This is what two retired OSU employees do for excitement. Shades of "Second Hand Lions".
Ten years ago a large ship dragged its anchor and beached itself during a violent storm. The ship then broke into two pieces. This month the salvage operations finally began.
Jim Hay and I drove the van to Coos Bay, Oregon to see the Titan Salvage Company's operation. Jim used his spotting scope to get a view from an observation point atop a knoll three miles away. I hiked through two miles of soft sand to get a closer look. There is a cable line to shore so they can ferry equipment and men back and forth a couple of hundred yards to the work platform.
The stern of the ship New Carisssa has been mired in about 20 feet of sand for 10 years while a legal battle took place about who would pay the over 20 million dollars to disassemble the hulk. A decade ago the rest of the ship was towed about 200 miles out to sea and sunk by naval ships and a submarine. The hope was that it would form an artificial reef for sea animals.
If you go to see this, hurry because it should be done in a couple of months. It is hard to find so ask for directions to the Horsfall Off Highway Vehicle (OHV) campground which is before the big bridge north of North Bend. We stopped at a USFS information office and they gave us excellent directions.
We also visited the water front in Coos Bay. Coos Bay is an amazing international shipping terminal for wood chips that are loaded on barges and in ships.
Afterwards we dropped the van off in Medford. Our son Neil is running a 100 mile (24 hours) race in Northern California this weekend. The van will be the mobile motel from which he and two friends will embark on this Herculian event. This sounds like something Forest Gump would attempt. Neil is around 40 years old and tough as a mustang.
Jim and I also spend our time watching our raised bed garden grow and cleaning our shotguns.
