The Tug Boat Experience!

Joanne works for the Geraldton Port Authority and was able to organise for us to go out on a tug boat that assists with bringing in a ship waiting off shore, into Port for loading...

We got there early so Ray, who is head of security and organised our trip out on the tug, took us for a guided tour in his vehicle around the docks...Thank you Ray...

At Geraldton among other things they load wheat, iron ore, talc, various minerals etc

The mining and demand for iron ore has increased so much that the Port is having to make bigger areas for storage and more docks to accommodate more ships.

Then it was through security and down to the Port to board.



This is the tug boat we went on...




Looking out through the back window...the other tug went out with us to assist in the docking.These tug boats run on huge Rolls Royce engines...they can do a 360deg turn on one spot!... Dave our Captain gave us a demo.




Dave (in orange) was the Captain...and to the right of him the engineer....3 men man each boat.The other man is on deck and does all the 'rope work'. They work one month on and one month off. They bring on average 3 ships in or out per day 24 hrs a day. It costs the shipping company using the service approx $20,000 per tug boat.



Thats the ship we are going out to bring in....It has come from Hong Kong and is coming into pick up iron ore.



The Pilot boat goes out ahead of us and the Pilot boards the ship...He guides the Master of the ship into Port, using his local knowledge of the the conditions etc...apparently this can be quite tricky when the Master of the ship does not speak english!

The ship comes past the waiting tug boats at some speed...

As the ship passes the crew on board throw down 'messenger ropes'....the guys on the decks of the tug boats then connect them to their larger ropes and they haul them on board and secure them...the ship and two tug boats are now connected....

The tug boat then stays alongside as the ship nears the Port....awaiting commands from the Pilot Captain on when to start pulling, pushing or staying alongside.

Pushing the ship into position alongside the dock...the tug boats were using 20tons of force to nudge it in.





When the vessel is in place....it has to be positioned withing a metre to line it up...and whilst the two tugs are applying pressure constantly (otherwise the ship will float out of position) the Pilot boat goes round the ship picking up the ropes and taking them to men at the pier who secure them to the dock.





Mission accomplished!...

This is the largest size of ship the Geraldton Port can accommodate at present...its is known as a Panamax...this rating is given to ships that can just fit through the old Panama canal...It's length ...225 metres.

The whole procedure from go to wo took one and three quarter hours...and used between 60 - 100,000 litres of fuel per tug boat... Cool Ah?

Thank you to Joanne for organising it for us,the Port authority for allowing us to go, and to the terrific guys who took us out... :)