Columbia River Bar Pilots risk their lives every day and night to keep cargo ships moving across the dangerous Columbia River Bar. They work in any weather and help protect the environment by making sure the big ships do not crash on their way in or out of the river.
VIDEO HERE (11:40 minutes)
Another of my uncles was a Coastie who spent his time at Station Cape Disappointment, and he had all kinds of stories of just how nasty the Columbia River bar can be.
ReplyDeleteWHO REMEMBERS THE PEACOCK ? EARLY BAR PILOTS BOAT. LOW AND FAST IN ANY CONDITION.
ReplyDeleteIt's at the Columbia River Maritime Museum, in Astoria.
DeleteYou can spend the better part of a day there.
a friend of mine used to drive the Peacock, an old landlord was one of the bar pilots, them fuckers ain't right.
DeleteWatching how these guys and gals get on and off these ships is hairy as F.
ReplyDeleteI had a landlord years ago that was a Columbia River Bar pilot when I lived in Portland. As I helped him refurbish and clean apartments would tell me stories of going out over the bar and getting onto ships. I have done some stupid and dangerous stunts in my life, but this guy did them every day of his work...
DeleteI grew up on the Columbia and live about a half mile away today. The Columbia River Bar is crazy dangerous. They close it to ships on occasion during big storms. We launch our kayaks just upriver from Clatsop Spit to fish for salmon and crab. In the "pick pots" vid, you can see a car ship coming up river that would have a bar pilot running the ship. Also on the vid is Cape Disappointment. Gives you a good perspective of how wide the river is at the bar. You also get to see me throw a crab at my wife after it tried to bite me. Good times. I have a buddy who is a bar pilot and his job is crazy. They get paid big but they risk it all to get on those ships in the winter.
ReplyDeleteFor those who want to see the back of my head and throwing crab at my wife, the video of pick pots is here:
https://youtu.be/LdOuYkVhYcU
Set pots is here:
https://youtu.be/63RjuRh1vIY
For those of you in the know, I have a stupid question to ask. Sorry about that but I gotta ask. Getting on and off those ships looks to be crazy dangerous even for folks who are in really good physical condition, and for the older guys, well...let's just say I'd never *think* of doing it. Rather than get on to the ship to pilot it why don't they use their boats as guide boats for the ships to follow? Is the path that precarious that they actually have to have hands on the ships wheel to make it through? Climbing up and down the side of ship when it's heaving in bad weather seems like a really bad idea.
ReplyDeleteThey have a helicopter for most of the landings. The channel is super narrow so that's the reason to have a river pilot the boat upstream to longview, vancouver, or portland. Usually once a year, one will run aground. As you can imagine, steering, stopping, and slowing a vessel is an ordeal. Also, it would require a huge amount of pilot boats if they were to guide the vessels up/down stream. Lot cheaper to have just people and a few pilot boats.
Delete