Living near the ocean gives you plenty of changes to view it and to see what new things you might notice. A commercial boat heading out to go fishing, a tug boat towing a barge or two out to sea, or a large ship entering the bay to be loaded with logs or wood chips. It's always different.
There is a town 20+ miles south of me, and they have a jetty and an ocean inlet like we do, only much smaller. Just some small fishing boats go in and out there.
When working down in this town, I used to go down to the parking lot at the jetty for my lunch break. I'd read a paper, take in some fresh air and take my binoculars to see if there might be something interesting. Maybe a ship way out on the horizon, or maybe watching a pelican or the plentiful sea rats that fly all over. (seagulls)
This one day tho, something looked odd.......... it looked to be a geometric sort of shape out in the water north of Bandon's jetty.
My home town, Coos Bay, is over 20 miles up the coast line, but this geometric "ship" shape, looked much closer than any ship should ever be. Ships never go this far south of the Coos Bay bar entrance, and never get this close to the beach.
They come straight into the bar entrance from the ocean.
Anyway, long story short, I could faintly make out that the ship had 3 cranes aboard. Ships use cranes for lowering logs or lumber into their holds, or for opening the hatches to load wood chips.
The next day, when I drove through town, sure enough, there was a new ship docked across the bay and it had three cranes on it. (not unusual, tho some have 4)
When I got my film back, closer scrutiny told me that the ship that I saw that day was also floating upside down. Yup, sure enough a mirage. Not a good mirage like in the movies, but I thought this was kinda cool anyway.
I had to do a wee bit of playin with the colors and contrast to make the image more clear. It's still not very good, but let your imagination work on this. The close up improved image wast turned 180 degrees so the dark above the ship is now the water.
Under the ship image, is a long dark band, which must be water vapor or something in the air involved in making the mirage effect occur.
I also included a photo of ship with a pilot tug heading out to it, so you get an idea of the crane configuration on these ships for comparison.
Anyhow, thought ya might enjoy something a little different. It's dated November '96
There is a town 20+ miles south of me, and they have a jetty and an ocean inlet like we do, only much smaller. Just some small fishing boats go in and out there.
When working down in this town, I used to go down to the parking lot at the jetty for my lunch break. I'd read a paper, take in some fresh air and take my binoculars to see if there might be something interesting. Maybe a ship way out on the horizon, or maybe watching a pelican or the plentiful sea rats that fly all over. (seagulls)
This one day tho, something looked odd.......... it looked to be a geometric sort of shape out in the water north of Bandon's jetty.
My home town, Coos Bay, is over 20 miles up the coast line, but this geometric "ship" shape, looked much closer than any ship should ever be. Ships never go this far south of the Coos Bay bar entrance, and never get this close to the beach.
They come straight into the bar entrance from the ocean.
Anyway, long story short, I could faintly make out that the ship had 3 cranes aboard. Ships use cranes for lowering logs or lumber into their holds, or for opening the hatches to load wood chips.
The next day, when I drove through town, sure enough, there was a new ship docked across the bay and it had three cranes on it. (not unusual, tho some have 4)
When I got my film back, closer scrutiny told me that the ship that I saw that day was also floating upside down. Yup, sure enough a mirage. Not a good mirage like in the movies, but I thought this was kinda cool anyway.
I had to do a wee bit of playin with the colors and contrast to make the image more clear. It's still not very good, but let your imagination work on this. The close up improved image wast turned 180 degrees so the dark above the ship is now the water.
Under the ship image, is a long dark band, which must be water vapor or something in the air involved in making the mirage effect occur.
I also included a photo of ship with a pilot tug heading out to it, so you get an idea of the crane configuration on these ships for comparison.
Anyhow, thought ya might enjoy something a little different. It's dated November '96
Last edited: