April 24, Astoria: Plane crash and Columbia River rescue

On a beautiful Saturday, a plane flew low over the city of Astoria and crash-landed in the Columbia River. Thakfully, both people on board survived. One was a former Mayor of Astoria. I've given the long text story in my Astoria, Oregon, Daily Photo blog. Since the "City Daily Photo" rules specify one picture per day, I used the dramatic rescue photo above with a lot of text, and left the rest of the photo story for this blog and my albums. For that reason, I'll keep the text short here - the two blog posts complement each other. Because Laurel saw the plane veer over the town and plunge into the water, because she called me, and because I was here with my camera and could get to the scene within minutes, I was apparently the only one who caught the people on the wing of the plane. See the Astoria, Oregon, Daily Photo for details. And click the picture for a larger view.

Behind the shutter, I didn't see all of the details until I got the photos onto my hard drive. The pilot and his passenger are on the pilot boat now, but not visible.

I couldn't understand why the boat was leaving, since I hadn't seen any people, and I actually thought they were still on the plane.

The scene at that point was eerily serene.

I'd been standing behind the Maritime Museum, and the police cordoned the place off, asking everyone to get out. The plane had begun to drift down-river rather fast, and it seemed a better vantage point was on the dock anyway.

I stood on the dock by the Maritime, and within 11 minutes the plane had been carried by the current not only past the museum to the docks' location on the river bank, but it had also been carried - amazingly - toward midsectiof a Coast Guard bar tender equipped with a crane meant for lifting heavy objects such a buoys out of the water. It was just strange - of all the places it could have landed and been carried to! At that point there were no ropes on the plane, and nobody had been guiding it -0r not that I saw, anyway!

A crowd gathers at the bar tender, wonders at the bizarre scene, and wonders what they're going to do with the plane.

The Coast Guard seemed to be wondering, too, as the plane, nose down and helpless, continues to float up near the ship.

This is the first time I saw anyone bring out ropes. They're not going to let it get away, although I don't think there's much of a plan yet. My camera batteries died at this point, and I ran back to get new ones.

When I returned, they'd hauled the tail up against the ship with a large black rubber torpedo-shaped thing holding the plane away from the ship's hull so it wouldn't cause damage.

Here the people are gathered along the dock at the side of the bar tender.

Then they decided to move it back along the ship's side.

It's strongly roped so it can be pulled against the current - left being down-river and right being up.

The plane has mostly sunk now, and you can just see a wing tip, looking a lot like the fin of a shark. The black rubber torpedo is the "egg" I referred to above.

So they were going to haul the plane onto the ship after all. For some reason I like this photo, where the crew begins unhooking the tie-downs on the piles of huge chain. The orders are: clear the deck.

The ship's crane is lifting each heavy pile of chain. I thought they were just loose piles, but they're constructed and hooked together in such a way that they don't have to be lifted very high to be moved. Yes, they completely lift them, they're not dragged.

What now? Waiting. Eventually, we all left. It seemed they were going to call in another boat do something with the plane, and meanwhile the crew were breaking out snacks. Whatever was going to happen, it didn't seem like it would be soon. Despite the sun, the nice-looking day and the t-shirts, most of us who had been standing around for an hour and a half were glad to call it good and get back to someplace warm. Lee and I had tickets the Crab and Seafood Festival, too, and it was getting late. He'd be arriving soon from Bend. The people had been rescued from the plane at 4:46 pm, and it was now almost 6:15. This was an unusual and interesting afternoon, for sure. I hadn't heard a sound, and wouldn't have known anything had happened if Laurel hadn't called. A lot of people working in the area hadn't had a clue.

Further reading: The Daily Astorian

Astoria-Warrenton Crab, Seafood & Wine Festival

You can click on this image to read the type. I've been meaning to volunteer at the Chamber of Commerce since the Tapir Preservation Fund and The Animal Store became a member last year, and I finally did it. I helped out with some badges and envelope-stuffing for the Crab and Seafood Festival the other day. My intention was to do something that would help the local business scene, and personally I'd like to meet and really get acquainted with more of my fellow business owners. I had a good time, and I got a free pass to the festival, which I hadn't expected. It will be fun. I've gone to a couple of these and had a good time, but the last few years, I've forgotten or been busy or out of town. I'm looking forward both to helping again at the Chamber and to festival. I'll take photos! The festival is the Chamber's biggest fundraiser each year, and there's great food to be had! I'm not much of a drinker, but I'll probably sample a wine or two. You can read more about the festival on the Best of Portland blog, which is where I got the second image.

Save Fort Columbia!

I've been doing lots and lots of historical posting, anachronistic posting, or whatever you want to call it. I've been working from photos I took in 2001, when I first moved to Oregon, and I've just done a post with lots of photos of Fort Columbia, Washington, just across the river from Astoria. It's a beautiful place, well kept-up and fun to wander around in. You can climb the mountain behind it, too, making a nice, steep loop, not too strenuous or long, and come back down into the fort. The whole time you're walking through forest or forest meadow (sometimes mud, too, but not that bad). When I looked it up online to make a link, I found two things within a minute of each other. First, I didn't realize you can actually rent a couple of these houses for a night. They're historic and lovely, and they aren't that expensive, especially if you double up. There is a house that sleeps four and another that accommodates up to 12 people for a bit over $200.00!!! If you happen to have a party of 12, that's only $23.00 each plus tax!!! What a deal! Or if you had a few people, you could each have two or three beds.

After my excitement at this discovery, the next thing I found was really discouraging. It was a recent article in the Daily Astorian about plans to "mothball" Fort Columbia. (Note: I see that I can't make a direct link; if you're not a subscriber to the Astorian, as I'm not, you'll have to get in by the back door. Use this link to search Google, and then look for the search result 'Fort Columbia targeted for mothballing.' It was the top result today when I searched.) Now, the reason for closing down this historic site? Under-use and lack of funds. I put in my two cents and sent e-mail to the cause, and now I'm posting about it o this blog. It would be a terrible shame. Maybe some PR would help? I mean, who knew you could actually stay in such a unique and historic building for so little? If the plan goes through - and in this economy, I'm afraid it will - they'll allow hikers and day-use people to use the place, but they won't maintain it. Maybe there's a "Save Fort Columbia" organization where I can add a little more than two cents. It would be worthwhile. On the other hand, when school budgets are being cut so drastically and people are losing their jobs, the choices become so difficult. I think there must be a way to preserve both. When you lose history, you don't necessarily get it back. But we can't undereducate kids and take teachers out of schools. The choices to be made in this economy are pathetic and sad. There is so much wealth in the world, yet the balance is horribly off.

I found this on YouTube. Here's one of the strange things you can do at Fort Columbia. Hang on. It may take a minute to load.

April 14, Warrenton and Astoria: Beautiful sunset sky, beautiful light

I took this photo just outside the Columbia Fitness Center in Warrenton, just across the Youngs Bay Bridge from Astoria. It's a swampy area alongside the river, so there's a lot of plant life there.

I took this picture from the same location. It's less dramatic, but I like the image and the colors. The clouds were beautiful this evening, and the light was really nice. It was just after 7:30 p.m., so it's clear that the days are getting longer. During winter, it's dark by 5 pm, and in summer, you can still see light in the sky at 10:00. I enjoy the changes we get this far north.

I took this pic just before 7:00 p.m. as I was getting ready to go to the gym. The light had that special quality that told me there could be a really good sunset. You never know what form it will take, but a certain mellow quality in the light and certain moisture in the air usually give interesting results. It's better for ship photos, too, because there's less contrast. Too often, the white "castle" on the ship burns out, and I'm not good enough with the camera controls yet to get it right. When I exposed for the castle in some experiments the other day, the rest of the photo went dark. Anyway, I love this lighting.

Plastic ferret new in our store!

Oops. Got so tired, I posted this to the wrong blog, so I moved the post.

You can . . .

follow the plastic ferret link to the right blog :) It is cute!

~ Thanks!