Long-term parking for the Tug and Boom – Photo Wednesday

This tug spent at least a week in a holding pattern, in front of the house. Up and down the Sound it went, very slowly… dragging the raft of logs. In BC, this is called a log boom.

At night, the tug has horizontal lighting, signalling its “parked” position, and the log boom also has position lights, light green, at all corners. Avoiding navigational hazards…

A whole forest is chained up, and floated behind a tug. Eventually, after a proper wait (at least a week, in this case) for a spot at the Port of Vancouver, it gets dragged across the Strait of Georgia, to the lower mainland of BC… Where all the log booms are gathered in the river’s mouth, also parked and waiting for loading. Most of these logs are likely loaded on ships headed West. Across the Pacific.

Floating Forest November 2014 WL
I am not complaining, my house is made of local cedar, so are my decks… I just watch cedar islands being floated across the waters.

I wonder what it’s like to be the tug’s pilot and crew. Do they play Scrabble? Watch videos? Play cards? How do they pass the time?