Mini-rant

 I wish like hell that cruise ships would put 'bunker door' or something equivalent on their bunker doors.

    Jockeying two tugboats and a couple of thousand tons of fuel and steel into a narrow berth next to a ship with a half dozen hatches along its' length, and then trying to guess which hatch is the bunker door BECAUSE THE OFFICERS ON THE BRIDGE WHO HAVE A RADIO DON'T KNOW. 

 Instead we get to spend 20 minutes trying to get stable alongside with the tugs revved up burning about $30 a minute in fuel each and pinning us alongside, praying we don't dent or damage anything the whole while... and then playing whac-a-mole and waiting for a hatch to open, praying we chose the right door... and because of course we didn't, coordinating with the two tugs, deck gang and ship crew, fighting the current, we get to slide along the ship, beating the shit out of our $10,000 each fenders, and try to find somewhere to put mooring lines because, oh yeah, cruise ships almost NEVER have sufficient chocks for a bunker operation to work alongside easily and none on deck. Instead they're recessed in the hull, so there's no crewmen to catch lines. We're working self serve.

        Sometimes we have to put out 2 feet of bow line, fall back 200 feet, PAST the spot we want to rest in,  put out a stern line, crawl forward 50, 75 feet maybe, secure the bow and stern lines, and try to wrestle a half dozen hawser-sized spring lines using chocks if we can find them, little coke-can-sized mini-cleats recessed in the hull if available, and probably also an industrial-sized lifting strap for a heavy crane, shackled to a hawser with a 50lb shackle the size of your head, with the strap wrapped around something solid on the ship, like an external frame or something. 

      Oil tankers, container ships, they usually have several nice big chocks. Easy. Crew throws down heaving lines, we tie the end of our hawsers, crew pulls them up and puts them on bitts nearby. 

😡