March 29, 2010
It blew hard all night rained like hell and wasn’t what you would call warm out. Tom, Erik and Al’s first shift at o’dark thirty at Seaborn’s was this cruise ship SPIRIT OF ‘98 that was about 5 decks high and had to come out and go back into this narrow hole with all kinds of small craft and yachts around. We had to move her out because she was blocking in another vessel.
SPIRIT OF '98 HOW MUCH WINDAGE DOES SHE HAVE? DIXIE ALONGSIDE.
DIXIE MADE UP TO SPIRIT OF '98, HOW MANY DECKS HIGH IS SHE?
Not how I would want to start the week but I didn’t have to go! I got to stay next to the oil stove, of course a few hours later the wind dies and it stops raining. Now the sun is almost out and they are gone again this time for a 105 foot LCT landing craft that needs a shift out of Pacific Fisherman’s shipyard and up to her winter moorage at the Seiner’s Association. It’s a tight hole so they take the STINGER (which is 20′ long, 250 HP with a 8-V71 and a 38 inch prop) and the JEEP (which is15′ long with a 135 HP Ford diesel and a 24 inch prop); both are open tugs and they tight-line her so nothing touches. We call Deep Sea Tom an optimist because he didn’t have his oil skins on when they left. When they get thru with that they have to go a couple of miles from Lake Union to Seaview East with this big fancy yacht the GOLDEN DELICIOUS and tight-line it and definitely not touch it! The last thing that you want to do is to have the DIXIE or the GRACE take a fancy yacht alongside and scratch it or get it dirty, so tight-lining is the order of the day. We even have yacht blankets but there is nothing like staying away from the hulls completely.
WALDO OLSONS' TUG, NOW A MEMBER OF ISLAND'S FLEET, SHE WAS ASSISTING TWO GRAVEL BARGES LANDING ON THE UPPER DUWAMISH RIVER.
DEEP SEA TOM WITH 2 BOATS IN TOW.
TOW LINE ERIK WITH ONE OF THE LAUNCHES IN TOW AT FOSS.
AMERICAN LADY JUST PASSING UNDER THE AURORA BRIDGE; STINGER ASSISTING.
TOW LINE ERIK PUSHING WITH STINGER.
STINGER PUSHING ON GULF WINDS SEEMS LIKE CAPT. ERIK IS REALLY PUSHY.
MR. KEEGAN HAS ALL UNDER CONTROL.
BOATS AFLOAT TOW WITH JOHN HOLDING DOWN THE HEAD END.
STINGER: SHE IS ALMOST AS WIDE AS SHE IS LONG.
DEEP SEA TOM FINALLY GOT OFF THE BOAT.
TUG GRACE: NO RUST ON THAT DECK OR IS IT THE COLOR OF THE PAINT?
TRACTOR TUG ANDREW FOSS AND FOSS NO. 300 WITH THE OLYMPIC MOUNTAINS IN THE BACKGROUND.
CAPT. KEEGAN AND HALFTRACK WITH BIG TOW.
DIXIE AT OUR DOCK BEFORE THE SUN HID BEHIND A CLOUD.
More birthdays in April: my cousin Al who is older and smarter than me has his 77th
birthday in April; we are the same age for about one month. Our granddaughter, Marina May, will be 8 in April and her mother Heidi Anne also has a birthday in April and last but not least Deep Sea Tom finishes the month out with his birthday.
Tom found me the info on our old tug STANDFAST her new name is FOX. She started out as the LINDA K in Portland where I bought her in 1972 – seems just like yesterday.
A big thank you to all the folks that send me tug boat photos I always try to pass them on so that everyone gets to see them: No hoarding allowed. Thanks to Bob Richardson our man in Coos Bay; Grant Snyder our man in Newport; Keith Sternberg our man in Lopez Island; Don Medforth our man in Nanimo; Ron Burchett our man in Ladysmith; Art Anderson our man in Vancouver BC; Stan Wilhight our man on Whidbey Island and Michael Dean our other man in Ladysmith; Mike Wright our man in Maple Bay; Bill Page our man in Maine; Lisa Haug our friend at Manson and Alec Guiness our Man in Havana.
MANSON CREW BOATS: JOHN AND SPEEDY IN THE GULF. LISA HAUG PHOTOS.
MANSON DREDGE BAYPORT IN THE GULF. LISA HAUG PHOTOS.
SALVAGE OF HELEN McCOLL AT NEWPORT OR. GRANT SNYDER PHOTO.
NORTH BEND BACKING OUT FROM HER DOCK IN COOS BAY. BOB RICHARDSON PHOTO
LINE BOAT BLANCO READY TO DEPART. BOB RICHARDSON PHOTO
ATB TUG GALVESTON IN FOR REPAIRS. BOB RICHARDSON PHOTO. GALVESTON IN THE NOTCH OF THE PETROCHEM PRODUCER. BOB RICHARDSON PHOTO.
GALVESTON and barge outbound just cleared rail road bridge. Bob Richardson photo.
CHARLIE YATES ENTERS PILOT HOUSE. MARK THE DECKHAND HOLDS LADDER FOR GEORGE WALES COMING DOWN PILOT LADDER. TUG & BARGE HEADED FOR CALIFORNIA WITHOUT THEM.
GALVESTON AND HER BARGE HEADED SOUTH CALM DAY FOR FEBRUARY. BOB RICHARDSON PHOTO
YARROW IN DRYDOCK AT CRUISE AND BANKS ABOUT 1915. BOB RICHARDSON COLLECTION.
MARTIN D IN SE ALASKA SHE HAD A 600 HP BUSCH -SULZTER. KEITH STERNBERG PHOTO.
MIKI MIKI MARY MAKIN ON FIRE. ART ANDERSON PHOTO
SEASPAN TROJAN. PHOTO FROM ART ANDERSON
RIV-TOW LION PRIOR TO HER SINKING AT NANIMO AS A DIVE SITE. DON MEDFORTH PHOTO
FALBRO, FALT BROS, COWICHAN BAY. DON MEDFORTH PHOTO.
GLEN ROVER AND STORMAWAY II. DON MEDFORTH PHOTO.
GEORGINA, FALT BROS, COWICHIAN BAY. DON MEDFORTH PHOTO.
A TUGBOATER'S "DREAM" : TOO HIGH AND TOO WIDE. PHOTO FROM RON BURCHETT & MIKE CLAXTON
HUGE!! PHOTO FROM BURCHETT & CLAXTON.
FOSS TUG SEA IMP IN EVERETT A CLASSIC IN STEEL. STAN WILHIGHT PHOTO.
RELIEF LIGHTSHIP ON UMATILLA REEF STATION.
I have been hard at it on my new book I have now written over 32,000 words of hot air for LIFEBOAT STATION SAILOR. When I get to the end then Margie will read it and tell me where I went wrong and then the real work starts filling in the blanks for her. It has been fun to write about my experiences 45 years ago - lucky that I kept fairly good records and lots of pictures. I had Captain Erik read it and he said he had tears running down his cheeks laughing so hard at parts of the story. It is a serious tale but I have injected a lot of humor into it because of all the funny things that happened along the way.
I have a new hero. It used to be J R Ewing on Dallas now it is Russell on Survivor he did a real stand up performance when he gave the hidden immunity IDOL to Parvati and saved the day for her and shot down Boston Rob’s latest scheme - show them the way Russell ! (Hope he doesn’t get voted off this week.)
I have lots of good cat pictures for the next blog but not enough room this time. I am still looking for a plastic model of the tug CHERYL ANN in kit form or a completed model any condition Randy Flodquist found me the last one.
FAIRTIDE MARK
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