It's been a rough winter in the Pacific..

And because I mentioned the Coast Guard, who battle the same seas and heavy weather, here’s a tribute to them. It is a slightly longer video with soundtrack, but gives good coverage of various ships and boats. Everyone is always happy to see the Coast Guard arrive if they are in a jam.

 
Whats the distance between the two ship? I would assume the ships are on "hand steering"? Helmsman would have to be onto of maintaining thier heading very tight. I did some underway lightening between a ULCC and VLCC but we tied up a/s with large Yokahama fenders... maintained stead course...I can see why UNREP needs to be practiced.

I had no idea they did breakaway songs!
Distance varies by type/size of ship and actually they have gone longer from what I remember from the mid 70's when it was often to use 80 feet. Much more common to see 100-120 feet or so now, especially with aircraft carriers.
 
Distance varies by type/size of ship and actually they have gone longer from what I remember from the mid 70's when it was often to use 80 feet. Much more common to see 100-120 feet or so now, especially with aircraft carriers.
Ok, thats close enough. The weight of the hoses filled with fuel would be a factor. Hose size? 6 or 8", Im guessing.
 
As a commercial merchant mariner it's rare that you get the chance to do unrep.. I only did it once in my career. I was on a military chartered Keystone tanker and we needed to pump off cargo to clean up quickly for a emergency yard call. Shore facilities were unable to accommodate us, so MSC arranged for us to pump off to an oiler. We rendezvoused with the USNS PAWCATUCK along the south coast of Turkey and at sunrise began what turned out to be an all day operation.. Including dodging some Soviet Navy ships that tried to get in the way.. Here's a photo of the PAWCATUCK on our port quarter, steady on course and speed.. We're the 'control ship' and we've got 'Romeo at the dip'.. @WT Door, care to tell us the 'memory aid' the navy uses to remember the colors on the distance line? GRYBWG.. 😊 It's been awhile, but I do remember that when I went through STREAM school as a reservist. :thumb:

View attachment 7998View attachment 7999
@deepdraft1, nice sunrise picture, the seas looked nice for UNREP that day. Way, way back, I was a brown shoe (aviator, in Navy speak) assigned to the Air Department. By then it was just easier to go topside and look at the distance flags because aviators, like all first graders, know their colors. GRYBWG: Green, Red, Yellow, Blue, White, Green. Holy Moley, I cannot believe that it just came back to me now 😲. WG - With Grease!!! 🤣🤣🤣. Indeed it’s been too long a while ago for that one, you old salt. That's quite the maritime connection.
 
I cannot believe that it just came back to me now 😲. WG - With Grease!!! 🤣🤣🤣. Indeed it’s been too long a while ago for that one, you old salt. That's quite the maritime connection.
@WT Door.. Yep, it's kinda NSFW [or SAF].. Go Rub Your B.........🤫
 
No. I've seen reefers stowed as high as the 4th tier on the hatch lids.. Here's a picture of a 3 high stack of reefers on the hatch of an APL C-11 class containership.. the reefer boxes you see up 5 high were not active.. They were either empties or were 'dry' loads.. The rust red catwalk structure aft of the first tier of containers is known as a lashing bridge.

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Any containership that I sailed on (or surveyed) only carried reefer containers on deck. If I am not mistaken, there were some containerships build in the 70s that had refrigerated holds, and were on the US/Australia run.
 
Here is another on a tug in moderate seas. Hard cold front had just passed on our way from Lake Charles, LA to Mobile, AL. That is what created the fog. It is in weather like this when equipment aft would fail, and I would have to go out and fix it. . .

Towing 83 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/cmakin/, on Flickr
I'm not an ocean going tug guy...but would hate to see that tow cable jump the fairlead at the stern. Perhaps a towing SME can weigh in?
 
Any containership that I sailed on (or surveyed) only carried reefer containers on deck. If I am not mistaken, there were some containerships build in the 70s that had refrigerated holds, and were on the US/Australia run.
The old APL C-9 class containerships had a capacity of 136 reefers down in number 4 hold.. I'm not sure what the under deck capacity is on a C-11, but it's probably quite a bit more than that..
Circled in the picture is a pair of the 240 volt 50 amp outlets down in 4 hold that reefers are plugged into..

APL C-9 reefer hold.jpg

Lest we have the ‘new guys’ and their parents thinking it’s all storms and heavy weather out at sea, it’s not..
The picture on the left was taken on my last voyage before retiring.. My ship’s heading for WesPac on a ‘wine dark’ sea.. My kid sent me the picture on the right… It’s sunrise on the Atlantic with his ship home bound.. Smooth sailing for sure..👍🙂

PICT0530.jpgSunset on the Atlantic.jpg
 
I'm not an ocean going tug guy...but would hate to see that tow cable jump the fairlead at the stern. Perhaps a towing SME can weigh in?
Although I can't see it in this photo, we had the tow wires held down with a steamboat ratchet assembly. One thing that would happen every once and awhile was when one of the tow pins would fail, and drop down to the transom. Only one way to fix and that was to go out on deck and remove the steel plates covering the cylinder/hose arrangements. I found out on one dark and stormy night that a 1/4" thick plate of steel can be a surf board. . . here is how the wire is held down. Kinda blurry.

Scan10012 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/cmakin/, on Flickr
 
Although I can't see it in this photo, we had the tow wires held down with a steamboat ratchet assembly. One thing that would happen every once and awhile was when one of the tow pins would fail, and drop down to the transom. Only one way to fix and that was to go out on deck and remove the steel plates covering the cylinder/hose arrangements. I found out on one dark and stormy night that a 1/4" thick plate of steel can be a surf board. . . here is how the wire is held down. Kinda blurry.

Scan10012 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/cmakin/, on Flickr
Yep, kinda blurry.. but it does look like some kinda wire and turnbuckle or ratchet arrangement, through a fairlead shackle holding that tow wire down in the towing bitts..
And my entry in the "calm weather" category.


PLAQUEMINE by https://www.flickr.com/photos/cmakin/, on Flickr
Now that's how we like it.. Beaufort force 1.. and sea as smooth as a baby's you know what..👍
 
Looks like a petroleum barge. Cylinder tanks probably LPG? Someone would know just by looking at the vent stacks.
It was an early ATB. Built for Dow Chemical. The barge was fitted with propylene tanks, but I was told that they were never used, as the intended charter never materialized. I do know that in the years that I was onboard, we never carried anything in them. The barge was a bit ahead of its time in that it was double hulled, long before it was required. The tug? Well, it was a bit of an oddity. Two WWII salvage tug hulls welded together. Fitted with a hodgepodge of equipment. Also, a very interesting type connecting arrangement. But as usual, I digress. Here is a photo of the unit in Corpus Christi back in the 80s. Subsequent owners (Texaco, Allied Towing and Kirby) did remove the deck tanks.

Sea Skimmer/Plaquemine by https://www.flickr.com/photos/cmakin/, on Flickr
 
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