Braving the Bar
Bar pilot Captain Mike Tierney disembarks from the SEAHAWK helicopter onto the six-hundred-fifty-five-foot-long cargo ship, the Westwood Olympia. Tierney will take command of the shipâs communications to guide it from the Pacific Ocean, through the bar and up the Columbia River.
Braving the Bar
: Bar pilot Captain John Torjusen scales a ladder suspended over the hull of the Queen Flower cargo ship. Without any safety lines, harnesses or nets, a plunge into the Pacific Ocean awaits any mistake on the part of the pilot.
Braving the Bar
Columbia River Bar Pilots deck hand Jacob Peterson helps command the seventy-two-foot-long pilot transfer boat, the Chinook, through the rough waters of the Columbia River bar. Once the transfer boat meets with a cargo ship, it becomes Petersonâs job to keep eyes on the transferring pilot and ensure their safe delivery from one vessel to the other.
Braving the Bar
Bar pilot Captain Bill Worth is plucked from the deck of the passenger ship, the Celebrity Millennium, by the Columbia River Bar Pilotâs SEAHAWK helicopter after delivering the ship safely to the Pacific Ocean from its dock site in Astoria, Oregon.
Braving the Bar
Deck hand Michael Hughes helps guide the transfer boat close enough to the cargo ship to pick up Mike Tierney after he guided the ship through the bar and out into the open waters of the Pacific.
Braving the Bar
Carefully judging the swells of the Pacific Ocean and the distance between the two vessels, bar pilot Captain Mike Tierney jumps from the Solar Asia cargo ship onto the Chinook pilot transfer boat.
