Angles and Curves Caught My Eye

I wasn’t lacking for things to do this evening, but when I glanced out the window and saw only the proud prow of this ship, I figured it was time to change lenses and head for the porch.

I’m not a naval architect, so what appeals visually to me may not make any economic sense, but the Ocean Hawthorn’s rakish bow made me think that “this ship means business”.  And she had a fair amount of style, to boot.

She’s a bit unusual in that she’s leaving the river “light”… without cargo.  Her AIS information shows that she’s heading from Longview to Vancouver, BC, though she’s still heading SW as I type this.

Her rakish profile would be evident even if she was fully laden, though.  That’s a seriously aggressive angle on her bow’s profile, and it’s accentuated by the bullnose that’s usually hidden underwater.

Before I could even head upstairs to upload the image shown above, another ship hove into view.  Up until a few weeks ago, I’d never seen this line, and now, it’s two in a row for ROROs in the evening for me.

This is the Terrier.  Norwegian flagged and heading for Pyungtaek, South Korea.  Just guessing, but I think there are more Hyundais and Kias in her future.

I would apologize for the omnipresent trestle in the foreground of so many shots, but I’m actually hoping to one day see an actual train on it.  In a perfect world, I’d be able to capture a steam locomotive making a transit.

But, I’m not holding my breath.

New Kid on The Block

The Arrow 2’s days as the primary river pilot transfer boat are numbered.

After more than 50 years in service, she’s in the process of being replaced by the Connor Foss, a boat that more closely resembles its bar pilot cousins than the “Little Toot” outline of the Arrow 2.

And for a little contrast, a shot from last evening, with the two boats together:

Both shots were from the catwalk at Baked Alaska, a perfect place for eating, drinking, merry-making and ship watching.

Incidentally, the “Connor” in the boat’s name is a real person.  He’s eight years old now, but his actual name is Connor Mitchell Hansen, a relative of the Foss founders.  If the boat that bears his name lasts as long as its predecessor, he’ll be well into middle-age when it’s finally retired.

Cue the Bond Theme…

Sometimes I wonder why I ever look away from my front windows.

I’d bopped downstairs for some random chore and glanced river-ward.

“Holy crap, what’s that?”

As always, the first instinct is to reach for the camera, but… “The card’s still upstairs in the computer!” 

Very fast trip up and downstairs, fingers flying over the controls on the camera, out the front door and…

Whew!  I got it! 

Settling in as the yacht made its way seaward, I paid more attention to focus points than individual details.

It wasn’t until the upload was complete that I really saw what I’d been tracking.

In hindsight, the main rotor blades are nearly fully visible in the first shot, but I really didn’t see them.  I have no excuse for not seeing the helo until it was on my computer’s monitor except that I was focusing on, well, focusing.  At that range, with that light and that lens, there’s not a lot of room for error, and I didn’t want to miss it.  So I didn’t even notice the helo in real time.

I just think of the maintenance cost of both vehicles visible here and cringe.  Never mind the purchase price… the ongoing costs are staggering.  There’s clearly another reality afloat here.

I Really Hate Dongo.org

There, I said it.

For years, that domain has been pointing people toward this blog for no reason at all. There’s no contextual connection between that domain and this one.

In all likelihood, Dongo visitors who land here are disappointed, perhaps even pissed off, and I don’t blame them… I probably would be, too, but it’s not something that I have any control over.

If you landed here in search of vacation properties in southern Europe or Africa and found something completely unexpected… GET ANGRY!  But not at me… go after the webmasters at Dongo.

I don’t even know what their game is, but it’s not mine.  If you got pointed here and liked what you see, you’re welcome to be here, comment, browse, whatever… I’m happy for the accident.

If you landed here from a Dongo link and didn’t like what you found, I encourage you to raise hell with them, because I think you’re in the majority.

I want people to visit this blog because they want to, not because some freakin’ robot pointed them here against anyone’s will but theirs.

With great respect for your choices,

Scott

Orange Seems To Be Very Popular These Days

Not every ship heading for the mouth of the Columbia is orange.  But nearly every time I get a chance to see another outbounder underway recently, it’s orange!

The Global Wisdom isn’t particularly unusual.  A Handy-size bulker with her holds filled beyond overflowing with logs.  But ships and cargos like these always catch my eye.  There’s just no keeping those contents secret… it’s another zillion board-feet of timber heading for somewhere in Asia, Japan in this case.

Maybe some of this wood will end up in the rebuilding effort after last years’ earthquake.

I don’t photograph every vessel that drifts past my front porch, but a big orange stick-ship loaded with massive sticks?  Yeah, I’ll take a few minutes to grab that.

A77, 70-300G.  ISO 200, 180mm, 1/400 @ f/7.1

The Opposite of Stealth

The Rose Festival fleet is starting to drift inland and the USS Dewey is tied up in all of her haze-gray splendor where cruise ships normally dock.  That class of destroyer is all angles and shades of gray… the better to deflect radar and confuse visual cues.

Contrast that concept to this:

The Tai Shan was cruising outbound a couple of hours after I observed the squids in dress whites ambling up Commercial.  This ship is whatever the Dewey isn’t.  It’s slow (by comparison), big, bright… just flippin’ obvious to any type of sensor known to man, including the Mark 1, Mod 1 Eyeball.  Damn… I could see this without my glasses on!  This baby just jumps out and says “I’m here!”

And, to the enlisted guys wandering around downtown (and probably looking for Annie’s), I feel for you… dress whites really suck.  They look the same and probably feel the same as they did 25 years ago when I was wearing ‘em, and I sympathize.  I would rather have worn dress blues in all of their woolen splendor in 90 degree sun than suffer the indignity of those crappy, impossible-to-keep-clean polyester clown-suits.

A Surprise Visitor

…and an odd one at that.

This wasn’t here when I got home last night!  But after I’d uploaded all of the photos on the memory card I went back downstairs to find the ungainly-looking assembly at anchor off the front porch.

It was raining hard and the light was failing, but I had to make the attempt, once again bracing against the porch post to help minimize camera shake.

The tug Kokua and barge Haleakala:

The Shipfinder app indicated that she’s bound for Honolulu (and the names of the tug and barge both sure hint at somewhere in Hawaii!).

Given the worsening weather conditions, I thought that perhaps the crew had decided to wait for a more-calm bar, but when I came back downstairs to try for some better shots, I found her underway again, and rapidly heading out of sight.

I can only guess at what had taken place, but given that the tug had tied up alongside the barge for such a short period, I suspect that the crew was making one more check of the barge before beginning the long haul to the middle of the Pacific. 

Many tugs don’t show up on the bar-pilots’ schedules, so there wasn’t any real warning that this one would make an appearance.

Both shots at ISO 1600 with the 70-300 G, shutter speeds focal lengths and apertures vary.  Post-processing (mostly for noise) in LR4