Lots of folks saw that big cruise ship sitting at anchor near Warrenton, instead of at the Port of Astoria where we all thought she should be.

Turns out Mother Nature had other plans for her… there was a extra-low low tide this morning, and that meant that the ship had to wait in deeper water for the tide to rise, so there would be enough deep water at the dock so she could tie up there.

It was a planned maneuver executed by the bar pilots. Once the tide rose enough, the ship was able by midday to head to the dock.

Part of the unseen expertise that keeps ships of all kinds safe on the river.

The post An unusual cruise ship adventure in the river today appeared first on The Ship Report.

Today, a perennial question that comes up now and again: where actually is the Columbia River Bar? It opens the door to an interesting and complex answer about how the river works and influences all our lives here.

The post Where exactly is the Columbia River Bar? appeared first on The Ship Report.

Today we’ll see who’s on the river and take a closer look at a cargo that’s often delivered to Longview: industrial salt.

The post A look at today’s ship schedule, and at a particular cargo: industrial salt appeared first on The Ship Report.

Today, an answer to a listener question about the Vigorous dry dock at the Swan Island shipyard in Portland. It’s an engineering marvel, and the largest floating drydock in North America. We’ll take a closer look.

The post The Vigorous drydock in Portland’s shipyard is an unusual maritime marvel appeared first on The Ship Report.

A bit about today’s ships: berths, cargo, anchorages – among the reasons ships come here to the Columbia River

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

Two things today: first, a look at preliminary info about this year’s Rose Festival Fleet of visiting military ships due here in June on the river. And, why was there a big ocean-going cruise ship heading upriver recently?

We’ll talk about all of that, and a look at marine weather and ship traffic for today.

The post A look at what we know about this year’s Rose Festival Fleet, and also, a big cruise ship in Portland appeared first on The Ship Report.

Today we have an unusual cargo ship on the river: a self loader called the CSL Tecumseh. She’s bringing Gypsum to Rainier. What makes her unusual is she has all the gear she needs to load and unload her own cargo at the dock. We’ll talk about why that’s important.

Image courtesy Canadian Steamship Lines.

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Earlier this month, I made a passing reference to there being a new ship anchorage on the Columbia River near Skamakowa.

Today we’ll look at that in more depth, and talk about the complicated affair of anchoring a gigantic ship on a swift, powerful and capricious river.

The post A closer look at the Columbia’s new ship anchorage, and a bit about anchoring on the river appeared first on The Ship Report.

The final segment of our week-long series about car ships.

The post Special archive interview series: Carships, Part 5 appeared first on The Ship Report.

Part 4 of our series this week on carships.

The post Special archive interview series: Carships, Part 4 appeared first on The Ship Report.