Alan Haig-Brown | July 20, 2008
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I was 15 or 16 years old when I got my hands on that little outboard motor and bolted it on to the back of the 18-foot family freight canoe. With a little weight in the bow, the craft moved along quite well and the power allowed me to replicate my father’s [...]
Alan Haig-Brown | July 20, 2008
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“I’ve got to hand it to you, guys: the organization is great,” enthuses Captain Brad Sousa to Pilot Captain Henrik Hansen, . “We received our captain’s manual well in advance and now we get a pilot to help us up the river.”
Capt. Sousa is master of the112-foot (over all) brigantine Lady Washington. [...]
Alan Haig-Brown | July 20, 2008
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An obvious challenge for most river pilots is draft. When there is more ship than water the resulting reality is neither negotiable nor desirable. A ship that draws 40 feet of water cannot enter a river that is maintained to a 40-foot depth, unless it does so with the aide of the [...]
Alan Haig-Brown | July 20, 2008
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The soft leather glove on Scot Pugmire’s hand has wool where the tips of the finger’s are cut away. A thin cable is running between the thumb and forefinger of his left hand. The thumb of his right hand works the buttons of the remote hoist control. He leans out of the [...]
Alan Haig-Brown | July 20, 2008
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The tradition of apprenticeship is an ancient and honored system for learning a trade. When one thinks of an apprentice carpenter the image of a young man, perhaps still in his teens, comes to mind. But to be accepted as an apprentice in the San Francisco Bar Pilots, years of experience at [...]
Alan Haig-Brown | July 20, 2008
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Humbolt Bay
Humbolt Bay at Google Earth
There are pilots and then there are Bar Pilots. Among the bar pilots, there are a special group who take ships into the tiny holes along the Pacific coast at places like Grey Harbor Washington, Newport and Coos Bay in Oregon and Eureka in California. Always a [...]
Alan Haig-Brown | July 20, 2008
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Sacramento at Google Earth
There is a great deal more to the San Francisco Bay area than the Golden Gate Bridge and the waters around Alcatraz Island. Modern shipping favours the eastern side of the bay, with container ports in Oakland and oil products passing in and out of the Richmond Long Wharf [...]
