Happy New Year 2020!

Baltimore Shipspotting would like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous new year!

This blog is one day less than a year old and has undergone some changes between here and there. I have Mike Singer, owner of the Facebook group Baltimore & Chesapeake Bay Ship Watchers to thank for the beginnings of this blog with his encouragement to do the photography and videography that I glue together in this blog. I started by back posting material I took from the beginnings of my accidental foray into shipspoting back in August of 2018. The above photo is of the Coast Guard Barque Eagle which arrived under sail in October of 2018. Saw her twice in 2019 as well on March 10 and March 23. There are many other people to thank who’ve provided me opportunities and boat rides to provide material for the blog as well.

It has led to a lot of amazing experiences in 2019. In April I went on the a hard hat tour on the Cruiser Olympia which you can read about by clicking here.

On 2019’s National Maritime Day in Baltimore I got to do a tour of the nuclear ship Savannah. That blog entry is one of my most popular with 140 views in 2019!

In May I was invited to be the photographer aboard a Moran tugboat as the largest container ship to come to Baltimore came to town. You can read about my adventures there in this blog about my night aboard the tugboat Lynne Moran and the arrival of the Evergreen Triton. A big thank you goes to the good folks at Moran, especially the amazing crew of the Lynne Moran.

The same day the Evergreen Triton came to town the Fire Rescue Boat Miss Linda 2 was dedicated and I was there to photograph that.

Towards the end of July I had the great opportunity to visit Golden Age Charters and went in a cruise on the nearby Rappahanock River.

Then a week later I had an amazing visit to the 949th Transportation Company which included a tour of the tugboat MG Anthony Wayne and Logistics Support Vessel Robert Smalls.

September brought the departure of the NS Savannah from Baltimore to drydock in Pennsylvania. Thanks to Mike Singer I was able to get photos and video of this and resulted in my third most popular blog of 2019 with 393 views!

Also in September a former pilot and a much better photographer than I, William Bland, recalled the story of being a pilot during hurricane Irene in August 2011 and allowed Baltimore Shipspotting to share this amazing story Dancing with Irene!

American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier had a naming ceremony for three ships they purchased from Wallenius Wilhelmsen here in Baltimore and one of the ships, the ARC Resolve, was present and I was permitted to go aboard and get photos. It was quite an amazing experience!

October brought a tour of Domino Sugars, a historic fixture here in Baltimore, arranged by Mike Singer for the members of the Facebook group Baltimore & Chesapeake Bay Ship Watchers.

November brought another amazing adventure thanks to my friend W Frank Mathers, an administrator of the Facebook Group Baltimore & Chesapeake Bay Maritime Group, a part of the Baltimore & Chesapeake Steamboat Company. It produced my most popular blog entry of 2019 with 893 views – a visit to the Nuclear Ship Savannah in Drydock in Pennsylvania.

December brought a visit to a local business servicing ships, Davis Ship Service, which also shares space with Maryland Nautical. Very interesting and informative visit which told of some of the behind the scenes activities they handle for ships. This may have been my least visually interesting blog but a lot of people seemed to be interested in what they do and I am very glad to have gone.

I also had the opportunity to visit MITAGS – Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies where I had the opportunity to experience the full mission ship simulator as well as try out one of their tugboat simulators (top photo in this blog).

I also shared many of my non-ship adventures throughout the year in this blog and although not my most popular blog entries they add some variety to the mix and I intend to continue to do so through 2020.

In the coming months and years I intend to continue to provide blog postings as well as photos on my flickr page and YouTube channel. I will continue to tweak the blog postings to make them better, improve my skills with my camera and software, and incrementally improve my hardware and down the line possibly add a drone. Keep tuned for more adventures!

Thank you very much for reading my blogs!