The New Carisa came to Coos Bay to load woodchips to take home to
Japan. She was empty and had 400,000 gallons of fuel on board.
It has been very stormy here in Oregon this year and this was not an
exception to the rule. The ship couldn't enter the harbor and tried to
anchor ofshore. Didn't work and it went aground. after a week it started
to break up and the Coast Guard decided to burn off the oil before it spilled.
Didn't work too well either, but they did burn about 300,000 gals of fuel
and broke the ship into two pieces from the heat. They decided to tow the
bow section (600ft long containing 115,000gal
of crude oil) out to sea and sink it in the cold pacific ocean. They
had continual storms with winds around 40mph and seas running 20 to 30
feet. It was a help. With the world watching on TV News, They finally headed
to sea..Right into a huricane that came up after they left. Luckily they
had removed the towing crew off the ship. That night, the wind snapped
a 10" diameter Kevlar towline and the Clarisa headed back for Oregon's
coastline.Here are som pictures of when it came back to us, landing in
fron to my daughters home in Walport. 
The pictures above show the ship on the beach, The ship as seen from
the bridge at Waldport. You can see the houses along the shoreline. The
next picture is of the people who ignored police warnings and came to see
it. Of course you wonder how did I get the pictures? Anyhow, the last is
a picture of the little tug that couldn't.