Grapple Time, Short Update

This will just be a short update about today, or relatively short I suppose.

Today the other 7 mates and I headed back out to Fort Little Creek to join the Grapple and get our hands dirty on some tug maneuvering.  The slip where the tug lay was like a U-shape. Two finger piers (about 50 feet wide) jutted out about 300 feet into the water, with a breakwater making the _ of the 1_1 shaped pier.

We were docked on one side and the capt had us bring the tug out into the channel, spin her around 180 degrees and dock her pack on the right side (based on the 1_1 shaped diagram). Then, we had to walk her sideways to the opposite finger pier. At both piers we had to hold her at a stop fore-and-aft wise and keep the bow and stern pinned against the dock with engines, bow thruster, and rudders.

Facing the breakwater with the bow, the ship was on a rough heading of 003. In the morning when we showed up, the wind was blowing steady from roughly 208 degrees. Not too much wind to deal with, but certainly a factor. We were all standing on the bridge when the Capt asked 'Who wants to go first?"... immediately the 5 eager beavers leaped to get the first go. All are from the same school...Kingspoint...and get this feeling that everything has to be a compitition to one up the other. The other 3 of us are kinda just like....we all get a turn, we'll go whenever.

So the 5 went before breakfast. 3 came crashing into the dock and the Capt had to take over to keep it from colliding at too high a speed. The same 3 that thought the simulators were worthless training. The other two did alright. Then we broke for lunch.

During lunch the wind picked up. We got back underway and moving and the wind was coming at us at 25 kts wind gusting to 30. It doesn't sound like much, and 25 kts wind only equals 1 kt of current, but for someone who has never been in charge of a 250 twin screw boat....it might as well been a hurricane

Travis (SUNY guy) went first and did pretty good. I was the next batter up. Travis finished stern-in...so I just walked her to starboard and a put a little forward momentum in to the channel. I spun to starboard and went at the dock at a bit of an angle. I had to keep the bow thruster at 75% strength to port to keep the bow steady. I got about 30 feet away from the dock a little cockeyed and with the wind kicking the stern out (I was bow in), it took forever to walk the stern over without swinging the bow out...and even a harder to keep forward stern way off....but I got her in there.

Then walking the Grappel to to the starboard pier end was a piece of cake. With the wind howling it was just a matter of not getting blown over too fast. I put the engines stopped, flipped the rudder to port, and light thrust to starboard. With the wind on the port/port quarter, we were being blown at about 2 kts to starboard. The wind did all the work for me. When we got about 20 feet from the dock, I put the engine and rudders into a walk to port setting, to slow down the starboard walk...and eased into the dock perfectly at about .1 kts.

The 3rd and final person to take on the wind was Derien. She did a stellar job as well. After we tied her up for the day we all met with the Capt and he said overall the group did well....and said the last three of us did particullary well. He told me I had good common sense an instinct and with more practice I'd be great. So that made me pretty happy.

So that was my first time at the control of a twin screw ship...it was a lot of fun. I look forward to having my hand at the 225 Apache tomorrow. I'm gonna stop now...this has turned into more than a brief! I'll do another update tomorrow on the Apache.

Headed back to Jersey on Sunday!

I've already learned more about ship handling in 2 weeks here than in 4 years of being at A&M. Not sure if thats good. But if its any sign as to whats in store for me.....I can't wait to see where I'll be a year from now.

Thanks for reading....