Like me do you think that parking spaces at supermarkets and in town centres are getting smaller? Even though my car has power steering and it is not a big car, in some car parks once you are in its very hard to get out. And then do you always get the person who drives up then gets in before you even though you are waiting!
If you think that’s bad, what about a Cruise ship!
I have just come back from a couple of weeks on the Ventura and spent loads of time just watching the ship sail away of an evening; I was never up to see her dock!
This picture isn’t really a celebrity ship stealing our parking place (sorry, berth) but shows close the ships get when they leave a port.
To get that high level of manoeuvrability all modern cruise ships have varying numbers of bow thrusters, which allow the Captain in essence to move the ship round virtually on its own axis. Captain Brown did tell us that the bow thrusters mean that the ship does not need a tug unless the winds get to about 25 knots!
I couldn’t find a picture of Ventura, so this is Holland America’s Eurodam taken when in dry dock in 2008.
Although you can see below that just occasionally a helping push maybe needed.
I go on holiday for many things, but watching feats of engineering always intrigue me.
So if you want to watch as many sailways as you can, then give me a call.
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