the 2025-26 Dungeness crab fishery in our local area. And hear an excerpt from a 2016 interview I did with a commercial crabber. His name is John Corbin, and he’ll tell us a bit about the process of catching and harvesting Dungeness.

The post ‘T is the season, for Dungness crab, that is appeared first on The Ship Report.