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Trip reports / Re: visiting alabama
« on: September 19, 2012, 04:44:27 AM »
The best place in Alabama would be in the Mobile area. I have not been there but have looked at maps in detail in anticipation of maybe going there some time. There appear to be parks along the bay and also on a barrier island off Mobile. Not sure how busy the port is - it probably has a web site.
Pensacola, Fla is right next to Alabama and is worth a visit just for the Naval Aviation Museum and the white quartz sand beaches. There is some shipping in there but not a whole lot. Some of the Army bases in Alabama have excellent museums, especially Fort Rucker whch has an Army aviation museum. Nothing to do with ships but interesting places to visit.
If you are in north Alabama the steel mills near Birmingham are worth a visit - one of the closed mills is open for tours, etc. I also believe that near Birmingham is an inland port for tugs and barges.
There are some inland waterways in Alabama that have barge and tug traffic if you are interested in that type of thing. The Alabama River is navigable and has its outlet in Mobile Bay. Same with the Tombigbee River which is to the west of the Alabama River and parallels it to Mobile.
The type of tug you would see would be pushing the barges, as many as a dozen or more, and they are not like the tugboats you would see in a salt water port. Very different and ranging from large to small.
There is a shipbuilding facility that builds a lot of US Navy vessels in Pasgagoula, Mississippi just west of Mobile and I would also look at Biloxi and Gulfport, Miss. and if you go there you are just a few miles from New Orleans and the Mississippi River. I was going to go to all of those places on a trip but a very destructive hurricane beat me to it and I have not been able to get down there since.
The Intercoastal Waterway which provides sheltered passage for smaller work boats like tugs and barges, etc parallels the coast through that whole area.
The best port by far would be New Orleans. Very busy. Lots of photos taken there posted on shipspotting and if you look at AIS there are huge numbers of all types of ships and smaller tugs, etc. You can stay outside the city and commute in to avoid expensive hotels.
Also some distance south of New Orleans is a major port for the boats that service offshore oil producing rigs. Again, it really shows up on AIS.
You do not want to be in the New Orleans area in Feb. during Madri Gras. And from May until Sept. the weather is very hot and humid - basically equatorial and not a fun place to be at least by my standards.
I would study Google Earth maps and satellite images and also AIS to get an idea of the traffic at an individual place. You can get an idea of what motels would cost by looking up places on a website such as Travelocity. Offseason, smaller places, which might not be listed on a site like Travelocity might have much lower rates.
Right now if I had carte blanche to visit any U.S.port it would be New Orleans and also following the Mississippi south until the roads end and a couple of places along the Gulf of Mexico coast.
Pensacola, Fla is right next to Alabama and is worth a visit just for the Naval Aviation Museum and the white quartz sand beaches. There is some shipping in there but not a whole lot. Some of the Army bases in Alabama have excellent museums, especially Fort Rucker whch has an Army aviation museum. Nothing to do with ships but interesting places to visit.
If you are in north Alabama the steel mills near Birmingham are worth a visit - one of the closed mills is open for tours, etc. I also believe that near Birmingham is an inland port for tugs and barges.
There are some inland waterways in Alabama that have barge and tug traffic if you are interested in that type of thing. The Alabama River is navigable and has its outlet in Mobile Bay. Same with the Tombigbee River which is to the west of the Alabama River and parallels it to Mobile.
The type of tug you would see would be pushing the barges, as many as a dozen or more, and they are not like the tugboats you would see in a salt water port. Very different and ranging from large to small.
There is a shipbuilding facility that builds a lot of US Navy vessels in Pasgagoula, Mississippi just west of Mobile and I would also look at Biloxi and Gulfport, Miss. and if you go there you are just a few miles from New Orleans and the Mississippi River. I was going to go to all of those places on a trip but a very destructive hurricane beat me to it and I have not been able to get down there since.
The Intercoastal Waterway which provides sheltered passage for smaller work boats like tugs and barges, etc parallels the coast through that whole area.
The best port by far would be New Orleans. Very busy. Lots of photos taken there posted on shipspotting and if you look at AIS there are huge numbers of all types of ships and smaller tugs, etc. You can stay outside the city and commute in to avoid expensive hotels.
Also some distance south of New Orleans is a major port for the boats that service offshore oil producing rigs. Again, it really shows up on AIS.
You do not want to be in the New Orleans area in Feb. during Madri Gras. And from May until Sept. the weather is very hot and humid - basically equatorial and not a fun place to be at least by my standards.
I would study Google Earth maps and satellite images and also AIS to get an idea of the traffic at an individual place. You can get an idea of what motels would cost by looking up places on a website such as Travelocity. Offseason, smaller places, which might not be listed on a site like Travelocity might have much lower rates.
Right now if I had carte blanche to visit any U.S.port it would be New Orleans and also following the Mississippi south until the roads end and a couple of places along the Gulf of Mexico coast.
but if this is a Maersk service then why isn't at least one of the ships Maersk? I am familiar with shared service but I would think Maersk would have at least one of their ships involved, especially with so many calling at Norfolk, Va.?