The way we work is that jobs are assigned to the next pilot on the list. Sometimes you get a big one, sometimes a little one. At the end of the month everyone gets an equal share though.
Guess which ship was probably the easiest job? The big one. They give you as many tugs as you want to dock them. The tugs are the best in the fleet. Everyone calls you up way in advance and offers to get out of the way and takes care to be well on their side of the channel.
On the small ship tugs are a luxury. The captain is used to going into Holeinwallia or Carjackistan where ships are apparantly pulled to the dock by teams of donkies. "Tugboatz?? You doan have dunkies in Houston??". Tows pull out right in front of you and run the channel like the mud on the banks is dynamite and your little ship is made of rubber.
That's why, when pilots tell sea stories, they're all about the little ships.
Taken in "the Crossovers" on the Houston Ship Channel. LARGE
Quit the rough joint. One of the stevedores showed me his stab wounds from the week before so we opted for the cab ride into downtown BA for better atmosphere and drinks. I will attest that the neighborhood restaurant, across the dirt path from the gangway, served up the best carne asada, empanadas, any other cut of beef we could ask for and one cold cold beer on a hot afternoon.
Hey I work on the those little ships and it has been an adventure in itself. We run into those tiny ports everyone else can make. In Buenos Aires we literally went up a ditch/canal and docked in a neighborhood as if we were going up Egret Bay.
Steel decks are slippery when wet. On a tug or a small ship they just mix a little sand in with the paint to make the decks non-skid. On a ship of this size (960' x 160) we're talking about 3 acres of ssnd, so they just do non-skid walkways to keep the lawyers at bay.
I was down here in the comments just ready to ask, "So is this a big one?" when I checked the photo and saw the wee little ship off your port bow. Yikes--never mind. Great shot and very interesting story.
What's the significance of the yellow line down each side of the deck?
@ Mother - Thanks for the info. It's on the list.
@ Aidan - When I was an apprentice, an elder pilot, Totsey Bruce, told me his technique for finding out which way a little ship with a controllable pitch propeller was going to back. Just drive up to the center of the turning basin and put it full astern. Whichever way the bow starts to go, just add bow thruster and keep it turning that way.
Its true, the little ones are the ones that catch you out, most of the "Character building" moments are on the smaller ships, things just seem to happen so much faster on them. I asked a Captain one time was the ship left handed or right handed, he just replied "She's female", never a truer word said, she didn't do a think we asked, made for an interesting job.
OneEighteen Commercial cruising has it pros and cons, and I am very aware of the cons which are many. However, I have taken 4 cruises and have another planned for January. I have been to Alaska twice now. If ever there was a case for a cruise it is the Inside Passage. The journey IS the destination. The ports where it stops are tourist traps which offer nothing of value within the few hours stay you have there. I agree little boats are better, much better and if you can afford it, the smaller they are the nicer your experience will be because a floating city isn't exactly what I consider fun, but it is affordable and those megaships offer good stability in the water. My favorite cruise ship to date is the Pacific Princess which is considered small with a passenger capacity of I believe 700 people. That was a delightful trip. The views are other worldly there.
We looked into ships that sailed with under 100 people, they were very nice but be ready to empty your wallet! I suppose you could rent a boat in Seattle and sail it yourself! Not many people could do that! It would be excellent!
Interesting!
When a person drives a car, you stretch your sense of self out to the edges in order to negotiate the road and its obstacles. Presuming one does the same to pilot a ship this size, that must be one big stretch!
@ Geoff - Sounds like my kind of bar. If I ever took a cruise on a ship it would be a little one. Emi and I have been talking about an Alaska cruise someday on a little ship.
@ Jim - Lots of donkeys in Carjackistan, I hear.
It looks like you could park six of those little ships up there on the left bow. I would never have thought about big ships and little ships (although I used to be really good with a canoe). When I was a writer and editor in New York, there was a bar, 1 Fifth Avenue, decked out with pieces from the Michelangelo, a little passenger ship from the 1930s, beautifully worked. You put that next to the QM2, and you think ,that was the way to travel.
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