August, 2020
Earlier today, earlier this morning, I walked some of the residential streets of Anacortes and looked at lots of lovely old homes and gardens, and I shared those photos with you in the last blog post. But this afternoon, I drove to the ship yards in Anacortes. BIG ship yards! Ship yards where they maintain and repair commercial ocean-going ships, and they build them too, from scratch, from the bottom up as it were.
Even as a long-time boater, boating in the Anacortes area many times over the past 30 years, I didn’t realize there was a large, commercial ship building facility in Anacortes that built large ships. Until one day back in 2015 …
One day, back in 2015, I was returning from a week or two of cruising in the San Juan Islands in my 40-foot wood boat Pied Piper, with friends along side on their boats. We were meandering past Anacortes, heading east in Guemes Channel, towards the La Conner slough in order to moor overnight at a marina in La Conner. I was lolly-gagging along, the weather was warm, there was no wind (perfect for a power boater), I had not a care in the world … until …
Until, just as I was passing downtown Anacortes, I looked out my starboard (right-hand) window of my boat. Whoa! What’s THAT boat?!
I knew that the person, Sally Ride, was an astronaut, and that she was the first USA woman astronaut, but … what is this boat?! What’s this ship with her name on it!? And what’s this shipyard?!
I pulled my boat’s engines into neutral and took some photos.
And that’s all I knew about that ship and that shipyard until this year, 2020, and my camping trip to Washington Park, near Anacortes, on Fidalgo Island. Because of that 2015 experience, a visit to this shipyard during this camping trip was high on my list. So … this afternoon I drove to the shipyard to see what I could see.
This shipyard in Anacortes is Dakota Creek Industries, which specializes in construction and repair of steel and aluminum vessels up to 400 feet. In my mind, 400 feet is really big. Construction projects have included ferries, tug boats, research vessels, fireboats, fishing vessels, government vessels, and many others. The company started in 1975 and remains family owned.
Probably the most famous ship they have built here in Anacortes is the (research vessel) R/V Sally Ride (AGOR-28). Here’s a link to a bit of information about this vessel … https://dakotacreek.com/project/rv-sally-ride/. Construction started in 2012; the boat was launched in 2014; and then the boat was delivered to the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in 2016. The vessel is 238 feet long, with a maximum speed of 14 mph. Most noteworthy, as mentioned, is that Sally Ride was the first woman from the USA to go into space, a true explorer and scientist.
That was 2015 when I saw that boat. So, now, today, in 2020, as I pulled up across the street from the shipyard and parked, I felt like I’d hit the jackpot. Look at this … a vessel very similar to the R/V Sally Ride.
Construction of the Atlantis was completed in 1997 (not here in Anacortes). She was delivered to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute the same year. Atlantis is 273 feet long with a maximum speed of 12.4 mph. The ship was here in Anacortes today in 2020 for maintenance, repair, and refitting. Boy, did it look big sitting up in the air like that!
Photo above … the propellers have been removed for maintenance. Each of the two housing units are about 25 feet from the bottom of the hull down to the bottom of each unit. There are no rudders on this ship … these two units that drive the propellers also swivel in order to turn/steer the vessel. Those white bars attached to the hull? I suspect they are sacrificial anodes, yes? no?
It must save time to simply cut a hole in the side of a ship so that workers and tools and equipment and parts can be brought in through the side of the vessel, rather than trying to load everything up on deck and then bring people and things down into the vessel using interior stairwells.
Right next to the Atlantis were two brand new tug boats … one in the early stages of construction and the other seemingly close to complete.
The tug above is the US Navy tug YT 809. These two tugs will be the fifth and sixth ones in a series. Each one is 90 feet long, 38 feet wide, with a maximum speed of 14.2 mph. I’m told that “YT” stands for “yard tug”, but I don’t know that for sure. These vessels are built to perform ship-handling duties for the full range of US Navy surface warships and submarines.
Notice the white spidery “arms” that are holding the tug upright while it’s in drydock. I imagine they are welded and bolted into place.
I checked in at the shipyard office and asked about tours. Nope. They don’t give tours. I wasn’t surprised. But I was disappointed. I wanted to see more and learn more. Guess I’ll have to check online to learn more. I’m sure glad I live in the era of the internet. And I’m sure glad I got to see these three ships at this shipyard.
Fascinating. And long may Sally Ride remain in our memory.
Well said Kristin. Thank you.
More boats! Your blogs seem to include lots of great stuff about boats lately. Would love to see some blogs about your old wood boat and your adventures with it.
I didn’t realize how deep in the water those tugs sit — that’s really impressive.
Boats. Nothing better than boats, eh Rob? The draft on those tugs is impressive, more than I thought they would be too. But then, those tugs are heavy and they need to displace that amount of water in order to stay upright and be as sturdy as they are. Thanks for mentioning my old wood boat, some day I will share a few stories here. Boats are great! 🙂
Guess I’m too young. I don’t remember Sally Ride but I’ve sure heard the name. I looked her up on Google and found lots of information including her many awards. The National Women’s Hall of Fame, the Astronaut Hall of Fame, the Jefferson Award for Public Service, the von Braun Award, the Lindbergh Eagle Award, the NCAA Theodore Roosevelt Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom award by President Obama. There’s a video online where Sally Ride’s life partner receives the posthumous award from President Obama. Also her life partner (along with Sally Ride) did tons of stuff for education of children, she/they wrote several science books for children, and they started the non-profit company “Sally Ride Science” that supports and promotes science, reading, and math for children. And tons more stuff than I should take up the space to list here. Fantastic women!
My gosh, I didn’t know Sally Ride had received that many awards. I’ve looked online some more now, and found even MORE awards. She was awesome. And her life partner is exemplary in her own right as well. For most couples, it seems that usually one spouse or the other is noteworthy for public actions, but in this case both/each of these women are. Here is a LINK to that video of President Obama presenting the award to Tam O’Shaughnessy, in Sally Ride’s name, and this video has more information about Sally and Tam. Thanks Kinny.
A friend previously worked at Carmet Marine in Bromborough, Wirral. He warrants that those white bars are indeed sacrificial anodes. Your lovely detailed photographs brought back wonderful memories for him.
Please thank your friend for the confirmation about the anodes, Henry. It’s good to hear from people who have experience and know these things. I’m glad my photos brought back good memories. All of these ships are terrific! Please give our thanks to your friend for helping build them.
Obviously, we don’t have shipyards like this in Montana, ha! I’d really love to see this in person, must be a work of engineering and a work of art to design and build these sorts of ships. I see one guy welding the outer hull of one of the tugs, what a never ending job that must be. Thanks for yet another subject of information that is fascinating, Ann. My wife and I remember when Sally Ride went up in space, first woman, we were glued to the television. It’s great to have yet more information about her and her partner. Keep on traveling and sharing what you see Ann, thank you!
Hi Tim, yes I noticed that person welding the hull too. What a tedious job that would be, unless you really loved to weld. I took a short welding class when I was in diesel mechanic school … that class was long enough to let me know I didn’t want to be a welder! But for those who love to weld, we all benefit from their skill.
That early space travel program in the USA was really thrilling wasn’t it?