A Slow Boat To China

Today is a sea day and it’s my chance to talk about a couple of the things that happen on the ship regularly, but don’t necessarily rate getting on the blog.
First, the pilot boats. The pilot boat approaches our ship outside the harbor and the pilot will board the ship to assist the captain in getting the ship into the harbor and docked. More dramatic is when we leave a port, the pilot rides out with us till we are safely out of the harbor, the pilot boat pulls up alongside of the ship and the pilot leaves our ship and reboards the pilot boat. Now that all sounds good, but throw in some 15’ waves and the whole exchange gets to be much more challenging. When the pilot met us in Sydney to bring us in, it almost didn’t seem possible that the small pilot boat could remain upright! In any case, we never get tired of watching the whole exchange. When the pilot boat pulls away after we leave a port, there is much waving and goodbying.
Another thing we enjoy at each port is the tugboats. We have decided that they remind us of border collies. They sit out a little ways from the ship, crouched and ready to spring to action at any second should one of it’s sheep/ship get out of line. Sometimes they will get right up to within 10’ of the ship because they want to do something so bad! They have such cute shapes and colors – we never get tired of seeing them either.

The third photo is one of the "border collies" ready for action.Read more