Tug and Tow

Days like yesterday remind me of why I love my job. I escaped from the Ivory Tower again. Thats the Ivory tower there and I work in the bit at the top with the black windows (they aren't really black, we can see out of them).

Anyway I digress... as I said I escaped again and this time I decided to go out on one of the Harbour tugs on what is known as an escort towage job. Basically, when a large tanker comes into the port loaded they send a tug out to sea to meet it, the tug then "makes fast" (attaches a tow rope) to the tanker and comes in behind it. They do this so that if something were to go wrong with the tanker i.e. if it should lose its engines then the tug is already there and able to help stop and steer it.

I made a couple of phone calls to the tug company and with the help of my mate Nicole (who works for them.... and yes dear you can now comment on this new blog so make yourself know to everyone!) I arranged to join the tug and go out to sea with them. First of all I went on the "HAKIN" which is one of our pilot boats and took a couple of pilots off ships and put them on other ships then we went and found the MILLGARTH (the tug.. see pic) and I transferred from the pilot boat to the tug.. that was a bit hairy having to step across from one to the other but I was fully equiped with PPE (float coat, lifejacket and hard hat ... and there are no pictures thank god because I looked a right gonk!!).

Safely onboard the tug I met the skipper (Gerald) and the trainee skipper (Paul) and the deck hand (Richard) and then we set off to the first job which was to assist the tanker PEMBROKE FISHER off the berth, she just needed us to pull her aft end off the berth because of the strong wind.

That done successfully we headed out to sea to escort the tanker AKTEA. It was a pretty windy day and it was quite rough once we got out. If you watch the horizon in the video you can see how much we were rolling about.

We finally met the ship about four miles out to sea
and once the pilots got onboard (see pic of pilot climbing ladder)we went round the stern and started to follow her in. It was a bit too rough to make fast at first but once we got closer to the entrance to the Haven we were able to. While we were making fast the tug went very very close to the stern of the ship which was quite spook (see pic of how close we got) We then followed her all the way in.

Once we got to the Angle buoy we met the other two tugs who also made fast and then we all accompanied the ship to the berth where the pilot gave each tug instructions on how to push the ship onto the berth.

Once the MILLGARTH was released from the job I went back on board the HAKIN and then ashore. All in all I was out on the water from about 9.45am to 3.45pm and it was absolutely great.

Last night Noel and I went out with Meurig for a few drinks to the Nelson, the Torch Theatre and finally the indian... yesterday really was a good day!!