M/V Blue Fin, Hurricane, Tsunami, Weather Buoy Boat, Homeport Northlake Shipyard, NOAA Buoy Boat Scientists Collect Data, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, PNW Homeport

M/V Blue Fin, 165 ft. Ballard Bridge Lift, NOAA, Tsunami, Hurricane, and Weather Buoy Boat, Home port North Lake Shipyard, Photography by: Salty Dog Boating News, Salty Sea Chick, AK to PNW Marine Traffic Underway Source

Northlake Shipyard on Lake Union in Seattle WA is the home port to M/V Blue Fin, 165 ft. NOAA, Tsunami, Hurricane, and Weather Buoy Boat. The Blue Fin  has wide beam of 38 ft, with 60,000 gallon fuel capacity; she can do a running time offshore trip of 30 days at sea no problem.  The Blue Fin is often spotted in the WA Ship Canal getting Bridge lifts from Ballard & Fremont Bridge winding down the narrow canal, east and west bound in the Pacific Northwest.

M/V Blue Fin, NOAA, Tsunami, Hurricane, and Weather Buoy Boat, WA Ship Canal Ballard Bridge Lift Back to Northlake Shipyard, PNW, Winter, Sunny Freezing, Photography by: Salty Dog Boating News, Salty Sea Chick, AK to PNW Marine Traffic Underway Source!

M/V Blue Fin has worked with and for NOAA victoriously for a number of years at sea. NOAA, The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have successfully completed cruises on the M/V Blue Fin, servicing the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean TAQ array,  in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. The National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) field service team aboard M/V Blue Fin, has done great progress under contract with NOAA, replacing TAO buoys while breaking waves and running adventures at sea – is what are all about to get the job done.

M/V Blue Fin, 165 ft. Eastbound WA Ship Canal Blue Fin, NOAA, Tsunami, Hurricane, and Weather Buoy Boat Underway, RIP Captain Mark Fenner! Lab Lover!!! Photography by: Salty Dog Boating News, Salty Sea Chick, AK to PNW Marine Traffic Underway Source

NOAA is a large contributor to the Pacific Northwest marine industry and community on our local waterfront and beyond. NOAA has done a number of TAO service cruises with the NDBC field service team on M/V Blue Fin. NOAA has accomplished a lot with the data availability of the TAO array, at the target of 80% after the final cruises were complete and successful data was collected.

M/V Blue Fin back story on the boat: Blue Fin was originally designed and built as an oil supply vessel down south built by Bender Ship Yard in 1980 after the oil field went to hell at that point. A lot of fishing companies were buying up oil supply vessels for cheap.  At that time the old ‘Blue Fin’ was bought.  It had some modifications to it; soon after Western Pioneer, which is/was local in Ballard WA, Inner Coastal Cargo Outfit, and now Alaska Ship Supply: at that time they hauled fish and supplies to Alaska.  Western Pioneer added a deck converted interior space into freezer holds; it was strictly a freight boat at that time.

Northlake Shipyard, Lake Union in Seattle WA is the home port to M/V Blue Fin, 165 ft. NOAA, Tsunami, Hurricane, and Weather Buoy Boat, Photography by: Salty Dog Boating News, Salty Sea Chick, AK to PNW Marine Traffic Underway Source

Today the ‘Blue Fin’ is owned by,  F/V North Wind, home port is Northlake Shipyard on Lake Union in Seattle. They converted it into a research vessel, added A-frame, electronics, cranes, cut the big door in the side;  making the Blue Fin adaptable to a lot of research applications for current missions for NOAA  as a Tsunami,  Hurricane, Weather Buoy Boat.  She a beefy tough chick – Blue Fin has all the modern day bells and whistles.

Usually the M/V Blue Fin will run 200 miles off shore; the Tsunami Buoys are approximately 300 to 500 miles apart giving people on land a minimum of 45 minutes to get to higher ground.   For example coming into Dutch Harbor two years ago; the Blue Fin had just repaired their Tsunami Buoy; it went off when the boat was half way to Dutch; the town had a Tsunami Buoy which activated the warning, the whole town had time to go up into the hills, getting to higher ground.  There never was a Tsunami that actually occurred;  yet it was good to see folks had time to get safety thanks to the Technology of these NOAA Tsunami Buoys.  It was  victory story on that day in Dutch!

M/V Blue Fin has worked with and for NOAA victoriously for a number of years at sea. NOAA, The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Photography by: Salty Dog Boating News, Salty Sea Chick, AK to PNW Marine Traffic Underway Source, Canal Top Pic Chick!

R.I.P: CAPTAIN MARK FENNER – Former Captain M/V Blue Fin!

Gosh…. Mark loved being at sea, after a month home he was ready to go back….

Our Black Labs were bosom buddies!