Odiorne, Monday, April 1 2024

[Jim Snyder]

We started out with synchronized rolling practice, followed by standing on one foot in the cockpits!

It was a great April Fool's Day Paddle! We were me. Bill Voss, Barb Ryan, Jody Harris, Sandy Blanchard, Deb Walsh and Dan Carr. We headed out of Little Harbor and found the usual low tide activity on the shoals outside Jaffrey Point, then on to Wood Island for lunch. The devastation from recent storms was awful on Wood but repairs were underway.

We had been watching this strange looking vessel approaching from far out and it kept looking stranger.

SeaIq identified the tugs escorting it and said they were only making 1.4 knots so we decided to run it down and try to board.

Google tells me "MAMMOET" makes al kinds of heavy specialty equipment but I didn't see anything like this on their website. I now think this was a barge delivering something to Portsmouth, probably to the shipyard.

The crew managed to fend us off and we began a rambling tour of nearby islands, enjoying being out and watching seals. Thanks to all for making it a great trip.

Photos by Barb used without permission.

 

 

 

[Jody Harris]

Perfect reporting!

[Jim Snyder]

Deb Walsh found this about the mysteryship:

https://www.facebook.com/100072443168835/posts/436302222127880/?mibextid=xfxF2i&rdid=aQwMb46jaTgbfW9z

For those of you that don't facebook here's the text:

A temporary lifting device was transported on a specialty barge from Cianbro Corporation's Modular Manufacturing Facility in Brewer, Maine and has arrived at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY).

The steel structure is 110 feet tall and 111 feet wide and has a lifting capacity of 4000 metric tons. Its bright red finish made it quite visible as it travelled down the Penobscot River to the Atlantic, then along the Maine coast to the mouth of the Piscataqua River. The device is temporarily stationed at Henderson's Point on the west side of Seavey Island.

The temporary lifting device is at the shipyard to support the Multi-Mission Dry Dock #1 MILCON--a seven-year project already in progress. The work on the project is being completed by the 381 Constructors in a joint venture of The Industrial Company (a Kiewit Corporation subsidiary), Maine-based Cianbro Corporation, and The Middlesex Corporation.

Over the coming weeks, the device will be assembled and erected in Dry Dock #1, a process set to conclude in early May. Once operational, it will undertake the vital task of lifting twenty-seven 4,000-ton concrete monoliths currently being constructed by Cianbro Corporation at their Brewer facility.

The project will modernize the historic dry dock, originally constructed during WWII. By increasing its capacity, the shipyard will be able to accommodate three Los Angeles or Virginia-class attack submarines for repair, maintenance, and modernization, enabling PNSY to meet the Navy's requirements for years to come.

The dry dock project is overseen by the Officer in Charge of Construction PNSY, and the work is being completed as part of the Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program (SIOP). SIOP is a holistic recapitalization of the Navy's four public shipyards through a combination of new and reused facilities. It integrates facilities, utilities, and industrial plant equipment investments to meet nuclear fleet maintenance requirements. The Program delivers a reduction in availability duration and improves efficiency by expanding shipyard capacity, optimizing configuration, and creating resilient infrastructure.

SIOP's multi-decade effort currently has over $6 billion of construction under contract and $577 million of equipment in procurement, marking a significant investment in the Navy's infrastructure.

For more information about the Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program, please visit:

https://www.navfac.navy.mil/PEO-Industrial.../PMO-555-SIOP/