April 2, Astoria: Ships on the waterfront

It was overcast this morning with some interesting cloud effects on the river. Also a couple of interesting ships. The Oregon Responder (above) is an oil-spill clean-up boat. I'm not sure what else it does or where it was coming from today. It looks like it was going back to its home dock, which is in the West Mooring basin in Astoria.

I did a post on the Aleutian Ballad in November. Here it is on the river going towards the ocean. The waves are getting rough.

And then the sky cleared up except for scattered clouds, but it's still cold and windy. I've been inside working all day, just going out on the deck to take a few photos.

After work, I put on my heaviest jacket and went out to wander around the Maritime Museum a bit and look at the ships, boats and whatever I could find. It was a good excuse to get out and stand in the wind for awhile. I should ask them at the museum about this little harbor made of pilings. It doesn't seem to offer much shelter for a boat, so I wonder what it's used for.

Here's an old bell in front of the Maritime Museum. The housing, support, whatever, has new paint, though.

Near the bell are several benches, and this plaque is in the pavement under one of the benches. Captain Gray was the first person of European descent to discover the Columbia River, and he named it after his ship, the "Columbia Rediviva."

And here's the plaque in situ beneath the bench in front of the museum. The ship in the water, the Columbia, is a retired lightship, and has nothing to do with Captain Gray's sailing ship.

I really like this photo of the Coast Guard buoy, also retired and floating here at the museum. It's actually rocking pretty hard on the waves today.

The ship and the buoy. The lightship is part of the museum, and you can tour through it when the museum is open.

This photo shows the Maritime Museum along with the buoy and the Columbia lightship. I love the colors, especially of the buoy.

I took this picture to show what was happening with the water. When the buoy rocked, it smacked down on the water causing small waves.

On the other side of the pier, this boat caused even larger waves when it rocked. The Spirit of '98 from Seattle isn't one I see here very often. That doesn't mean it isn't a regular, but I've rarely noticed it. I don't get over here to look at the boats that often. If you can see it, there's the faintest rainbow in the spray. Of course, once I took camera away from my eye, the boat rocked up a much better rainbow!

Here's the Spirit at the dock with dark clouds to the east.

This is the Coast Guard ship Steadfast, which pretty much lives here in the dock.

That's the peninsula of Tongue Point.

I took this one from the east side of the Maritime Museum. I didn't get the shot just as the waves crashed the highest. This is a river, not the ocean, but we do get waves. It's so wide that the wind has a chance to blow them up on a windy day.

More waves, lighting, and old pilings from east of the Maritime Museum.

I love it that the old pilings and foundations in the river turn such a bright green. Nice seagull, too.