and now..higher pilot fees
Higher pilot fees unpopular on Great Lakes, from freighters to Viking boat | MLive.com

I find these posts fascinating please keep 'em coming.

Read the requirements to be a Columbia River pilot on the link Cashflyer posted. Amazingly high standards that ensure a safe passage...those guys are truly the pros from Dover.

More
 

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A few shots heading up inside one of the cranes
 

Noisy, tight, steep, noisy, everything whirling and turning. And Loud and noisy. Things spinning all around. Every time the craneman makes a move something whizzes by. Even the ladder up the centre of the climb moves with the crane.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1483397938.jpg
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All in all it was a nice clear cold sunny day, great for working!

Do the "totes" contain grain/edible or something else? Looks like a fun job being the crane operator.

Very cool pix!
Keep them coming!

...and the windows have racing style hold downs!!! :D

I bet he could grab the pink unicorn out of the "one armed bandit" thing at Hometown Buffet. Every time.

Something else. Don't ask. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1483408471.jpghttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1483408526.jpg

Ok! At least with the totes...no cleaning the corners onboard!

True enough, thanks

Here's an interesting piece of equipment.
 

As you may have noticed the full (1.25 Mt) of product gets knifed in the top of our hopper then passes tru to the trucks below. Well every lift had 14 or 16 extra large fibre type bags to dispose of which was not easy. So our solution was to convert a hay bailer into a bag bailer, which, I'm proud to say worked great, and because it worked well got us a lot of business over the years.

. About 10,000 bags/ship and about 500 bags /bale

Here's a photo or two.,http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1483494456.jpg
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This one was quite a scuzzy ship, down at the waterline!http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1483495201.jpg

Fisher said the Great Lakes Ports Association is mostly focused on how the increased rates could discourage freight traffic on cargo ships on the Great Lakes and Seaway.
But there implications for tourism as well.

Loss of freight.
Loss of tourism.
=Loss of income.

And that's all she said, folks.

I'm a bit confused yellieperil. Your first post was about ships leaving without pilots.You thought that was a bad idea. I thought you were a pilot, no? Your last post is showing the inside of the ship in port unloading. Now, are you a port pilot, or a helping hand in the port? I think I see a pattern here: you are sad that your friend is retiring after so many years as a pilot, you would like to be that person, but you can see the writing on the wall that his job is going away, replaced by gizmies or computers that can see better. Correct me if I'm wrong here.

I thought the video of the Viking ship Captain was very interesting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwb8-HGytDE

I am not a pilot, my friend is. He's retiring. I do not want to be a pilot but I do think we should continue with pilots I think a pilot is safest option for vessels coming in or leaving. For example, I could probably drive a semi on a freeway, maybe for a short time, but it would be a different story if I tried to drive in Manhattan.

But really, I was only showing a few pics, thinking it may be interesting to some who are not living in port cities to see "how it's done". It's always been interesting to me, and I thought I would share. I wasn't trying to start a debate on pilots versus no pilots. Thanks for looking.

I am really enjoying your photos and commentary. Please don't stop. I would like to see something similar from others here who have interesting jobs.
One suggestion - put a carriage return between photos please. I don't often know what I'm looking at, and it makes a photo even harder to figure out when I don't know where it ends or begins.

Yeah, I should've done that. Better next time. Thanks for letting me know.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1483549390.jpg


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We've got several ports here in Charleston SC. I'd love to hang out for a few hours and/or take a tour of the ships while docked.

Keep the pix coming!

I have to say I too like big ships, but there none around here, daggummit.