A pair of sailing ships had been in Oakland earlier in the year but I didn’t get around to seeing them while they were there. However, I had lunch with some colleagues in Jack London Square a little while later and saw that one of the ships (or another similar ship) was tied up on the dock. Unfortunately, the sun was behind the boat so it wasn’t an ideal time to photograph it but, with something that unusual, I figured I shouldn’t waste the opportunity.
This is a bit of an old event but I thought it was worth a post. A number of years ago we took a vacation to South Pender Island in British Columbia. We stayed in a hotel by a little harbor called Poet’s Cove and I spent a lot of time watching the comings and goings of the boats and the floatplanes. One afternoon, an old tug boat approached the harbor. It was a rugged looking old beast of a boat but it looked like it had been restored for use as a private boat. It came chugging in towards the harbor, apparently ready to moor up.
What happened next is not entirely clear to me. Whether the person in charge didn’t really know what they were doing or whether there was a technical failure of some sort I do not know. Whatever it was, the tug came in at a decent speed and didn’t show any signs of slowing down. It was heading for a rather nice little cruiser that was on the end of one of the jetties and, sure enough, they plowed right into it.
The whole thing seemed to be in slow motion because, since they are boats, things don’t happen very fast but they don’t stop fast either. The cruiser had a RIB mounted on the stern – at least it originally did – and this seemed to take a lot of the visible punishment. However, judging by the sounds that were made on impact, I am imagining that some of the cruiser on the opposite side from me sustained damage I never saw.
Eventually, the tug crew got things slightly under control and backed out of the harbor and dropped anchor a short way offshore. The people on the jetty seemed to be in shock (can’t say I blame them) and then a deputation motors out to the tug to “discuss” what had happened. I watched things for a while but, once everything seemed to be under control, I retreated to the hotel to tell Nancy all about it over a beer!
We took a ferry from Anacortes as part of our vacation. We had some time in hand so stopped for lunch in the town and then took a wander around afterwards. The center of town is right near the shipyards and they seemed to be pretty busy. What particularly caught my eye was this huge boat that appeared to have undergone a process to stretch it and add some new structure. Seeing something this size sitting up on the ground is impressive when you are level with the bottom of the hull!
Our vacation included a few ferry rides. Washington State Ferries come in various sizes depending on the route you are taking but they are all a fairly decent size. However, we passed this guy on one of our legs. This is what I would call personal ferry service. I imagine that, with so many islands and less traffic to most of them, this is the best way to deal with transportation needs. I don’t know whether there is a schedule or if it is on demand but I love the idea. I imagine the onboard catering is pretty limited though.
Plenty of my times alongside San Francisco Bay are airplane or wildlife related. You do get to see lots of other things on the bay, though, and on a windy day the sailing is definitely worth a look. Having grown up in a sailing town, I do love to watch sailing, even if I never got into sailing myself. A lot of boats were out on this day. I don’t know whether they were racing officially or just were out testing each other but they were certainly getting some speed on. Watching the sails full of air with the boat healing over dramatically and making good speed is really cool.
A little while ago I posted a picture of a sailing boat that had wrecked on the breakwater at the marina on Coyote Point. The next time I was back there, I guess I had timed things well. The boat had been pulled ashore and a guy was busy breaking it up. He used the front scoop of a backhoe to break the hull up. Obviously it was beyond rescue. He would pull sections off and then drop them in a dumpster. As he broke it up, more of the interior would be visible. The fiberglass is quite flexible so he had to work to actually break it sometimes. However, there was only going to be one winner in this contest.
I stopped off at Coyote Point in the Bay for a short while. It hasn’t been so long since I was last there so the new addition I saw must have occurred pretty recently. It appears that someone has had a little incident with their sailing boat. I don’t know whether they had a problem making it into the channel to the marina or whether the boat broke loose from a mooring somewhere else in the bay. Whatever the origin, it is now lying on the rocks just outside the marina. I didn’t get closer to see how bad the damage is but I am guessing that it is not in great shape!
I have been on a few whale watching trips in the past. We took one out of Provincetown on Cape Cod that had a whale guarantee. No whales and you get a free second trip. 95% success rate. Guess what day we went on. No chance to go back and take the free trip. We did a trip in a RIB when staying on Pender Island and had more success on that occasion including a pretty close encounter with a humpback. Other than that it was a pretty quiet trip.
Consequently, I was cautious when we went on our trip out in Monterey Bay. This is an area with an abundance of marine life, particularly at this time of year. Dolphins, humpbacks, orcas and even blue whales have been about a lot recently. However, we went on a trip that had a lot better chances. It was an all day excursion. It was listed as eight hours but we ended up being gone for eleven. The map above shows where I took shots so you can see we went a long way up the coast. It is easy to see why they don’t let children under 13 or pregnant women on. Boredom or urgent needs are not realistic!
The day was very productive. Be ready for a stream of posts of aquatic wildlife!
I’m sure this will look very formulaic to a number of photographers but, for the longest time, I have loved the image of a lone boat in the open sea. I think the first time I took a shot like this was on the Ribble Estuary in Lytham. That was on film of course. Now, even when I know it is not being terribly original, I can’t help myself but be drawn to an image like this. Maybe one day I will have the perfect shot but I doubt it.
The way the light bounces from the water, the shadow that the boat is in, the texture of the waves and the isolation of the boat in the expanse of the water all appeal to me. Hope you like it too.
The Royal Navy’s submarine fleet is entirely nuclear powered. In the 80s, though, this was not the case. The Navy then still had a substantial fleet of diesel subs. The Oberon Class of subs was available in numbers along with the remaining Porpoise Class that preceded them and these were due to be replaced by the Upholders. Only four of those were built and they were sold to Canada when the decision was made to get rid of the diesel fleet despite their outstanding stealth qualities. When I went to Navy Days in Portsmouth in the 80s, you could see the subs on display. HMS Dolphin was just across the harbor and was the headquarters of the sub operations. One visit included the chance to see a sub in dry dock – something I suspect would not be left on view these days.
