On the Waterfront

Waterfront Pearl that is. I live in a condo which is part of a 2-building community on the Willamette River which is on the edge of the Pearl District in northwest Portland. The buildings are surrounded by a water feature and snugged up by the river. The buildings are shaped like the prow of a ship. My condo is on the 9th floor of the Mistral Building (on the right in this photo) so we have a commanding view of the river and of downtown Portland. Here is a picture taken from across the river, looking west.

 

 

Opposite our building across the river is a very active grain loading facility for ocean-going ships. It is a lot of entertainment for us to watch all the processes going on: such as the barges that dock and are unloaded into the grain elevators, the loading of the grain onto the ship, the tugs which bring and take away the barges and the ships. When the ships are ready to leave, at least 2 tugs arrive to pull them away from the dock and turn them around to go down river back to the ocean. The tugs escort the ship all the way west to Astoria to ensure they don’t hit any snags in the river. The most recent ship was especially interesting because it had been built in 2018. It’s the newest ship we’ve seen since living here. The name of the ship is Astoria Harmony. When the ship departed 2 days ago it was headed to Nagoya, Japan. Click on the image to see a larger view.

 

 

We’re well into October now and, in addition to appreciating the changing color of nature around us, we enjoy watching the crew teams row on the river. Here is the Portland State University crew team practicing around 6 a.m.

 

 

And again during the afternoon:

 

 

I took these pictures from our balcony on the 9th floor. This one gives you the full experience of how close we are to the river. The water feature this side of the walkway is between our two condo buildings.

 

 

And just because I can’t resist, here is a short series of images showing the turning of a ship leaving the dock, headed back out to sea. Here you can see one tug in the final swing to remove an emptied barge (the tug left the full barge docked to the right of the ship) and take it away. You can also see 2 tugs in position to pull the ship Blue Baie away from the dock.

 

 

With the barge gone, the tugs begin the swing of the ship away from the dock to turn it completely around for its trip down river.

 

 

Swinging big now

 

 

And here it goes! I always wish them safe sailing.

 

 

I hope you are enjoying all the changes you are seeing in your neighborhood.