Columbia River Commerce 2

I’ve been fortunate to see the Columbia and do posts like this and this.  But equally fortunate is the fact Seth Tane lives there and periodically passes along photos like the ones below, Fennica, along with sister Nordica,  in Portland about a month ago. Fennica appeared here once six years ago in photos from Sea Bart, showing the Finnish icebreaker at work in the North Sea oil patch.

Fennica, as Seth noticed, was carrying a “capping stack,” the yellow object hanging from the red frame on Fennica‘s stern.  Fr the difference between a capping stack and a blow-out preventer, click here.

Also, notice the shape of the hull in the photo below, especially the widening flair about midships. In the weeks since Seth took these photos, the icebreakers headed out to Dutch Harbor, AK, and toward the Chukchi Sea, where in the past few days a hull fracture has been found.  To be followed.

Below is oceanographic research vessel Kilo Moana (T-AGOR-26), also in Portland.

Also this spring .  .  . Global Sentinel was on the Columbia, although she’s currently off the Oregon coast.

Many thanks to Seth Tane for these photos.

Taggee Proxy

or “relief crew,” I suppose.  First, thanks to two of my “taggees” the other day for being good sports.  I tagged Sea bart the other day, but he gave a host of excuses reasons–like being out on the North Sea at the moment–and sent me this pic of icebreaker Fennica to post on his behalf.

Explanation in Bart’s words:  “… action picture of the icebreaker Fennica … next to the K14-FB platform in the Dutch sector of the North Sea.”  (It turns out Fennica is Finnish and larger than she seems on this foto:  loa 377′  x 82′ x 42′ and almost 27,000 hp. Here’s a Finnish site on Fennica.   Also, it turns out that five countries have divvied up North Sea petroleum exploration much as more locally fishermen have areas for weirs, beds, and pots. )

Bart continues: “We [Kamara*] had to be at the platform as well to discharge some cargo and we had to do quit a battle to get in a position so the crane could reach us, wind and current quite strong that day. In the end I had to ask her to move out a bit as the bows of both vessels were coming particularly close but also her thrust was causing me more problems……and after we moved out I had the captain circle the platform so I could get a few nice shots of her.”

Bart, thanks for rising to the occasion.  Bonnie, see what you started?

*More Bart and his vessel Kamara from the North Sea soon.