Paddling Through Portland
Page 4
Journal entry Saturday November 25th, 2006. The bridge of the Polar Adventure goes all the way across her deck. The views of the Inside Passage must be awesome from up there.
Another freighter loading grain.
We approach the Cape Mohican in Dry dock at Swan Island. She's owned by Interocean Ugland Management Corp, getting a little pressure wash and maybe the floor mats vacuumed.
Billed as a "Sea Barge Heavy Lift Ship," the Cape Mo is part of the US Ready Reserve Force. She is a sea barge that loads and off loads large cargo using a giant elevator on the aft end that lowers to water lever. This is a ship that can carry another smaller ship inside. Pretty Cool.
Here's that giant elevator in the stern. This whole ship is out of the water. Pictures can't even begin to show the scale.
Just a little farther downstream this monstrous rusting crane sits on a barge. To give you an idea of the scale of this creepy hunk of scrap, those windows at the back there, that are all broken out, are 6 to 10 feet across. That lower section alone is big enough to play a half court basketball game with regulation height baskets and box seating overhead.
Downstream from the rust bucket crane is a little restoration project. With all of the rotting pilings removed and a cap of concrete blocks over the old silted beach, this is now a nice place along the river, right in the industrial district. Native plants are planted along the bank here too.
