Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
“The ice isn't sucking along with us,” Captain Engberg says, seeming pleased and re-
lieved. Cook Inlet ice rules say when the ice is thick enough to slow you down to half
your current speed, turn around. Tillion says he's had to do it for tankers and bulk carriers
but never for a container ship. “They have so much power, the ice never slows them down
much.”
“All stop. Bow away.”
Captain Engberg tells the bow crew to keep their eyeballs on ranges to the Tote ship in
the next berth. The ship drifts in slowly, slowly, propelled by bow and stern thrusters and
the tug
Glacier Wind
.
On the dock, there are trucks to haul in lead lines and one guy in a pickup fetches a
flourescent marker and sets it on the dock where the front of the house of the
Horizon Ko-
diak
should be. Engberg and Vermette both agree that was helpful.
“Stop bow thruster.”
The spring line is thrown by the deck crew and caught by the dock crew.
“Stop stern.”
Tillion is almost completely silent throughout the Anchorage docking. Later he says,
“At this point in Bryan's training we save the talking for after the job is done.”
When all the lines are secured there is a brief post mortem. Engberg is smiling broadly
and seems genuinely pleased with the docking, and Vermette's “Everyone comfortable
throughout? Especially you, Captain?” seems superfluous. Engberg approved Vermette's
decision to call for two tugs even though they only used one to dock because they couldn't
know the ice conditions for sure until they were on the dock. He calls for a 2200 departure
that evening depending on weather.
Now Tillion weighs in. “Nice approach angle,” he tells Vermette, but “then you flared
out.” He liked Vermette's speed control. “Good to err on the side of safety.”
January 29, Kodiak
Captain Engberg, peering through a window with nothing but fog and rain on the other
side, says, “I've got a target. A small boat. Go to hand steering, two forty.”
“Two forty, aye.”
