February 12, 2024
Super Bowl Monday! Starts in 2 hours.
So, last night after I went back to my harbor master duties, I was able to safely move cargo ships in and out. Even the Viking Cruise liner got out to sea safely. Finally, it was getting close to our departure time of 11 PM. Precisely at 10:30 two bright yellow tugboats showed up and one hooked a line to our bow and the other to our stern. At exactly 11:00, the tugs started pulling our ship away from the dock. Everything went as planned. Soon we were under our own power navigating our way through the narrow one-way channel. Once we were safely out of the channel and in open waters, my last and final job was to safely extract the Pilot from our ship. The Pilot boat slowly approached our ship and got closer and closer to the open gangway where the Pilot was waiting. Then precisely at the right moment the Pilot would jump onto his boat. The first attempt was waved off by the “handler”, a man that was strapped to the rail of the boat to assist the Pilot with his mission. A wave hit the boat just as the Pilot was about to leap. The pilot boat came back around for another attempt, this time the handler gave the Pilot the nod and he lunged toward the boat and his handler. Mission complete and time for me to go to bed.
Bay of Plenty? If you remember, I promised I would report back to you about plenty of what. Well, this area has some of the most fertile grounds in the world, the climate is perfect for growing almost anything. Their special treat is that this is the only place on earth to grow Kiwi. Kiwi grows on a vine like berries or grapes, so there’s century long berates over what exactly a kiwi is, is it a fruit, a berry, a grape or what? Like the Israeli war, it may never end. So, now you know because I know.
Sounds like you had a great view! Pilots are one of the great parts of challenging ports. Not a job I’d want to have, though.