Ship leaving without Harbour Pilot

[yellowperil]

Not a good idea, I couldn't watch. Hope he's not in trouble. Never saw a ship this size get this outta shape before. Once the ice arrives (last week) coast remove the channel buoys which makes it even harder to find your way into the channel.

I suspect he's OK, just different method to what we normally see on departure, the incoming tide, and wind, pushed him a little to far to the left for my liking. If he had been starboard side to the pier and reversing out, the tide would have moved him in the right direction, but not so good for portside to pier. (I think that's correct)

We are not a compulsory port, so he can leave without pilot if he chooses, most Captains (99.99%) take a pilot.


In the bottom pic, he's trying to make right turn towards exit, but as you can see, he' sort of lost room to manoeuver as he can't back up to bring the bow around.

Oh well, he must know what he's doing. His bow thruster might save him.

[wdfifteen]

Man, I wouldn't drive anything like that without training wheels. Why not get all the help you can?
What's the captain's liability if he scuffs up the boss's boat?

[yellowperil]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

Man, I wouldn't drive anything like that without training wheels. Why not get all the help you can?
What's the captain's liability if he scuffs up the boss's boat?

Well even with a local Pilot, the Master's always responsible. Just look at that Italian Captain that sank the Cruise ship a few years back. They're mostly very careful, as you would expect.

But in this case, I believe the pilot would have to disembark a long way out of this ship's course because of the ice, the Pilot would normal get off ship just outside the light house, (just visible to the right) first pic, but his pilot boat isn't in the water. So the ship didn't want to have to travel 2 days off course just to suit the pilot. Can't blame him I guess.

[Jolly Amaranto]

[John Rogers]

Pilots are nice to have!

In 1984 I was on the USS Texas, CGN 39 and we went to Brisbane Australia. I had a pilot when we came up the river and went pier side with no issues. When we went to leave the same pilot was "unavailable" and we could not get one they said? We had to get underway at a certain time so the CO decided to pull out but the problem was we were bow in and the current was pushing us against the pier so we tried using the props to walk the stern away from the pier and it sort of worked. We ended up banging up some pier wood pretty well and put a couple new dents in the port side near the bow but we finally made it out.

Seems the port folks and the pilots were anti nuclear and figured we had nuc missiles on board so decided not to do their duties? The US embassy filed a protest but nothing came of it. That was in my bike racing days so maybe they were mad as I won my age group races on Saturday and also Sunday............

[LakeCleElum]

Yellow - Where you at to get iced in? I luv you posts with the big ships.

Once in Greece, I saw a harbor pilot leaving our cruise ship....He was waving and bowing like he was some kind of a Rock Star. I that common?........

[yellowperil]

Originally Posted by LakeCleElum

Yellow - Where you at to get iced in? I luv you posts with the big ships.

Once in Greece, I saw a harbor pilot leaving our cruise ship....He was waving and bowing like he was some kind of a Rock Star. I that common?........

Eastern Canada-The Maritimes, . Pilot=Rock star? A bit maybe

[tevake]

The closest thing I've seen to a large marine disaster was a similar situation.
When the captain of a fully loaded cruise ship desided to stick to his schedule, and depart the harbor at Nawiliwili Kauai. Even tho the pilot declined to move the ship in the current conditions.

And what conditions they were. 40+ knots of wind in the harbor, it had been blowing for days and the swell had built to the biggest I seen there other than during a hurricane. This was my winter port for years, and I had never seen waves break all of the way across the harbor mouth before, 15'+ sets cracking across the harbor mouth.

I had been windsurfing the harbor mouth by myself for about an hour when I saw the ship pulling off the wharf. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. This harbor has a narrow and convoluted entrance channel including two 90 degree turns.

The ship got clear of the wharf ok, then motored upwind to the first 90 degree turn to port. As the ship turned, the wind now broadside to the ship started to blow the ship onto the windward side of another wharf/ break wall with 8' to 10' waves breaking on the break wall right where the ship was being blown down to.

Seeing the ship underway, I had cleared the area but was sailing around in the inner harbor now just behind the ship. I could see the power come on to push the bow more into the wind. This caused the stern to kick to port, where it ran over the large channel marker. If this large metal marker had fouled a prop It would have been all over for that ship, no telling how the passngers could have gotten off in that situation.

What a relief it was to see the marker pop out from under the stern. And to see the ship start to edge back to weather and away from the deadly trap it narrowly missed.

As it got to the harbor mouth there was a little break in the sets allowing it to exit successfully. By far the most risky unseaman like move I've seen in commercial shipping.

And I'd bet the management probably congratulated the skipper for not messing up the schedule. CRAZY!

Cheers Richard

[yellowperil]

Originally Posted by tevake

The closest thing I've seen to a large marine disaster was a similar situation.
When the captain of a fully loaded cruise ship desided to stick to his schedule, and depart the harbor at Nawiliwili Kauai. Even tho the pilot declined to move the ship in the current conditions.

And what conditions they were. 40+ knots of wind in the harbor, it had been blowing for days and the swell had built to the biggest I seen there other than during a hurricane. This was my winter port for years, and I had never seen waves break all of the way across the harbor mouth before, 15'+ sets cracking across the harbor mouth.

I had been windsurfing the harbor mouth by myself for about an hour when I saw the ship pulling off the wharf. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. This harbor has a narrow and convoluted entrance channel including two 90 degree turns.

The ship got clear of the wharf ok, then motored upwind to the first 90 degree turn to port. As the ship turned, the wind now broadside to the ship started to blow the ship onto the windward side of another wharf/ break wall with 8' to 10' waves breaking on the break wall right where the ship was being blown down to.

Seeing the ship underway, I had cleared the area but was sailing around in the inner harbor now just behind the ship. I could see the power come on to push the bow more into the wind. This caused the stern to kick to port, where it ran over the large channel marker. If this large metal marker had fouled a prop It would have been all over for that ship, no telling how the passngers could have gotten off in that situation.

What a relief it was to see the marker pop out from under the stern. And to see the ship start to edge back to weather and away from the deadly trap it narrowly missed.

As it got to the harbor mouth there was a little break in the sets allowing it to exit successfully. By far the most risky unseaman like move I've seen in commercial shipping.

And I'd bet the management probably congratulated the skipper for not messing up the schedule. CRAZY!

Cheers Richard

Wow, he was more lucky than smart I'd say.

[tevake]

It's funny how I post my long winded sea stories just as a thread is winding down.
Or am I the thread killer?

Cheers Richard

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by tevake

It's funny how I post my long winded sea stories just as a thread is winding down.
Or am I the thread killer?

Cheers Richard

Quick Sea Story.

I did a tour as the Air Boss on a two spot amphibious ship. The Navy had just transitioned from sail to steam.

Our home port was Manama, Bahrain, specifically Mina Salman - first mentioned in Islamic texts that have been dated to 1345 AD.

As part of my job, I had to qualify as an Officer of the Deck Underway - meaning I had my own watch section and "drove the ship" using guile, wit and an uncanny ability to do the wrong thing.

Navy ship use a special watch section to get in and out of port, manage non routine at sea operations, set anchor, etc. They also employ a Harbor Pilot, especially in Mina Salman, which is a tricky harbor to get in and out of.

As part of my training, I had to conn the ship into Mina Salman and actually conn the ship to the pier and secure it. "Conn" means give the correct verbal orders to the helmsman and Lee Helmsman, expressed in heading and ships power: "come port to heading 245, All ahead 1/3" etc."

Amphibious ships have a large amount of superstructure above the water line that acts as "sail area" when the ship is underway, especially when she is moving slowly in and around piers.

So, my turn in the barrel arrives. The XO of the ship was a friend of mine and he never left my side. We picked up the Harbor Pilot at the Bahrain Bell and proceeded. Honestly, conning a ship is really, really hard for a beginner since the time delta from thinking what you want the ship to do, saying orders out loud to others who will make the ship do what you want it to do, reacting...it is an endless do loop made more difficult by a wind that was pushing the ship away from the pier.

But I did it. I heard what the harbor pilot said, waited for the XO to tell me what to say, then saying that with ablomb. A Pros Pro.

[URY914]

No life vest- are you nuts?

Originally Posted by Jolly Amaranto

[tevake]

Yep the job of piloting seems routine until the weather gets into the mix. Hawaii lost one of our senior pilots in an weather related mishap off of Nawiliwili a few years ago.
He had been doing the job for decades.

Paul, interesting glimps at life on the bridge. It always seemed a challenge driving by remote control thru the helmsman. Seems to require a lot of foresight and understanding of the behavior of the ship in all conditions.

My cruising Tri. Tevake was also very difficult at slow speeds in tight quarters. Lots of windage and little lateral resistance.
This reinforced my preference for anchoring out.

Cheers Richard

[vash]

how does that guy get from the little boat up into the big boat?

rope with grappling hook and hearty "arrgh!"??

[tevake]

It can be as little as a rope ladder hanging and swinging on the ships side.
That as well as the challenge of manurvering the pilot boat along side then safely away from the ships side are an often overlooked parts of the job.

Then there is the part of stepping aboard what ever shows up and being able to con an unfamilure vessel safely into the harbour and to precisely where ever it's wanted in the harbour

Can you sense my admiration for these Master Mariners?

Cheers Richard

[Jolly Amaranto]

[oldE]

I had the pleasure of being on the bridge of the Princess of a Acadia ten years ago while the captain brought her into Digby. He had invited me to the bridge wing and as he was carrying on a conversation about our vehicles, he manipulated the bow thruster controls and gave three commands to the helmsman. He sidled that ten k ton vessel into the dock without a bump.
I think he had done it before.
Best
Les

[yellowperil]

[recycled sixtie]

Originally Posted by yellowperil

I hope they pay these guys well. They deserve it.

[Jolly Amaranto]

Originally Posted by URY914

No life vest- are you nuts?

It's OK. He is a Croat, he will float.




My apologies. Bad joke.