Always Something Different on San Francisco Charters
We are continually surprised by the interesting things that we see on San Francisco Bay. This past week we were thrilled to see two very different ships on the Bay.
During a Sausalito sailing charter, we saw the first ship: the USCG Cutter Healy. The Healy is one of only two icebreakers that the US Coast Guard has for Arctic operations. The Healy had a fire onboard this fall and came down to Mare Island for repairs. We got to see the ship at San Francisco Pier 19. We were able to get up close and see the shape of the hull. The boat rides up on the ice and the weight of the ship breaks the ice - very interesting. We saw the Healy just after we completed an Alcatraz Island tour (where we circled the entire island and learned about its fascinating history).
The second ship was a type of ship called a "Heavy Lift ship". This ship is designed to carry very heavy and very large cargo over the ocean. This ship was bringing new cranes for the Oakland Harbor overseas from China.
We were coming down the Oakland Estuary, part of our Oakland Sailing Charters starting in Jack London Square. We saw the ship just as they were unloading the third crane off of the ship. Once the crane is off-loaded they will then raise the crane portion up to the height required to off load cargo from the container ships. We get to see the ships unloading as part of our Oakland Harbor tours. It was fascinating to see this ship and the unloading operation—who knows what we will see next time.
