(Friday, February 5th, 2016)
We were in the Port of Laem Chabang from about 2pm Wednesday (a few hours early) to 5pm Thursday. The Captain said that some things went more smoothly than expected, and that we were able to leave earlier than what we had anticipated. Leaving early is good, even if we can’t adjust our arrival at the next port. It gives us leeway to cruise slowly if we want, saving fuel, or to cruise around bad weather. And, usually, arrangements can be made at the destination so that we can be received early. Not always, though. At this port, there was space for three big ships, and most of the time there were three big ships docked. Some ports have the same challenge as airports – where to park.
Well, there was one other ship docked there. A Thai navy vessel, huge, gray. In the water around it were some lines and floats, like those marking a swimming area at a beach. I am pretty sure that the purpose of these particular lines and floats was a clear “come no nearer to us than this” indicator. I also have a sense that their place at the dock was reserved. For sure.
For passengers and seamen not involved in port duties: When we reach a port, we get our passports back, after an officer clears everybody with the port authorities and registers our declarations. Before we leave the ship we acknowledge that we know the official time that shore leave ends, and ensure a method of communicating with us. It is clearly our responsibility. This time, shore leave was set to end at 1800 (6pm) on Thursday, but the rate of progress caused the Captain and Mates to change the end of shore leave to 1pm, and to make some phone calls to rein in seamen and officers who were out and about.
Just after we docked a woman came on board and set up a mini-office in the gym, to negotiate taxi services with us. In this port taxis were required – there was no way to just walk off the ship and get anywhere. I rode to Sriracha in a taxi driven by her husband, so that he could get her on his phone if he didn’t understand my English.
I had visited Sriracha the first day and evening we were docked (Wednesday), and on Thursday morning opted not to try to go to Pattaya for the day. I’m glad I made that choice – I would have had no time in Pattaya, given the change in shore leave. As it was, I spent much of the day on the Pilot Deck watching discharge (the official name for unloading) and loading operations. I’ll write a tiny bit about Sriracha in a separate post.
Enough prelude – here’s what we do when at port:
The gist of it: We sail near to the port. We pick up a pilot. We get met by tugboats. The tugboats ease us into our place alongside the dock. We get tied up at the dock. The gangway goes down. Agents from the port come on board, and those of us who are getting out and about get off the ship. We lift the cranes from their locked down “at sea” positions, and start the discharging. Often some items need to be lifted and put aside to get at items that need discharging. At the same time we are discharging, we are loading, if a particular hold is available and the load fits the overall plan. Many cranes are simultaneously active. Trucks carrying cargo and empty trucks ready to receive cargo coordinate their movements on the dock alongside. Once all loading is complete, and the “put aside” items are put somewhere proper, the hatch covers are closed, the spare wood (used for shims and protection) is lashed down, the cranes are returned to lock-down, and we are ready to sail. Port agents leave the ship. Tugboats arrive. A pilot comes on board and the gangway is raised. We drop lines, the tugboats tug, and we separate from the dock. We come under our own power and the tugboats leave. A pilot boat comes alongside, the pilot climbs down a rope ladder and drops onto the pilot boat. We let the pilot boat get away and then we are sailing again.
In Raw Photos I made another captioned set of pics showing docking, discharging, loading, leaving. Kind of nerdy but I found it fascinating. Again, things are more complicated than they seem at first.
There are different kinds of holds on this ship. The one that is nearest (just in front of) the tower is the hold for unusually-shaped items – items too tall or wide to fit normally. “Normal”, though, is relative. We put things into “normal” holds that would not fit in a container. This special hold right in front of us can hold about 66 containers (and has the infrastructure to hold them), but it doesn’t go any deeper than the top of the main deck. Under it are still some offices, and then fuel storage, and part of the engine.
The “normal” holds, those in front of the hold for unusually-shaped items, are several stories deep, at least as deep as the tower is high, to help you visualize just how much cargo is not visible when we are underway. Those holds are covered with “hatch covers”. Think of a hatch cover as a huge bi-fold door, 30 or 40 feet on a side, each door weighing 20 to 30 tons itself. Hatch covers aren’t just covers – items can be stacked on top of the hatch covers and lashed down, and those items can weigh hundreds of tons.
Containers can be put into all the holds, but we don’t carry many containers. So far I have seen many unusually-shaped pieces of industrial equipment, some obviously heavy pieces, and some almost-put-together finished pieces. For example, we are carrying two cranes with us. The “control room” base of each of them is two stories high and much wider than what would fit in a container. The “arm” parts are very long, and are lashed to hatch covers at the front of the ship. They are exiting in Shanghai, a couple of visits away.
Each hold has a system in which “shelving” can be put into place. The bottom of the hold is loaded. Then the crane picks up some shelving (pieces that weigh several tons on their own, and are about the size of a floor of a regular container), and puts it in place over that cargo, resulting in a new floor. Repeat until either full or no more cargo.
I hung out with the Captain a bit as we watched some progress. He said that their definition of light lifting was anything less than 200 tons, that all of the four main cranes could handle that weight. Often they had heavier items, still able to be handled by a single on-board crane. Truly heavier lifts involve multiple cranes or a dock-side crane. One of the bigger lifts in his memory was a generator, headed from Kobe to Philadelphia, $30M worth, 420 tons. That one took some planning. Cargo that he’s also carried include big ship engines (like the one powering this ship), yachts of various sizes and shapes, and parts of turbines for hydro plants. So far, at Singapore and at Laem Chabang, we have not used dock-side cranes, relying on our own on-board cranes.
There are different types of cargo and of course different ships for them. Nearby were some examples of ships with a single purpose. Just aft of us was an oil (or some other liquid) tanker, not tied to a dock but to a set of tie-downs connecting to a long pipeline to the shore. Just fore of us was a ship being loaded by hundreds (all night long) of dump trucks carrying what looked to me like grain, but which a crew member said was more like sawdust, not edible, but used in some sort of construction activity elsewhere. Those trucks emptied their loads onto a conveyor that then lifted the material, dumping it into a hold. Both of those ships were in port when we came and in port when we left.