I worked on an oil spill cleanup ship out of Richmond, CA for four months in 2008/09. It is around 200ft long and weighs around 200 tons, which fit the tonnage requirement I needed to finish up the last hoops that the coast guard is making me jump through before being able to ship offshore on merchant ships. As part of the job we got to "run drills" in and around the San Francisco Bay. Here are some photos of my time on the water. Here are a couple paintings I recently finished, and some pics to go along.
Days on the Bay 2009 Gouache, Oil, and Spraypaint on Panel
Days on the Bay 2009 Gouache, Oil, and Spraypaint on Panel
Here's the ship from the dock
Anchorage 9 Southbay
Goin Under the Richmond Bridge
north bay tank farms
This was about the only good thing about having to be at work every morning at 6am. Here's Oakland waking up, in the foreground is our sister Ship "Clean Bay II"
down in the south bay at Redwood City
Smooth day in the north bay
some of the officers in the wheelhouse
a couple buttons
The Lighthouse Inn on East Brother Island
Some Bridge
Here we are running a drill. In event of a spill, this boat drops off the stern
Then it pulls out a bunch of boom
and forms a "J" shape
Almost in formation here. Then the boat would move further off our beam and we would catch pools of oil between us, then suck it up with a big skimmer thing
One day there was a small spill in the north bay and this HELLA-copter landed on our boat
I guess it picked up some important person to take him to the spill faster
see ya important guy!
The spill was super small and right on shore, so the big ships had to stay in deep enough water and let the little guys work
Attempt to use binoculars as telephoto lens from the crows nest, sorta works? You can see the yellow boom set up off the rocks, good work fellas.
Car Carriers like this come into Point Richmond from Japan and unload the cars to lots. Then they drive them onto trains or onto other ships to carry them to other ports.
They told me this lot hasn't ever been this full. Guess its that dang economy
stormy south bay day
Foss tugs had their headquarters next to us
working at the nav table on a night trip
gotta show old Alcatraz
The C&H Sugar factory up in Crockett on the Carquinez Strait. My grandma grew up right behind that place!
the old Mare Island shipyard cranes
There are a ton of weird signs on the ship reminding us not to do drugs or start fires and stuff
amazing
love it how the Fonz will always be the essence of cool
creepy
genius
well it was a good job, I learned a ton, but I'm itching to finally get out on a big ship, waiting to get my paperwork in order, then I'll hit the union hall again, for now its time to get back to paintin