The ship run aground in the Chesapeake

[jeff kushner]

Yeah, I was excited to pick Kerry up at BWI this morning, I has a surprise for her!

After I swung by BWI & we went to breakfast at Uncle Johnnie's, we drove a couple miles past my house to a local waterfront park.

This is the ship that has been in the News, around here lately. It's sitting about 3 miles from my house, as the crow flies. They are bringing in heavy dredging equipment to drag it out this week. If you look close, you can see how much of the hull is exposed. The blessing here is that the ship is empty. Had it been fully weighted, it could have split the hull from the massive weight....like a tin can under a car tire. Ships float, they are not inherently strong enough to support the load, the sea does that. If there is no sea, the ship can partially crush under it's own weight + the load, leaking it's fuel. We don't want that.


I snapped a few pics but was very disappointed with how far it was from the shore. It was easily 1/2 mile or more away, I zoomed in on both shots. About 2 miles to the right of the ship is where the Bay bridge is. Half that distance away, bout a mile towards the bridge is where 5 of us ice skated past the center, of "even" with the middle of the bridge......obviously it was a very cold years and the bay froze solid. I drive that bridge often and it's rare that I don't think about that stunt.....holy God we were lucky....we were 12 & 13 years old. Nuts.....

Anyway, my plan today was to pick Kerry up and then to spray my yard for weeds after Kerry went home...but when I opened her door to get out at home after we saw the ship, it began to snow..... flurries! I think I'll wait. LOL

Poor Kerry had 80's on FL yesterday & snow today.....

 

[Maro2Bear]

Yeah. We were going to check it out there past Gibson Island via our kayaks, BUT the water & wind & air temps arent cooperating. CG says it’s stuck in over 80 feet of muck. Same company’s ship was stuck in the Suez Canal. More boat pilot training required.

Were you at Downs Park?

 

[jeff kushner]

Yes, Downs park..........

80's feet? WOW, the channel must be like a canyon out there because it doesn't look like he strayed that far from the channel markers. Okay, so he was a LITTLE starboard.....lol

I think a kayak yesterday, with the wind gusts and white caps....probably would have landed you guys on Smith Island!
It was only 38F but it felt COLD all day, we really did see snow flakes!

Are you connected with the CG? My bro-inlaw was stationed at Curtis bay before he retired. He was down at the Navy Yard for a few years but when they started building Homeland at St E's, he was moved to Curtis bay.

 

[Maro2Bear]

After I typed 80 feet….I thought that sounded like a lot…. It’s a bit less at 24 feet. But still stuck.

It’s rare for a vessel to run aground in the Chesapeake Bay,” Cpt. O’Connell said ahead of the excursion. “I’ve been here a year and it’s the first major incident we’ve had in the port. You’ll see when we go out there that it is an impressive sight to see and because of its size, it’s a very complex operation.”

The Ever Forward is a massive cargo ship that ran aground 24 feet deep into mud Sunday night.

“Right now it’s 24 feet, so basically as it traveled outside the channel, it almost buried itself into the bank,” O’Connell said. “That’s why it’s not an easy operation of just putting some tugs on it and pulling it free.”

 

[jeff kushner]

Dang brother, you don't sleep either?

I've owned a set of charts for the bay since I was a kid...#12282..is the chart...... but never realised it's only 12/13' deep outside the channel there, and the channel itself is very narrow and if you look on the chart, it shows a group of submerged piles was in his path to his present location, wonder if he dragged on them.

 

[Maro2Bear]

Dang brother, you don't sleep either?

I've owned a set of charts for the bay since I was a kid...#12282..is the chart...... but never realised it's only 12/13' deep outside the channel there, and the channel itself is very narrow and if you look on the chart, it shows a group of submerged piles was in his path to his present location, wonder if he dragged on them.

If you recall, there was a nasty storm that weekend. From what I understand it, the extended period of gale force winds pushed a lot of water easterly & made the already shallow waters a lot more precarious to navigate.

Now….did you see/hear the latest news there?

➡️➡️ https://www.wbaltv.com/article/anne-arundel-county-fire-boat-sinks-gibson-island/39565814

 

[jeff kushner]

No Mark, I generally don't watch the News...so I hadn't seen this latest "cluster"!! I'm sure glad no one was hurt, it was darn cold the past 2 days, way too cold to be in the water or to fish someone out! It was snowing when I got home yesterday! They are very close to the point of G.I. too, with the stuck ship in the background.

You're right, not this, but last w/e, the water was high on Saturday when I got my haircut....there's a tidal lagoon we cross to drive to the barbershop and it was full-full....I do remember that b/c it was much higher than a normal high tide....this is off the Chester river.....so it all makes a little more sense anyway.

The more I think about it, the more surprised I am about the fireboat.....
Anyone with knowledge of that area knows you got the vortex of the bay & Magothy coming together on the North point....not an actual vortex but you know those waters off the island or you guys wouldn't have considered kayaking out, they come from 3 different directions off GI point....mighty choppy and with the winds we've had for 2 days straight, probably had 5-6' swells. Get those coming from different directions and some newer make pilots bad choices in a small boat. The seek safety in the troughs.....LOL instead of jumping on a ridge and running the heck out of it...........it can be nasty even if you grew up on it. I'm just really surprised...those guys are locals, mostly volunteers. they usually know the area pretty well. They didn't get into details how it happened yet, maybe a rookie mistake?

 

[Maro2Bear]

No Mark, I generally don't watch the News...so I hadn't seen this latest "cluster"!! I'm sure glad no one was hurt, it was darn cold the past 2 days, way too cold to be in the water or to fish someone out! It was snowing when I got home yesterday! They are very close to the point of G.I. too, with the stuck ship in the background.

You're right, not this, but last w/e, the water was high on Saturday when I got my haircut....there's a tidal lagoon we cross to drive to the barbershop and it was full-full....I do remember that b/c it was much higher than a normal high tide....this is off the Chester river.....so it all makes a little more sense anyway.

The more I think about it, the more surprised I am about the fireboat.....
Anyone with knowledge of that area knows you got the vortex of the bay & Magothy coming together on the North point....not an actual vortex but you know those waters off the island or you guys wouldn't have considered kayaking out, they come from 3 different directions off GI point....mighty choppy and with the winds we've had for 2 days straight, probably had 5-6' swells. Get those coming from different directions and some newer make pilots bad choices in a small boat. The seek safety in the troughs.....LOL instead of jumping on a ridge and running the heck out of it...........it can be nasty even if you grew up on it. I'm just really surprised...those guys are locals, mostly volunteers. they usually know the area pretty well. They didn't get into details how it happened yet, maybe a rookie mistake?

Yeah, we usually come south down the Magothy or across the Magothy from Spriggs Farm Park - usually toward Dobbins Island. I’m not sure what happened with the AACO fireboat, I saw the initial blurb on Twitter then the WJZ article? But no details.

 

[Maro2Bear]

More info on the AACO boat….they were out their doing rough water training qualifications……

Anne Arundel Fire Boat Crew Rescued After Boat Sinks Near Gibson Island

Baltimore Firefighters assisted in the rescue, the fire union said.

baltimore.cbslocal.com

 

[jeff kushner]

"they were out their doing rough water training qualifications"


No one could have made this up......


"Department of Natural Resources police boat was able to rescue the four firefighters"

Insult to injury

 

[jeff kushner]

The saga continues;

New effort underway to free cargo ship stuck for 3 weeks in the Chesapeake Bay

Following two failed attempts, a new effort got underway on Wednesday to dislodge a 130-ton cargo ship that has been stuck in the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.

abcnews.go.com

They ran a News story Monday about off-loading containers....but I saw containers being moved to the ships anchored a mile South of the bridge last Sunday when I came home from Kerry's. Maybe they were testing options? There were two barges, 1 filled w/containers(30-40 of them maybe)moving South under the bridge and another one moving North, still 1/2 mile south of the bridge.





In other news, they raised the AA co firefighters boat......but I can't find the article now but I saw the pics......awful narrow beam on the boat....looked to be a standard 8'.....but on a fireboat? I don't claim to know about fireboats....but it seems to be intuitive that you'd want a wider platform to work from.

I'm sure they had to balance other factors with everything, including portability......and that's maybe why it's not the best selection of boat, but the one that provides the best chance to help folks by being able to trailer it?