Ships In Port

Yes, that is a large cruise ship. But not the largest.

According to the Press Herald:

With 3,114 passengers, the ship carries the most passengers of the cruise ships berthing in Portland this year.

Last weekend, there was another big cruise liner in port, but not *as* big.

From the Portland Press Herald:

Portland Pipe Line has won city approval to pump crude oil from Canada to its terminal on Portland Harbor, but weak demand could push the project back two years.

The Overseas Cathy just arrived at Pier 2. Cathy is a 112,000 dwt Aframax ship that is part of the OSG fleet. If you ever wondered what the CEO of a global energy transportation company is like, here’s a video interview, from November 2008 with Morten Arntzen, CEO of OSG. More video here.

The Tweed is in town. It’s a 109,832 tanker in the SKS fleet – a fleet which visits Portland Harbor often.

It is the biggest private yacht in existence and comes with a missile-detection system, two helipads, a luxury spa, swimming pool and a miniature submarine.

As a reference, the United Nations Council on Trade and Development reported that in 2005, a Suezmax tanker cost around $60 million.

But, really, for $493 million (£300 million) I’d  expect it to come with at least two private submarines.

The SPT CONQUEROR is  a 105,786 dwt Aframax class tanker flying under the Bahamanian flag. It is part of SPT fleet, of which, the SPT Explorer was here in the middle of January. SPT has posted the video below on the subject of lightering.

Skaugen PetroTrans – Lightering 101 from David Stagg on Vimeo.

The harbor is busy today. The SKS Mersey is parked at Pier 2 while the High Performance, Atlantic Breeze, Alida Gorthon and Asphalt Seminole are closer to the Fore River, in the eastern part of the harbor.

The Sanko Blossom is another Aframax ship flying under the flag of Panama and is part of the Sanko Line Fleet.

From the flickr page, one reader reports:

This ship is around 800 x 135 feet and comes into Houston with up to 45 feet of draft. Believe it or not, in addition to making independent trips between ports, these ships are used to “lighter” crude oil from much larger ships that are too big to enter ports.

Apparently, people think the Sanko Blossom is “fat.”

The Overseas Yellowstone is currently in port and unlike the ship that was here yesterday she’s a bit of a celebrity. Built in 2009 and owned by Overseas Shipping Group, the Overseas Yellowstone is a 114,000 dwt Aframax that rescued some “eco-sailors” last week who were in over their heads. According to the BBC:

The team, which left Mount Batten Marina in Plymouth on 19 April in a boat named the Fleur, aimed to rely on sail, solar and man power on a 580-mile (933km/h) journey to and from the highest point of the Greenland ice cap…The crew were 400 miles (644km) off the west coast of Ireland when they sent a mayday to Falmouth coastguards who co-ordinated the rescue with Irish coastguards.

The sailors are set to fly home to the UK from Portland.

Flying under the flag of Panama, owned by the Ciruel Trade Corp (little extant info), managed by All Trans Shipping & Trading Co. Ltd., at 36 years old, weighing in at 9,652 DWT, please welcome the Panamanian Pomeranian – the Ocean Lady.