Warm and Humid

Our spectator sport from 7H is the Port of Panama City, spotting larger ships out in the Gulf beyond Shell Island, sometimes anchored out several days before entering port, anticipating and watching ships come and go by our porch. Some ships are regulars back and forth between PC and Progresso weekly or so, some long distance. Smaller vessels seldom have a tug on arrival, largers generally have two tugs standing off at the turn in the channel just to the west of us, sometimes three tugs.

We especially enjoy the big ships, yesterday Lauritzen’s oddly named “Interlink Activity” arrived from New Orleans to load wood pellets and off to Tyne. IA is 587’ LOA x 105’ beam, arriving empty or nearly, she was sitting high and I suppose drawing 23 feet of water; may draw 32 feet on departure in a day or so. iPhone camera does satisfactorily for most things, but cropping a ship photo in lieu of a zoom lens yields pretty fuzzy. That's Shell Island in the background.

The top pic shows her arriving just as a Coast Guard cutter heads out to sea, about to meet and pass her.

http://www.portoftyne.co.uk/home/ Port of Tyne, UK appears to be a busy activity, accommodating large cruise ships and with a sizable dry dock.

Shell Island, as someone recently pointed out in PCNH Squall Line, that's just the name anymore, it's not been an island since the Old Pass was bulldozed in and closed when the BP oil spill endangered StAndrewsBay. To open the Old Pass probably would add a circulation factor to the Bay's health.

68F here, 68F and 92%. Zero wind, zero precip. Life has nothing sweeter than its springtime, as Mario Lanza sang, and I remember.