Update: SBX’s short trip off West Seattle shores; drillship’s arrival

| Seen at sea | West Seattle news

(10:22 PM – 2 more photos, including SBX and stand-up paddleboarders!)

(Photo added 1:46 pm, courtesy of Toni)
As first reported here Monday morning, the Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX) that’s been so prominently visible from Harbor Island’s Vigor Shipyard for the past two months is making a short trip today. As scheduled, around 1 pm it headed out into Elliott Bay. It’s scheduled to be out for about six hours of testing while the floating offshore-drilling ship Kulluk is maneuvered into Vigor at the end of its long tow from Dutch Harbor, Alaska.

ADDED 2:29 PM: Kathy Olson shared this photo from Seacrest:

Our friends at MyBallard.com have photos of the Kulluk as it was under tow earlier. (added 3:11 pm) Here’s CL’s photo as the Kulluk rounded West Point into the bay:

We don’t have formal word on this, but one report we encountered while researching all this yesterday indicated that the work on the Kulluk is scheduled to take at least seven months. Meantime, SBX was expected to be out for at least six hours today, so if you want to see it out and about, you might get to see it moving back toward the shipyard before dark.

ADDED 6:22 PM: Thanks again to everyone who has been sharing photos of the sights at sea – again, SBX is NOT leaving permanently, it’s been here two months and was expected to be at Vigor at least three. First photo, WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand got a view of the Water Taxi with the SBX behind:

This one’s courtesy of Rebecca Nelson (editor of RavennaBlog.com but passing through via ferry):

Our original tip about these marine moves came from her. She also spotted a sailboat near a Coast Guard vessel enforcing the 500-yard keep-away-from-SBX zone:

Might add a few more later.

9:52 PM UPDATE: The SBX was still out in the bay when we passed by after the Hi-Yu concert, a little more than an hour ago. And we have this photo courtesy of Debra Herbst:

We believe those would be the Tuesday night stand-up paddleboarders from Alki Kayak Tours, with extra sights this evening.

ADDED 10:22 PM: David Hutchinson shares the view of the Kulluk in one of the late afternoon/early evening sunbreaks:

As Shell told WSB in a statement yesterday, they hope to use the Kulluk to drill in the Beaufort Sea next year, off Alaska’s northeasternmost coast.

Bill Brewer July 19, 2011 (3:46 pm)

Just returned from an Alki walk and watching the X-Band Radar “vessel” and the Kulluk maneuvering around. There was sure a Coast Guard presence; they seemed to be shooing fishing boats and other vessels away from the Radar vessel.

WSB July 19, 2011 (3:53 pm)

Bill B – they are continuing to enforce the 500-yard “keep away” zone even while the SBX is “out to sea” so that makes sense …

DP July 19, 2011 (3:49 pm)

I’ve got an idea. Put the Drilling Rig inside the Radar Dome, tow them both a few miles off the coast, and sink ’em.
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Voilà! Artificial reef!
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Good for the taxpayers. Good for the fish.

velo_nut July 19, 2011 (5:00 pm)

DP-

Why the hate on the X-Band? I understand your flak with the drill but not the X band.

The security is more than you can see. You’d be surprised at the large Marine contingent that is out of site at the moment. National/ Nuclear security is no joke folks.

Jasperblu July 19, 2011 (5:17 pm)

Waiting for the 5:15pm water taxi, the SBX is still maneuvering about Elliott Bay. Nifty!

smokeycretin9 July 19, 2011 (5:29 pm)

Here is a short list of things made from petrochemicals. I even suspect, most of your computer is made up from something made from oil.

http://www.ranken-energy.com/Products%20from%20Petroleum.htm

Dont knock oil drilling until you clear your house of all items on that list. Then we can bash all the oil companies all day long.

velo_nut July 19, 2011 (5:49 pm)

Sorry WSB…

DP July 19, 2011 (8:07 pm)

Now ‘cretin, that’s just silly. You don’t have to be some kind of spotless cavedweller to speak out against the wrongdoings of others. If that were true, we wouldn’t even have traffic court. (Judges and cops get speeding tickets, too, don’t they?)
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Ergo, I’ll knock Shell all I want to. As long as they keep screwing with my planet, then by God, I’ll knock ’em. Yes I will. And I shall fear no evil, because this ain’t Nigeria, where big corporations can have their critics permanently silenced for the cost of a bribe.
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Don’t think I’m out to get Shell, though. I’ll knock BP, Exxon, and the rest of ’em too, ‘cuz I’m an equal opportunity curmudgeon.
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But while we’re talking about the Shell company, here’s some vids about what they’ve been up to in Nigeria lately. Not for the faint of heart . . .
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afL0N191IFI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejym4mKelhM&NR=1
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**************************************************
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Say, whatever happened to the other 8 cretins, anyway? Nothing bad, I hope.

eco July 19, 2011 (8:19 pm)

I will clean out my shelves now.

Tim McGuire July 19, 2011 (9:07 pm)

If it was considered unacceptable by most people to risk the ecosystems of the oceans for oil then perhaps we’d make stuff from other materials who extraction and use don’t pose such large risks to life in the seas and elsewhere.

Tony S July 20, 2011 (7:19 am)

Where’s Leroy the tin foil hat guy?

Karl July 20, 2011 (8:02 am)

… And then everyone would whine about how much things cost, because oil is the cheapest of the dense energy sources that we have access to at the moment. Yes, yes, I know, blow it all up and start over. Do you have any idea how painful your life would be while that was going on? “Directive 51” by John Barnes is a decent fictional exploration of what can happen to people in such a situation.

I gotta say that I would NOT want to be on the Kulluk in heavy seas. That thing does not look like a fun or stable ride in the kind of seas they get off the coast of Alaska, especially not while performing drilling operations.

Karl July 20, 2011 (8:04 am)

Oh, and apparently the goal of the upgrade, which is to cost “tens of millions of dollars,” is to reduce the Kulluk’s emissions by 90%. Yeah, that’s evil. How dare they tow that thing into our harbor to fix it up so they’re risking the ecosystem less!

I. Ponder July 20, 2011 (8:14 am)

Anyone know what that SBX piece of equipment cost us taxpayers? Anything over $1 million ought to have a big price tag on it. I think they already do that on some highway projects. I’m guessing over $1 billion for this toy.

35this35mph July 20, 2011 (8:37 am)

the shot of the SBX and the standing paddle boarders looks like a real life sci-fi setting.

Jonny July 20, 2011 (8:43 am)

The SBX1= 900billion and prob a waste of money. Yah it’s hard to knock shell for trying to extract oil the cleanest and safest way on earth, but that’s fine we can continue to suck the foreign oil teet and go more into debt.

Dale July 20, 2011 (10:53 am)

Japan is considering eliminating all Nuclear power plants (only 1/3 are still active after the earthquake) they have been bridging the gap with diesel powered generators. Saudi Arabia is consuming much more oil that they have in the past, and using it for electricity generation. You know the story about China & India. All developing countries are using more oil. 88 million barrels a day..demand is set to go up. US drilling is up nearly 50% from the 2nd quarter of 2009 because of increased oil prices.

velo_nut July 20, 2011 (11:02 am)

X-Band is a valuable tool in National Defense.

Dale July 20, 2011 (3:32 pm)

http://yosemite.epa.gov/R10/airpage.nsf/Permits/ocs_kulluk_terminated_ap/$FILE/Shell%203-20-09%20Kulluk%20Permit%20Withdrawal%20Letter.pdf

I suspect the permit was cancelled by Shell because of the low (relatively) oil prices at the time. Now that the price is high Shell will do the repairs to eliminate 90% of the emissions. Good for them & us.