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All Hail the Captain!

The Captain deserves a Standing Ovation for his close quarters maneuvering yesterday. We were in San Antonio Chile, which is the Port for Santiago, Chile’s capital and largest city. This was (as usual) a Container Port and was busy as such.

A few days ago, there was a segment of “Crew Call” with the Captain which was held in the theater because of its popularity. He explained a lot about being at Sea and other aspects of his job and its duties. There was a Q & A at the end. During this time, we learned that he prefers to back into a berth (if he is allowed) and that he, in fact, does bring the Ship in and out of Port.

The “pilot” comes on board right before entering the administrative zone of a harbor and is there strictly to assist in the safe navigation of the harbor. The Pilot knows the local waters, and any of the dangers, both recent and permanent, that lay submerged under the water. The Captain retains full command of his vessel at all times. He can choose to override any of the “suggestions” that the Pilot may have, but he or she best be sure because if they are wrong, and have gone against the Pilot’s recommendations, and it results in an issue, they can kiss their careers goodbye.

There is only one place in the world where a Captain relinquishes command of his vessel and that is for a Panama Canal Transit. And after seeing what this encompasses on our World Cruise, you can understand the highly technical nature of this maneuvering demands an experienced Canal Navigator in charge.

On to yesterday!

We were berthed as far into Port as is possible, bow in, which means that we needed either to turn around or back out. Remember the Captain prefers to back in, so that he doesn’t have to back out.

Well, as things would have it, another big container ship came in behind us during the day which kind of sandwiched us in between them and the front of the berth (land) in front of us. (See diagram) The rest of this scenario will play out mainly with photos. I needed to run back and forth, port to starboard in order to try and capture the finesse needed to extricate the ship from its berth. All of this was accomplished without the assistance of tugboats although they were wisely standing by in case of emergency.

On with the process!

We are the red ship. The yellow one was the one that arrived after we did and “blocked” us in. The Captain needed to swing the stern out and away from the dock, start the reversing process (yellow arrows) and keep us in the middle. There was also a thirty-knot wind coming in off of the ocean which just added to the issues. Once turned, we could proceed forward (blue arrows)
This is the Stern backing to the left. That ship behind us was the one that came in after us.
We are now out into the middle and need to back up and squeeze through between that MSC ship and the end of the far berth (white spot)
We are now backing out at probably 3 knots or so, very slowly
Still backing. That tugboat has a slacked line attached to us so that if needed it can drag a much larger line (hawser) out of us and attach it to herself.
As much as these rough guys may joke about the foofy life of a Cruise Ship Crew, they stood in admiration of the ship being handled without the use of tugs. They all waved at us 🙂
Ditto
Now we need to start swinging the stern to the right so as to back into the next waterway (see first diagram) and we need to do this and not have the bow come in contact with that big container ship that waved at us. Remember, currents and wind have an effect on this maneuvering, a ship does not have wheels and tires to keep it from drifting….. only skill and thrusters.
We need to back into this waterway and not come in contact with that ship right behind. We cannot finish our turn until the bow clears the aforementioned MSC ship, so we will be coming quite close to that one behind us. We are the largest ship in the Port at over 1000′ in length
Looking forward, we still need to clear that MSC ship in front before we can finish the turn. I am back by the stern here which means that you are looking at almost 900′ of ship still in front of me.
Here you can see that ship behind us as we have now cleared the MSC so we can continue our turn and back into that other slot.
Almost! we are now straightening out so that we can proceed out of the Port in a straight line (see first diagram). Note the waves and surf in this photo, they are coming in off of the ocean and are an indicator of the wind involved.
All clear on the starboard side!
All clear on the port side!
All Ahead slowly!
Looking back. That spot in front of the COSCO ship was where we were, bow in.

I hope that you have enjoyed this blow-by-blow description of our efforts to get underway safely. It was quite an experience to be on board, and it demonstrated the seafaring ability of our Captain and his crew very nicely.

This the effect of a tugboat churning up the waters and the tasty little critters that live near the bottom.
The gull’s wait patiently(?) for this to happen and then just swoop in and grab a snack!

7 replies on “All Hail the Captain!”

In my teaching career my boss asked me to go to the harbor to check on getting kids on tug boats. I learned a lot about moving large ships in the harbor and the dangers involved. They had just gotten a new tugboat and gave me a glass paper weight from its dedication. It takes a lot of skill to move ships around. Enjoyed your description of moving the ship out of port and the skills needed to do it.

You’re the best, Dan! Its hard to bring that drama to life, thanks for the “additional” notes!

I absolutely LOVED your description and photographs! Fascinating!

Also, going through the Panamá Canal must have been a thrill. I’ve been to Panama many times but never gone through the Canal on a ship.

Chile is a beautiful country and its people are very nice, friendly and well educated. I hope you are enjoying your visit tthere. It’s a great time of the year for traveling in the southern hemisphere.

Thank you for your great narrative and pictures, as always a very enjoyable read.

I was holding my breath as I read this, so I can’t imagine how the Captain was feeling. Thanks to our upbringing I could really appreciate the skill this would’ve taken. I bet you coulda done it though. Did I ever tell you about the time I captained a houseboat out of the Lake Powell marina because I knew I could do it and I got sick of waiting for the pilot? It was a really windy day so the pilot had to help everyone. Not us! Captain Looper got us out while those other losers what to wait! Thank you for bringing us up on the water and for everything you taught us about boats!

Would I be correct in assuming this has been the high point of the trip? It will have to be very rough in the Drake Channel to knock this out of first place! Thank you for the great explanation, it was a fine bit of sailing.

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