The Ship Report

Yesterday saw a big 8.7 earthquake off Russian near Alaska, to the north of us. The resulting shockwave sent tsunami waves radiating out into the Pacific in all directions. The ones that came our way were small, but a reminder that we do live on the Ring of Fire, and we need to be prepared.

So today, we’ll talk in part about what all those words mean in the tsunami updates: specifically, Warning, Advisory and Watch

The post Some basic tsunami info in light of yesterday’s situation appeared first on The Ship Report.

Yesterday I heard a ship do its five-blast warning signal on the river, letting a sailboat know of its presence and cautioning it to stay out of the ship’s path.

This is a standard horn signal that ships and boats use when they see a potential issue developing and want to head off any possible problems with a nearby vessel.

With Buoy 10 fishing season approaching, it’s a signal we land-dwellers who live near the river may hear more often in August.

The post A ship horn signal that could be heard more often on the river in August appeared first on The Ship Report.

Last week, global internet service provider Starlink experienced a service outage for over two hours, causing difficulties for lots of remote users, including ships and boats, especially those far from land.

While electronics are great, it’s also a good idea to have some old fashioned navigation equipment and skills up your sleeve to enable you to carry on safely until outages are fixed.

The post How old fashioned navigation methods can still save the day when modern aids can’t appeared first on The Ship Report.

The US ocean carrier Matson has decided to no longer ship electric vehicles, because of the increasing frequency of what analysts believe are lithium ion battery caused fires on car ships. Despite newer industry recommendations designed to make ships safer, these fires remain a deadly, and usually in practice, uncontrollable hazard on board.

The post US carrier Matson says no to electric vehicles, citing lithium ion battery risk appeared first on The Ship Report.

We’ve been talking about other things this week so far. Let’s take a look today at our ship schedule.

The post Who’s on the river today? appeared first on The Ship Report.

Today, as part of the answer to a listener question, I thought it would be good to take a look at why tides happen. This influence is huge in our lives here on the coast and on the river, and it’s interesting and helpful to understand what’s driving it.

The post We see them every day, but likely ignore this big influence in our lives: What causes tides? appeared first on The Ship Report.

I was thinking more about tides and thought we could talk more about this complex subject. Yesterday we talked about how high tide happens about 5 hours later in Vancouver than Astoria on the Columbia.

Today we’ll look at tidal range, the height difference between high and low tides and how that is also different between different places on the river. And a look at how fast the tide rises – is it uniform, and is there a way to tell how fast it will rise?

The post More on the complex topic of tides appeared first on The Ship Report.

Today’s show is a bit of a mix: I wanted to thank the folks who came down to the Ten Fifteen Theater to hear my Ship Report talk and to hear Jerry and me perform on stage (eek!), and then a bit about tides, and how there is a vast difference in tidal schedules between what we  Astoria and Vancouver/Portland.

The post Thank you, a bit about music, being brave and, oh – tides appeared first on The Ship Report.

We see a lot of ships go by on the lower river near Astoria, but the river upstream past Longview is often busier, with a variety of vessel traffic all doing local work: tugs and barges  hauling cargo, ship handling tugs, and ships being moved from anchorages to nearby berths.

The post The busy upriver Columbia appeared first on The Ship Report.

This Saturday the 19th, at 10:30am, I’ll be appearing at the 1015 Theater in Astoria, as part of their big Performathon fundraising event, which runs all day and into the night. I’ll be sharing memories of a trip I took on a cargo ship when I traveled from the Columbia River up to Puget Sound and south to San Francisco. It was an unforgettable experience.

Then at 10:45, my husband, Jerry Middaugh, and I will perform some folk music tunes that we hope will entertain you, and leave you with a feeling of hope about the world.

Many thanks to the organizers for inviting us to perform! We hope to see you there!

So come on down and support community theater – an important thing – a place where locals can share themselves and what they love with their community.

The post A Ship Report talk in Astoria on Saturday, and some music appeared first on The Ship Report.