What’s He Doing?

Alameda/Oakland (Bay Bridge & San Fran in background)

Busy Shipping Port in Oakland

We motored east across the Bay from San Francisco and up the Inner Harbor Channel that separates Alameda (an island) from the City of Oakland. The Channel is a major transportation hub and shipping port for the Bay Area and is the fifth busiest Port in the United States. We passed by hundreds of shipping containers and numerous gantry cranes that line the Channel leading to Oakland and Alameda. Once past the main Port operations, pleasure boaters head for one of several marinas located on both sides of the Channel. As we neared our destination, we noticed a cargo ship up ahead being maneuvered by two tugs – pulling and pushing it to shore, or so we thought. We approached slowly, trying to determine what exactly was going on. Two other tugs on the opposite side of the cargo vessel could be seen on our AIS navigation screen. We were contemplating what to do when a marine police boat sped by and went around the cargo ship. “I guess that’s our queue, let’s follow his lead and quickly get around that cargo ship,” I said. When we reached the front end of the ship, we could see the other two tug boats – “oh my Gosh! They are spinning the ship around, yaw!” We passed by with the ship’s bow looming above us. As we looked back, the cargo ship was across the Channel, temporarily blocking all marine traffic. “Ok, that was fun, now how do we find the right marina?” Amongst a maze of marinas, we located the “Marina Village Yacht Harbor” at Alameda. After pulling into the pumpout station and taking care of some unfinished business, we went to our reserved moorage end-tie at the marina located next to some cute floating homes.