Peninsular Thinking

Observant bunch, those folks in Manchester.

I got an email earlier in the week from Manchester resident Dave Pabst inquiring about a large — make that humongous — cargo ship anchored off Blake Island. Pabst, armed with binoculars and the magic of the Internet, already knew the ship was the Fortune Daisy, 738-foot bulk cargo ship based in Hong Kong.

You may have noticed the ship in photos from today’s Manchester dock replacement story. It’s hard to miss it there in the right of the photo.

Pabst wondered, “With charter rates in excess of $27,000 per day, someone is spending/losing a lot of money keeping this relatively new (built 2011), 738 foot long ship out of service.”

I poked into the ship’s story, using a handy site that Pabst already discovered called vesseltracker.com, a public site that shows the location of major ships around the world, with links to their specifications. The only thing I have to add to Pabst’s description is that the ship’s most recent port of call was Lianyungang, a major port in China.

I called Lt. Cmdr. Heather St. Pierre of the U.S. Coast Guard, who said the ship was more or less assigned anchorage in Yukon Harbor, as it arrive in the Seattle area earlier in the week, right after a weather pattern that caused large swells in South Puget Sound. St. Pierre did not know if the ship’s miscellaneous cargo was eventually bound for Seattle or Tacoma. She said having ships moored in protected pockets like Yukon Harbor, which is sheltered by Blake Island, is a common practice.

Not only is the surface water off Manchester relatively well protected from wind and waves, but the sea floor composition is such that it offers better “holding ground” or bite for anchors than in other areas, St. Pierre said.

St. Pierre had no other information on the ship, which according to vesseltracker.com was still there Saturday morning, but she said there’s no cause for alarm.

“There’s definitely nothing nefarious going on with this vessel,” St. Pierre said. “It’s just looking for a safe place to be.”

Well, aren’t we all?

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Note, 4:10 p.m. Wednesday: Just got word that weather Thursday, with high swells, will prevent installation of the dock, which has been rescheduled to Friday.

The Manchester dock and boat launch facility will be closed Thursday as the Port of Manchester replaces the south dock.
Both the north and south docks will be off limits so crews from Marine Floats of Tacoma have room the maneuver, said Dennis O’Connell the port’s contract administrator. The north dock will reopen Saturday, if all goes well.
Both the north and south docks will be off limits Thursday, as crews from Marine Floats of Tacoma need room the maneuver, said Dennis O’Connell the port’s contract administrator. The north dock will reopen on Friday, and both docks will be open for the weekend, if all goes well.
The port commission approved the contract with Marine Floats in June to replace the deteriorating south dock, installed in 1996. A grant from the state’s Recreation and Conservation Office covered 75 percent of the total cost, $128,954. The port contributed a 25 percent grant match, covered through its property tax levy and boat launch fees.
The port will seek RCO grant funding to replace the north dock in 2013. The north dock was built in 1998.

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