Houston ship pilot Louis Vest assembled this video from more than 2000 still photos he took on a 3 1/2-hour journey on a 600-ft.-long Panamax tanker navigating the Houston Ship Channel:
The ship was only moving at 5-6 knots for the first half of the trip and up to 10 knots in the open areas away from the docks. The journey begins just below the Port of Houston turning basin at the end of the channel and continues down to Morgan’s Point at the head of Galveston Bay. We still had 32 miles to go to get out to the pilot station in the Gulf of Mexico at that point.
Vest fastened his Nikon D700 to an outside rail and set it to take a photo every 6 seconds.
What does this trip look like in the daytime? Vest made a similar video last year (high-res version).
- Night Run II [YouTube, via Houstonist]
- Night Run II, 1st Half [Flickr]
- 500 Knots on the Houston Ship Channel [Flickr]
5 Comments
Love it. Perfect night for it with the low sky. I can feel it; I can smell it. Would love to do it in person some steamy summer night.
I kept waiting for the PIRATES to board
Oh wow…this is too cool for words. Toadfroggy, I’m with you — what a wonderful, essentially Houston experience such a trip would be.
That trip was available about 6 weeks ago on the CLUI ship channel excursion. 3 hours on a pontoon boat from downtown to the San Jacinto monument. Damn impressive.
Looks like you were running the upper channel a little quick. Trying to cover that bayport job on the bar?
Nice looking video Lou.