Carolyn and I saw it passing through the SF bay with 2 black tugs. No name visible on the ship. This was the sharpest I was able to grab with my D70. I didn’t have a cable release handy, sigh.
**UPDATE**
BoatingSF shows two tugs leaving the bay at the same time I saw this ship with two tugs — the Lynne Marie and the Narragansett listed as TUG-WITHOUT-A-TOW. Strange.
It appears to be an LHA Amphibious Assault Ship — but whats on its deck and where is it going?
Even more: there are only 5 of them and 2 are decommed. One of those two? Can’t be the one under construction…
The answer is in comment 3!
I checked every vessel on that BoatingSF map. None match your photo. There is a tanker, the Washington Voyager, that’s very close to the two TUGS-WITHOUT-TOW, but clearly, that’s not it.
http://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=4200&ct=4&tid=400
A ha, yes, Mark N is correct!
I did some additional research. The ship is the USS Tripoli, and was used for missile tests in Hawaii. I guess you caught it as it was headed back to Hawaii for more testing.
Saw this while crossing the bridge. I thought that what it was, but hard to stare at a ship while driving. Thanks for catching it.