Remember that odd thing I sent pictures of; the platform boat? We got an explanation from our birding friend Jon, who is also a fishing boat driver all summer:
… your boat is a "jack-up" oil rig. They will pull up next to oil platforms and the pilings go into the water to the bottom and then they jack the center part up and work on the oil rigs....
Jon
From: Steve Taylor [mailto:spt@thetaylorcompany.net]
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 7:20 PM
Subject: platform boat
A really odd thing. A workboat/platform kind of thing. It motored down the channel under its own power, returning from the open ocean. It has those giant pilings it can apparently put down, like an oil platform, but oil platforms generally don’t provide their own locomotion. Maybe it’s some kind of study vehicle. Maybe they do geologic surveys. Don’t know, but here it is.
