Where To See the USS Iowa, part 1b

I didn't consider that the Iowa will be towed under the drawbridge on the Union-Pacific rail bridge, and so will be closer to the Martinez side than the Benicia side when it gets to bridges - so the view from Vista Point isn't going to be as good as I thought.

Looking towards the bridges from the Carquinez Strait.  The drawbridge is over on the right, the docking area in Benicia is on the left.

The auto pier (upper right) seen from the bridge.

 If it's too windy to take the kayak out, I may go for the the view from the bridge, and although I'll miss most of the trip from the reserve fleet to the auto pier, I should get a good view of the Iowa from above, and an adequate view of the action west of the bridge.  I'll also freeze my keister off if it's windy.

A view of the auto pier (upper left) from the bridge.

If you are going to be on the Benicia side, take a look at Greg B's page on flickr.com: USS Iowa tow, Day 1 Photo ops.  He's done a better job than I have of scouting out the views from the Solano side of the strait.

If I had to pick one spot on the Contra Costa side to watch from, it would be on one of the tankers at the oil terminals, but that's not going to happen.  And there doesn't seem to be any easy access to the shore from the Martinez marina to Bay Point, even tho some of it is regional park land.  The Solano side is probably the place to be, since the only real choices on the CCC side are the fishing pier at the Martinez marina, and the pedestrian walk on the bridge.

On Friday, when the ship is towed from Benicia to Richmond, the south side of the strait will have lots of better opportunities to watch.  If you have a kayak, launch from the Martinez marina, Port Cost, Eckley, or Lone Tree.  (I think you can also launch from the Crockett marina, but it isn't such a great place for that.)  Without a boat, there's the Carquinez Scenic Drive, the shore at Port Costa, the shore and pier at Eckley, and the hiking trails at the Carquinez Strait Regional Shoreline (both west and east of Eckley); and in Crockett there's the east end of Winslow Street, that little park next to Crockett Cogen (altho the view there is getting to be obscured by trees that never get trimmed), the marina and adjacent shore, Vista Point, the parking lot at the Dead Fish, and especially the pedestrian walk on the Al Zampa Bridge.  (There are a couple of other places that I won't tell you about.)

On the Solano side, there's the Benicia waterfront, the Benicia State Recreation Area, the shore at Glen Cove, Vista Point at the north end of the Al Zampa bridge, and the pedestrian walk on the bridge.

Once the Iowa's out of the strait, I don't think there will be any good places (maybe Point Pinole) until the ship gets to Richmond.  Then there's Ferry Point, for instance.  I might list some more if there is any interest.

Where to see the USS Iowa (part 1)

On Thursday October 27, at noon (last I heard), the battleship USS Iowa will be towed from the Reserve Fleet (you may know it as the Mothball Fleet, or the Ghost Fleet) to the deepwater industrial pier in Benica.  On Friday at 9:30am (last I heard - the times are subject to change) the Iowa will be towed to Richmond.

So, where do you go to get a good view?  (Assuming that you don't have a boat, or access to a local oil terminal.)

This afternoon (having nothing better to do) I walked across the George Miller, Jr. Memorial Bridge (the westmost of the Martinez-Benicia bridges) to the Vista Point \ rest stop area near the north end of the bridges to scout out the good views.

Vista Point

Vista Point, looking towards Martinez.

On Thursday, the Vista Point area at the north end of the Benicia-Martinez bridges will have a good view of the ship being towed from the reserve fleet to the bridges, especially if you - the discriminating public that follows my blog - head up the hill at the north end of the Vista Point area.

The picnic table at the top of the hill, looking towards the reserve fleet.

The Thingy at the top of the hill.

The best view is going to be from the picnic table at the top of the hill adjacent to the Vista Point parking lot.  In the parking lot it will be necessary for people of average height to look thru a chain-link fence - which isn't such a big deal if you aren't taking photos - but if you get near the top of the hill you can see over the fence, and if you're early enough (or good at shmoozing) you can sit at (or stand on) the picnic table, and comfortably watch the proceedings at a distance.  Look for the wiry-gazeboish thingy at the north end of the Vista Point area; walk up the hill, and look for the table next to it.  If the table is occupied there is a concrete thing (under the wiry thingy) that you can stand on to see past the tall person who will always stand in front of you.

When the ship reaches the first bridge it will be necessary to get to the pedestrian lane on the west-most bridge to see the Iowa being towed to the pier in Benicia.  That may require five or ten minutes of walking.  If that sounds like too much work, then consider the shore under the bridge; I've seen fishermen there, but I don't (yet) know how to get there, and the view there will probably be as restricted as the view from Vista Point (but you may get a better view of me in my kayak).

The ped lane on the bridge should be roomy enough to give everyone a view of the strait to the west of the bridges, but there's a fence that makes taking photos more complicated: see the next image.

View of the industrial pier (to the upper-right) from the G. Miller Jr. bridge, shot from between the bars of that stupid fence..

I don't think that the public can get onto the auto pier, but I haven't really researched it; my hunch is that security concerns will keep people away.

Another option, if you are one of those unlucky people without a boat, is the fishing pier at the Martinez marina.  I think the view won't be very good, and if a lot of people show up, it won't be very comfortable (but there will probably be plenty of parking).

If you really want a good view, it might be best to wait until Friday, when the ship is towed to Richmond, because there will be more options.  I'll put those in another blog entry.

The new old camera

The Casio's replacement (for now) is a FujiFilm FinePix A345.  It's a 4.1MP point-n-shoot digital camera, given to me by someone who has more digital cameras than her family uses.  The second image here has been resized and tweaked in Photoshop; the other pictures have been resized but otherwise unaltered.

The Moku Pahu at the C&H dock.

HSTC-1, the Moku Pahu's integrated barge.

Dillon Point, Mt. Diablo, and a bit of the Carquinez Strait Regional Shoreline.

Lunch break near the Cal Maritime campus.

San Pablo Bay.

The colors are sometimes oversaturated (especially on the hill in the Dillon Point shot), but usually pretty good.  The skies and white surfaces aren't constantly blown out the way they were with the Casio, but the detail isn't as good, and so cropping isn't the useful tactic that it was.  The FinePix can't seem to get the horizon level, but the Casio had a problem with that too, and I've gotten used to it.
  
The camera is idiosyncratic - it doesn't always start when the power button is pressed, and it doesn't always work even when it powers on, and sometimes it powers on or off for no apparent reason.  The camera does have a microphone for recording video, but it doesn't seem to pay attention to the many curses directed at it when it malfunctions... or maybe it's saving them up to play back at some inappropriate time.

I recently bought a 5MP waterproof camera on ebay, and with any luck it will be here before the USS Iowa is moved (Friday of next week) from the mothball fleet to Richmond; if not, the FinePix is going to have to carry the load, and so far it doesn't seem to be ready for the challenge.

Stupid camera.

The last moments of the Casio QV-R51

The Casio point-n-shoot camera that I use when kayaking seems to have kicked the bucket.  Although I'm hoping that it's comatose rather than dead, I'm assuming it's the latter.  I have yet to perform the examination\autopsy that will make the final determination.

New and old bay bridges, and a kayak

I took the kayak and the Casio to Crissy Field in San Francisco for the Blue Angel's practice show (for Fleet Week 2011).  The Casio was a bit blurry-eyed, but responsive, on the way there, and took the usual photos of the bay bridge(s).

The Snowbirds demonstration team

Once on the water, the Casio began to show signs of disorientation, and increasingly blurred vision.

St. Francis Yacht Club

The wave organ

The Casio seemed to rally at the Wave Organ jetty, taking several blurry-but-almost-adequate pictures.

The Lemming Club's annual event

The last communication from the QV-R51

This photo of the USAF F-15 Strike Eagle (the gray spot in the sky) was the last image from the Casio QV-R51.  It's long and largely successful career ended to the sound of waves against the sides of the kayak, and of the F-15 blasting gently overhead, on the peaceful waters of the San Francisco Bay, free from it's waterproof plastic bag, looking wistfully at the clear blue sky, and perhaps thinking of its far-away homeland.

That's assuming it's dead, of course.

More shots from the kayak on the Carquinez Strait

More shots from the kayak on the Carquinez Strait.  These are photos that I thought might be interesting to someone else, but that I didn't like enough to post on flickr.com.

This is from the occupation of the Glen Cove waterfront park area by the Miwok, Ohlone, Patwin, and other indigenous peoples, due to a dispute over the Glen Cove shell mound(s).  (Please feel free to correct me if I have this wrong somehow.)

Crockett, west Contra Costa County, California.

Marker in Southampton Creek.  There was another marker in the same condition on the other side of the waterway, and a sign so weathered that I wasn't able to read it.  I suppose the message was "GO AWAY GET OUT OF HERE WE DON'T WANT YOU GET LOST," or words to that effect.

Oslo Bulk 8, Singapore, at the C&H dock in Crockett.

I was going to make this another fake Mono Lake shot on flickr, but I don't think I'll bother, since no on seems to get the joke.  (That is, they think it really is Mono Lake, or they just don't care.)