Interesting read - I saw, on the marine traffic map, around 35-40 anchored close in and another 20+ anchored farther out. Not sure that he can see them since they’re several miles off shore.
Anyway, this is contrasted by a video I saw on twitter alleging that the cranes are not unloading and the trucks are parked at a port, I think, in Portland. However, it doesn’t appear that Portland has any ships anchored outside of the Columbia River inlet channel.
Just a quick note on visibility.
The horizon at sea level is 16 nautical miles or 32,000 meters.
You can gain additional range the higher you are located from sea level, but only so much unless you start flying.