Site Tweaking Saturday

Eric Vice Site News 0 Comment

Last night when I was talking to some ship enthusiasts down at the harbour and telling them where to find things on the site, I realized that some functions of the site were horribly implemented.

Mostly for the sake of mobile users, I have made the following changes.

  • The front page will show four stories. I think it was set to ten before. This should make it load faster. You can still obviously choose to read more posts when you get to the bottom of each page of posts. I might adjust this even further in the future after I see how things go.
  • The links list that used to be at the bottom of the page has been moved to it’s own page which can be accessed either through the menu at the top under “Pages & Links > Links” or by visiting ericvice.com/links. A nice simple, easy to remember address. And easy to bookmark too!
  • I also changed the name of what I think was called something like the Toronto/Hamilton/Oshawa Map to Lake Ontario map. Because the old name didn’t have any spaces in it, it made the menu behave oddly. The shortlink has not been changed for those who have bookmarked that page. (And I know you have because I see it in my traffic report every day. You know who you are. LOL.)

Oshawa Harbour — ALGOMA INNOVATOR, ISABELLE G

Eric Vice Algoma Central Corporation, Oshawa Harbour, Parakou Shipping , 0 Comment

I said I wasn’t going to take more pictures tonight.

I said I was just going to “scout” and come back tomorrow in better light.

And here I am.

Y’all ain’t gonna get “oooh and ahhh” like the OCEAN A. GAUTHIER photos recently posted. The sky tonight looked like a mix between radioactive Lake Erie sludge and Betty White’s mascara. Golden light (not to be confused with Golden Girls) was nowhere to be found in this hemisphere.

It was quite the nail biting evening. For this layman anyway. I’m sure some of the old (and young) salties I know wouldn’t have batted an eyelash. But my heart was racing.

I went and grabbed something to eat, and I honestly thought ALGOMA INNOVATOR would be moored by the time I got down there.

As my car crested the Oshawa Creek bridge, I could see them both. It looked like ALGOMA INNOVATOR was on the west berth and of course ISABELLE G was on the east berth. I was half right.

I do not presume to know more than the captain of a 650 foot bulk carrier. But. I was shocked he was bringing that monster in without a tugboat. Especially with a sizable portion of the harbour occupied by the equally mammoth ISABELLE G. (They vary in length by barely a meter. From a distance they could pass for twinzies.)

Anyway, he got it in. And although I am fully cognizant that the Marine Traffic map is “not to scale” I think this screenshot clearly demonstrates that the master of ALGOMA INNOVATOR justly deserves the “MOST LIKELY TO NOT TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER” award. 🏆

That’s a mighty short piece of pier you have there, son.

Everyone who was gathered at the dock was certain that he was going to bury it in the old marina and they were going to need LAPRAIRIE, GAUTHIER, SIMARD, GOLF, and three of their friends to pull her out.

So anyway. Here are the photos of the two nautical gladiators (hey, that’d be a great name for a ship) jockeying for position. Enjoy.

Oshawa Harbour — Grab Bag — OCEAN A. GAUTHIER, ISABELLE G, OMNI COASTAL/RICHELIEU

Eric Vice Ocean Group, Oshawa Harbour, Parakou Shipping , , 1 Comment
Oshawa Harbour — Grab Bag — OCEAN A. GAUTHIER, ISABELLE G, OMNI COASTAL/RICHELIEU

I have to admit. I am exhausted a day later after yesterday.

I don’t like to just dump photos in a pile and say “HERE!” but I think that’s what’s going to happen today. My rule of thumb generally is “take 300 photos and keep 10” and I suspect that’s what I will be doing here. But it’s sorting through them and figuring out which one was taken with which device at which time and which ship(s)… and… and… and…

I’m just bagged. I spent just about what would be considered a full work shift at the harbour yesterday.

So here it is. To briefly recap yesterday… ISABELLE G was scheduled to dock at about 2:30 pm. It didn’t. Due to a technical issue with LAPRAIRIE (that has been rectified) the ship didn’t dock until around 9:00 pm with the help of another tugboat with a split personality, sometimes identifying as OMNI COASTAL and sometimes identifying as OMNI RICHELIEU. It says OMNI COASTAL on the hull. That’s what we’ll go with. (I’m told it’s an old Ocean boat!)

Here are my best shots from last night. I don’t even remember what I posted yesterday and what I didn’t. I especially like those two shots at the bottom of OCEAN A. GAUTHIER at dusk, even though they are a bit grainy.

I hope you enjoy them. I hope my energy level returns for the weekend. I’m sorry if I posted duplicate photos yesterday and today. It was not my intent.