WHAT HAPPENS AT THE BAR -- THE RIVER NOT A TAVERN

The commercial ships that enter the Columbia River from the Pacific Ocean must have a bar pilot aboard to guide them through the still treacherous, rather narrow, and often turbulent opening -- even after considerable protective work of seawalls and electronic devices have been installed over the past years. I had the privilege of hearing a fascinating talk by the first woman bar pilot at a maritime meeting recently. She was first one of few female ship captains for years. When she semi-retired from this profession, she decided to become a bar pilot, a decision that made her life even more adventurous. A bar pilot has to be trained to board a waiting vessel from a small bar pilot's boat. Imagine the up and down movement of the sea, the necessity of waiting for just the right moment to grab what appears to be a flimsy (but is not) ladder hanging off the ship. Steel nerves, I would say. After he/she is aboard, she advises the captain on the right course to take to enter the bar. When the ship is safely inside the breakwater, the bar pilot ship retrieves the pilot and soon a river pilot is installed similarly to guide the ship through the Columbia's water up to Portland, Oregon This part of the river changes almost continuously as to shifting sands, possible rock or mud slides, current speeds, and the positions of other ships moored or moving. Thus, when a river pilot has not run that section of river for a week or more, he/she has to make that trip with another absolutely current pilot before assuming a full responsibility trip. Dry land readers probably never have thought about the skills needed for such voyages. The Columbia River book tells more tales from the bar pilots' experiences. Also, did you know that, when Mt. St. Helens blew in 1980, for a time so much silt washed into the Columbia from river tributaries that some ships were marooned in the Columbia on one side of these blockages or the other. The river's depth for passable channels had to be re-verified even for such a deep and swift waterway as the Columbia. These matters have to be tracked even without such as the Mt. St. Helens catastrophe.