MACC is Definitely Back
Even Mother Nature Can’t Dent the Enthusiasm at this Year’s MACC.Curtis Bay, MD: On the morning after the Baltimore, MD area received a record 3.5 inches of torrential rain in just 90 minutes, this year’s Multi-Agency Craft Conference (MACC) kicked off without a hitch at the United States Coast Guard Yard in Curtis Bay, MD. That may sound easy, but for those flying in Tuesday afternoon (or like myself, driving in through DC at exactly the moment that the George Washington Parkway flooded badly near the DCA Airport), it was touch and go.Although a proud (although badly aging) graduate of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and a licensed mariner – Chief Mate (any gross tons) and a 1600 Ton Master – this officially was my first command at sea.
USCG to Establish Security Zone for State of the Union Address
The Coast Guard will establish a temporary security zone Tuesday in designated waters in the National Capital Region for the State of the Union address. The security zone will be in effect from 4 p.m. Tuesday until 2 a.m. Wednesday, which may limit or prohibit navigation by commercial and recreational waterway users. The security zone will include the Potomac River from the Francis Scott Key Bridge, south to approximately two miles north of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. The security zone will also include the Georgetown Channel Tidal Basin as well as the Anacostia River from the 11th Street Bridge to its confluence with the Potomac River. Entering or operating in the security zone is prohibited unless authorized by the captain of the port of Baltimore.
Swift on Display in Washington
HSV 2 Swift the US Navy’s high speed vessel built by Incat in Tasmania,Australia, and leased to the Navy by Bollinger Incat USA, went on display in Washington DC area recently. Traversing the Potomac River on her way to the berth at Old Town Alexandria in Virginia, the high speed vessel passed under the open Woodrow Wilson Bridge. The future of naval combat was on display in the Washington D.C. area, when the U.S. Navy's contracted high-speed vessel (HSV) Swift, pulled pierside in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, March 30-April 3.
New Water Taxi to Connect for Old Town Alexandria
National Harbor, the mile-and-a-quarter-long waterfront development under construction just south of the Wilson Bridge in Prince George's County. Riverboat Company and Milt Peterson, founder and chairman of Washington, D.C.-area developer, The Peterson Companies, which is developing the mixed-use project, announced today that the Potomac Riverboat Company will begin seven-day-a-week water taxi service between the two riverside destinations in April 2008. Two newly-commissioned 99-passenger boats, which are yet-to-be named, will run initially on the half-hour between 10 A.M. and 10 P.M., providing 50 one- way trips daily between the Alexandria City Marina and the Commercial North Pier at National Harbor. The crossing is expected to take 20 minutes.
