Thursday 10/27/2011

7:00 AM Survey Start.

8:39 AM ID Harbour (Panama) / downriver

9:35 AM Zhonghai (Panama) / downriver

9:37 AM Three blue tugs, same as the ones that have been hauling pipes, head one after the other downriver.

10:56 AM Hanjin Copenhagen (didn't catch port) / upriver

10:58 AM The barge Deneb pushed by a tugboat. Overtaken by the Hanjin Copenhagen / upriver

11:26 AM Blue tugs head upriver with more pipes.

11:41 AM Another set of blue tugs with more pipes.

12:36 PM Florida Voyager (San Francisco) / upriver
Missed photo.

1:39 PM Kenanga (Panama) / upriver

2:23 PM IUS Magpie (Singapore) / upriver

3:03 PM Another Zucchini! This one is floating out on the water, stuck all over with beautiful fall flowers. Is there some kind of zucchini glorifying tradition that I don't know about whereby one decorates zucchinis and set them loose on rivers? Mystifying!

3:15 PM Gigantic wake inundated my comfortable spot, leaned up against my log! Fortunately, I got everything out of the way in time.  Rest of day spent on higher ground...

3:22 PM Orient Shine (Panama) /downriver

3:31 PM Bald Eagle winged it's way upriver.

5:15 PM End Survey

Wednesday 10/26/2011

7:00 AM Start Survey

8:45 AM Foggy morning, not much exciting to report, except that it is very cold. My cell phone says it is 36 degrees out. Brrrrr. Listening to The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge, which has been quite interesting.

11:27 AM The tugboats that have been pulling the pipes up the river head by with something bigger than their usual load, but I have no idea what it is.

11:43 AM Tug with sawdust for paper mill

12:22 PM Tug with barge... didn't get name!

1:10 PM Triton pulls barge of sawdust.

1:20 PM Hyperion Leader (Panama) / upriver

1:56 PM Pan Pynami (Hong Kong) / upriver

2:26 PM Little Blue tug comes back downriver

2:27 PM Triton back downriver

2:52 PM Cos Fair (Singapore) / downriver

4:59 PM Carl Oldendorff (Monrovia) / downriver

5:45 PM End Survey

Tuesday 10/25/2011

7:00 AM Start Survey

7:59 AM Two great blue herons wander the foggy shore near me.

8:00 AM By putting my camera to my binoculars (my camera's zoom is terrible) I'm able to get a closeup.

Then a flock of mergansers showed up!

8:39 AM Sky completely filled with flocks of geese in a merging multitude of flying V's heading upriver. They swirl in one gigantic vortex of birds down to what must be a lake or marshland somewhere across the river behind the houses that line the shore.

9:18 AM Morning light through the fog.

10:32 AM Belgrano (Panama) / upriver. Sounding foghorn all the way.

12:34 AM Gigantic flock of ducks spread out across the water. At least 400 of them spread out all over the river, but can't capture them all in a single photograph...

2:04 PM Tidewater barge with sawdust for paper mill

4:46 PM Suzaku (Panama) / downriver

4:49 PM Tug Wallace E pushing the barge Seaspan 251 downriver

5:05 PM It appears a gigantic zucchini has washed ashore.

6:08 PM Sunset

6:30 PM End Survey

Monday 10/24/2011

7:00 AM Start Survey

8:08 AM Sunrise!

10:20 AM Kestrel Arrow (Nassau) / upriver

11:08 AM Tugboats with a load of pipes again / upriver

11:25 AM Shimanami Star (Nassau) / upriver

2:06 PM Tugs that had carried the pipes go back downriver.

2:13 PM  A flock of common mergansers below a gorgeous cumulonimbus (I think?) cloud.

4:49 PM IVS Kestrel (Hong Kong) / downriver

5:05 PM Pioneer (Port Vila) / downriver
The flags on the back are a yellow seahorse on a blue field.

6:14 PM Everything bathed in a rosy glow. It's not near so warm as it looks, though!

6:37 PM Daylight is fading. The tide is as far out as it was this morning. I've been here now from first light to last glimmer. The purple light of this evening couldn't be more different from the golden glow of sunrise this morning.

6:45 PM End Survey

*note: Lots of seal sightings today, have stopped recording them here, as too much bother to write down a third time, since I have to record them already so much elsewhere.

Friday 10/21/2011

Survey Start: 7:00 AM

9:56 AM Tug Miki Miki (Portland, OR) pulling the barge Hana

10:03 AM Tug Chinook (Portland, OR) puling the barge Kamakani

10:27 AM Spring Lyra (Panama) / upriver. Another dredger?

11:19 AM Florida Voyager (San Francisco) / downriver

11:28 AM Timaru Star (Hong Kong) / upriver

12:27 PM Danann Island (Panama) / downriver

12:47 PM Coast guard helicopter upriver

2:07 PM Tidewater Barge w/ sawdust / upriver

2:35 PM Coast guard helicopter heads back downriver.

3:10 PM End Survey.

Thursday 10/20/2011

7:00 AM Survey Start

7:38 AM Santiago Express (Singapore) / downriver

7:40 AM Golden Pisces (Newport, OR) / upriver
(Look to the bottom left - I know, the sunrise is pretty too)

7:52 AM Sunrise in full swing now!

8:05 AM Hanjin Madrid (Hamburg) / upriver

8:25 AM Stolt Island (George Town) / upriver
This is another dredger like the Terrapin Island that passed before. Is it tradition to name dredgers after islands, or just company policy, I wonder? I like the sunlight reflecting off the bank of fog that is rolling in behind the ship.

9:56 AM A core of engineers boat keeps passing by, it's a small craft, but it's passed by at five times so far. Surveying for future dredging, perhaps?

10:21 AM Iris Ace (George Town) / Upriver

11:28 AM Same tugboat as went by the other day pulling the long pipes. Again pulling pipes, but of a different sort. It stops, then goes backwards for a few minutes, then stops. Picture taken through my binoculars to get a better resolution.

11:30 AM Tug with pipes heads off upriver again.

2:43 PM Tugs that took pipes upriver return, coupled together somehow. Sunshine gives way to rain.

3:16 PM Triton heads upriver. Enjoying the unabridged Don Quixote on audiobook, and wishing I knew enough Spanish to hear it in the original.

5:00 PM End Survey