(gulls cawing)
- [Joanne] It's time for "The Ship Report."
The show about all things maritime.
I'm Joanne Rideout.
We have 16 vessels on today's Columbia River ship schedule.
Our first arrival in the river is the Sunny Young.
She's a bulk carrier arriving from South Korea,
headed for Astoria's anchorage.
She will ultimately go up to Kalama
to pick up corn, soy, or wheat.
- [Narrator] If you live in Astoria,
you've probably heard her voice.
It's there like a friend,
bringing news of the sea just before nine every morning.
- ITB, Tug Island Tugger, there's a pretty cute name.
- [Narrator] The voice belongs to Joanne Rideout
and her show, "The Ship Report,"
broadcast from Coast Community Radio, KMUN.
- [Joanne] She's arriving from Vancouver, BC,
headed for Portland.
- [Narrator] Working out of an old converted brothel
that looks over town.
- [Joanne] So because I do the ship schedule...
- [Narrator] Joanne's daily musings on ship traffic,
weather, and maritime life,
are now the most popular radio show on KMUN.
Not bad for someone who arrived as a curious newcomer
15 years ago.
- I moved here from the desert southwest, you know.
And so here I am in Astoria, all this water.
I'm working in a radio station
that's up on the hill in an old house
with a big picture window.
And I see the ships going by.
Because I was the news host of "Morning Edition,"
I started inserting in one of the music beds
a minute of what ships are coming and going.
It's time for the "Ship Report,"
the show about all things maritime.
I'm Joanne Rideout.
I just sort of waited to see what the reaction would be
if people would say,
"Why are you doing that?"
Or, and people liked it.
(sea lions grunting)
- [Narrator] You might think that Astorians
already live and breathe maritime life.
There is plenty of fishing,
but Astoria isn't actually a big port town.
Most of the large ships are just passing by.
Head to larger places, like Longview or Portland.
And so the ships drift by like oversized,
impossible to ignore, strangers.
- Most of the houses face the water.
People are always looking at the river,
one way or another.
And I think I'm just sort of tapping
into that sort of curiosity that people have.
- [Narrator] It was that curiosity
that got Joanne talking to captains and ship hands,
and sent her digging through arcane maritime websites,
in search of ways to demystify that world.
- That is a handy-sized bulk carrier.
It's about 600 feet long.
It is the most common ship that you see on the river.
And they're also referred to colloquially as stick ships
because of those cranes that are standing up.
Those are the ships that carry
the most common cargos on the river,
which are the bulk cargos.
Like when you go to the supermarket and buy bulk cereal.
- [Narrator] Astoria is an ideal ship-watching town.
The contours of the Columbia River channel
bring even the biggest ships
within a hundred yards of the city's public riverbank.
You can't get much closer than this
anywhere in the world.
- [Joanne] All of a sudden this big thing
is in your field of view.
And you're sort of transfixed.
When you look at this, you think,
"My God, this thing is as big as a building!"
Just stop and go, "Wow, what is that?"
- [Narrator] But the best view is still out on the water.
And that's where Joanne has made many friends
in the maritime business.
- [Man] You get out here and you can see...
- [Joanne] I get on a boat, I just light up.
I'm one of those people that I'm in my happy place
when I'm on something that's floating. (laughing)
- We're gonna get sort of in mid channel.
- [Narrator] Captain Robert Johnson
is a Columbia River Bar Pilot.
He's mentored Joanne over the years
and helps her navigate the ins and outs
of the shipping business.
- This ship is coming in from sea.
I believe it's coming from Japan and going to Anchorage.
- [Narrator] The Momo Glory is about 600 feet long.
And yet it's only half the size of the largest carriers.
(Robert laughing)
But even though this ship arrives empty,
it still takes miles of river
and 15 tons of chain and anchor
(chain rumbling)
to bring it to a stop.
- It's quite a feat to bring a ship in here
and bring it in safely.
These things are as long as a building
and yet they have no breaks.
So right now, what's happening?
- [Robert] He's backing the engine...
- I like to ask every dumb question.
How much chain you put out
has to do with the depth of the water, right?
I come at it from the point of view
that I'm not a professional mariner.
Wow. How fast is sea speed in this kind of a vessel?
I tend to look at things in very simple terms
and say, "What is that thing?
Why are you doing that?
What happens when you do this?
What could go wrong?"
- And then the...
- [Narrator] Joanne has learned a lot from Captain Johnson.
He spent a lifetime captaining these massive ships
before becoming a bar pilot.
Now as a bar pilot,
he's taken on one of the most hazardous jobs in the world.
All ships entering and leaving the Columbia River
need to be boarded by a bar pilot
who then takes control of the ship
to help the mostly foreign crew navigate their vessel
across the extremely treacherous stretch of water
where the Columbia River meets the sea.
To board those ships,
bar pilots repel onto them from a helicopter.
- [Man] Good morning, gentlemen.
- [Narrator] Or climb steep rope ladders,
dangling from ships as they steam across the ocean.
Pilots board over 1,500 ships a year in this way.
It's a dangerous line of work
that Joanne made sure to report on firsthand.
- I think that might have been the first time I met Joanne
and I got off a ship in the middle of the night
and here was this lady sitting there
and you know, what is she doing out here?
And especially,
what is she doing out here at two o'clock in the morning?
Well, she knew the boat operator,
and he had invited her to come for a ride,
and she'd taken him up on it.
So that's probably 12,000 horsepower.
That thump, thump, thump is the propeller
where it gets a little air.
- [Narrator] Joanne once spent 10 days
living aboard a bulk carrier
with an all male Ukrainian crew.
She's reported from carriers, tugboats and pilot boats.
- Wow. You're tough.
- [Narrator] She's not afraid to get her boots wet
in an effort to remind listeners
that $13 billion in trade move up and down this river.
And nearly 90% of everything we buy comes from ships
you may have never given any thought to.
- We would not have most of the possessions
we have in this country if it weren't for vessels like that.
A thing I find quite fascinating about the maritime industry
in general is that it's so invisible.
When the ships go by,
they look like almost like giant beasts
that have swum into the river
because you don't see any people on them.
But actually, there are pilots on board,
and there are officers,
and a whole bunch of people that are making sure
that that ship gets safely from one place to another.
Kind of is like
what it would be like to touch a whale or something.
(laughs)
You know, when you touch the side of the ship,
it's like a living thing.
- Yeah. Well, they are living things to me. (laughs)
- Yeah, they are to me too. Absolutely.
Mics are live.
I'm here in the studio with retired mariner Terry Wilson.
- Well, I remember when I...
- [Joanne] People, you know, what I have found is that
when you display genuine curiosity
about what someone's doing
when they really love what they're doing,
they love to talk about it.
- And they lost a lot of their containers.
The ship was rocking 35 degrees.
- So have you ever just plain gotten thrown out
of your bunk?
- [Terry] Oh yes.
- Really? (laughs) - Oh, yes.
- Most of these folks really operate in obscurity.
It's really a gift when someone tells you their story.
That's part of what I love to bring to it
is to help people realize
that even though you don't know it,
those folks play a big role in your life.
You've been listening to "The Ship Report."
A show about all things maritime.
I'm Joanne Rideout.
Thanks for listening.
Have a great day.
(gentle music) (gulls cawing)