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My gallery of that evening
A movie
We were there at the very end of May on Ventura (on the 31st; just a few days after the blessing). When departure time came, the captain pointed out that, unusually, the ship would be receiving tug assistance that evening. He told us that there was a local regulation forbidding independent movement off the berth by means of thrusters: you had to be 4 metres away from the dock (I think it was 4 metres) before an independently-moving ship could use their thrusters. So they used the tug to pull the ship away from the quay. Except that they didn't, they just had a line from the ship to the tug; because if you have tug assistance, you can use the thrusters all the way! We actually reversed out of the port that evening - it must have looked very odd.
The captain also mentioned that once or twice, when the wind was in the right direction, he'd been able to just slip the lines and let the wind blow his ship out off the berth. Once into the channel he just turned on the thrusters to give him maneuvering ability, to the consternation of the local tug captains.
[ 07-22-2010: Message edited by: Tom Burke ]
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