Tag Archives: ship

Red Kestrel

The Red Funnel ferries have made appearances on the blog after previous UK trips including this one here. While we were on the seafront at Cowes, we saw one of the ferries coming in but it looked pretty odd. It actually looked a lot like the old style of ferries from my youngest days. There was little upper superstructure and it looked like it was designed for trucks only. The name was Red Kestrel so a quick google confirmed that this is exactly what it is. By taking freight traffic, it leaves more space on the main ferries for the car traffic. Apparently, it has space for about 12 passengers so I guess it is not well appointed!

Another Boat Out of the Water in Anacortes

1 Reply

During a vacation trip to Anacortes, prior to moving to Washington, I posted some pictures of a large vessel out on the dockside being worked on. I was quite taken with seeing it so high out of the water. That post is here if you are interested. We were passing through Anacortes again recently and I decided to go back to the same shipyard to see if something else was there. Sure enough, another large vessel was sitting in the yard undergoing work.

Seeing a ship this large out of the water is impressive to me. I got a few photos. It was an interesting shaped hull. I think it had propulsor units of some sort based on rotating vanes rather than traditional propellers. They were a bit hard to see but I think that was what was back there. My friendly marine engineers might step in here and help out.

The Big Ships are Back

Leave a Reply

The return of summer means the return of the cruise ships. We took a trip over to West Seattle when we had visitors to get a view of the city and there were cruise ships at both terminals. One was side on to us while two more were stern on at the further terminal. We shall have a lot of these big ships coming and going for the next few months as people head up to Alaska on a voyage.

Coho at Work

Leave a Reply

There is a direct ferry from Port Angeles to downtown Victoria operated by Black Ball Line. Their boat is an old ship called the Coho. We have taken this route on a previous visit but didn’t use it this time. However, the regular arrival and departure of the Coho meant we saw it frequently during our stay. The ship has loading apertures on each side of the hull through which the cars can be loaded. Otherwise it looks like a pretty normal ship.

It wasn’t hard to know when they were leaving as there would be a blast on the ship’s horn. This was followed by swinging the boat around in the main harbor in order to be able to head out through the narrow passage to the open sea. The Coho first entered service in 1959 so is clearly not a new vessel. I have no idea whether there is any plan to replace her or whether, with regular refits, she will continue in service for years to come.

Cruise Ships Being Turned Around

Leave a Reply

From the top of the Space Needle, you can survey a lot of what goes on in Seattle. Cruise ships berth along the waterfront near the Alaskan Way Viaduct but they also come in further up the shore. Two ships were in port up there while we were up the Needle. I had got a shot of them at one point shortly after getting to the top but, as I walked around, the sun popped out and bathed them in light while all around them was still in shade. Now they really popped so I figured another shot was in order before the sun vanished – which it did a minute later.

Ferry in to Coupeville

Leave a Reply

Washington State Ferries cover a wide range of routes. Some of them are major commuter journeys and the boats are sized to handle lots of cars and passengers. Others are far more specialized runs that have lower frequencies and capacity. This can change throughout the year with the peak season demand being way higher than the off-season and larger boats get drafted in.

While I was on the shore at Coupeville, one of the ferries came in. We actually took this route on a vacation a couple of years ago and it was quite busy then. This time things were a lot quieter and the boat was clearly not one of the biggest that WSDOT has available.

Stitching a Moving Ship

Leave a Reply

This is less of a technique post and more about the capabilities of modern software. In a previous post I discussed a visit to Vancouver to meet up with family members that had come off a cruise ship. We were down on the waterfront when the ship that they had come in on departed. As it got further away, I shot a few frames with the longer lens to try and stitch together in a panorama. The problem with this type of shot is that the ship is moving so the background is not consistent between the frames, even if you try and do them quickly. However, I handed them over the Lightroom and it did its stitching thing and the attached shot resulted. I think you would struggle to know that there was an issue based on the output. Quite impressive software performance!

Some Small Pleasure Craft

Leave a Reply

Two small boats came through the locks while we were there. One was just over 50m in length while the other was much smaller and just under 50m in length. Both of these boats looked like they might be quite comfortable. They were also both flagged in the Caribbean. A quick Google search on each showed that they were available for charter. Both seemed to have plenty of people on board but they looked like they might have been the crew rather than the guests as they seemed all business as they handled these tiny boats through the lock. If I decide to get a boat at some point, I might be tempted by either of these. I do prefer one over the other but I suppose I could make do with the less preferable one if the price were right.

They Both Float, But…

Leave a Reply

This is the cruise ship that our family had been traveling on when they arrived in Vancouver. It was heading back out the same day and we watched it leave port and head out. As it was turning to head back to the open sea, one of the local Otter floatplanes was making its approach to land (or whatever the correct word is when it is water rather than land). It passed in front of the ship. Both vessels are comfortable in the water but one is on a rather different scale than the other.

Big Boat in Anacortes

Leave a Reply

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!