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Captain's Log
July 29, 2007
Hong Kong
After a long night of maneuvering
around miles-long strings of densely grouped fishing
vessels, we arrived early the next morning at the southeast
approaches to Hong Kong. The ship traffic both in and out of
Hong Kong harbor was very dense, but after some wrangling
and checking in with vessel traffic, we worked our way into
line up the East Lamma channel. I won’t even try to describe
the density and variety of vessel and boat traffic, for it
defies rational description. Suffice it to say, that one
must be extremely vigilant for boats of every kind crossing
right in front of you without any regards to the official
traffic lanes established for safety in traffic flow.
We picked up a pilot off of Round
Island and proceeded to the assigned mooring buoy A72,
located about 2 miles NNW of Green Island. As we rounded
Green Island to make our approach to the buoy, we made up
one tug on the port bow to help keep our bow properly
aligned with the buoy as we backed the ship to a stop. When
you back the engines with a single right-hand screw
(propeller), the bow will shear to starboard due to a side
thrust on the propeller itself.
As we made our way towards the buoy, we
had to lower the chain to the water out through the bullnose.
Before there was enough chain weight outside that chock
sufficient to pay itself out from windlass power, the crew
had to initially get some chain out the bullnose manually.
In this picture, the cadets are teaming up like railroad
builders to heft the chain up the deck and out the bullnose
and down to just above the water.
While we are making up to the buoy, the
tug assists us in keeping our bow’s stem over the buoy.
Once we get close to the buoy and
stopped dead in the water, we run the eye of a hawser out
the same bullnose as the chain lead. Then a line boat
containing the Chinese mooring crew picks up the hawser end
and runs it over to the buoy and temporarily shackles it to
the buoy.
Once the hawser is made fast to the
buoy, we use one of our winches and haul in on the hawser to
warp the bow towards the buoy.
We continue heaving until the bow has
been pulled over the buoy and the chain is dangling directly
above it. Once we are in that position, the mooring crew,
from the line boat, jump onto the buoy and shackle our chain
to the large ring in the center of the buoy.
After that, we slacken the mooring
hawser so that the chain takes the strain of the ship. We
power down some additional chain from the windlass until the
chain lead to the buoy is about 45 degrees. Finally, we
un-shackle the mooring hawser from the buoy, pass the eye
through the securing ring that the chain is connected to and
bring the eye of the hawser back to the ship and secure it.
That way, we have a “slip” loop that we can use to warp us
back to the buoy when we depart and then “slip” our own line
by letting the eye go and heaving on the other end of it
until its aboard.
Once the vessel was securely moored, we
began the import routine. In order to get the crew to and
from shore, we hire the use of a bresting barge to lie
alongside as a platform to land our accommodation ladder on
and to transit to and from the shore launch (recall the
Captain’s Log about the roller saga several days ago). We
also hire a 60 passenger shore shuttle to run between the
ship and Hong Kong’s Fenwick Pier.
Hong Kong is a very unique and
beautiful city as captured in this picture.
One of the primary reasons for calling
at Hong Kong this year was to purchase fuel where prices are
some of the lowest in the world. We bought $1 million
dollars of Marine Gas Oil (MGO). As we finished making fast
to the buoy, the fuel barges were already coming alongside.
In eight hours, we took on 480,000 gallons of fuel, or a
little over 1,500 metric tons.
Coincidental to our port visit, a U.S.
Navy strike task group also made port in Hong Kong at the
same time. The aircraft carrier USS JOHN STENNIS, and five
of her escorting warships, all heading home to the U.S. west
coast after a seven-month deployment to the Arabian Sea.
They were moored throughout the harbor, some on buoys very
near to the GOLDEN BEAR. As you would expect, the carrier
was anchored out in the extreme western anchorage far from
the city.
There was also the cruiser USS ANTIETAM
and the guided-missile destroyers USS
O’KANE and USS PREBLE, both moored very near to us.
Naturally, having the influx of 7,000 or so navy sailors
ashore at the same time drove the prices up on most goods
and services in Hong Kong and Kowloon.
On Sunday evening, the exclusive and
private American Club graciously hosted the officers from
all of the U.S. Navy vessels in the port and the GOLDEN
BEAR. It was a nice reception and we had the opportunity to
meet many of our fellow mariners and country’s warriors.
Several of our MMR cadets attended with us to give them the
chance to meet Naval officers on deployment. The strike
force commanding admiral, along with all of the vessel
captains (including us), presented ship plaques to the
American Club president.
The sliders and rollers they served
were the best I’ve had anywhere in a long time.
In addition to the fuel, we also
purchased fresh stores of produce, fruit and dairy products
for the second half of cruise. So, with a full load of fuel,
groceries and the anticipation of heading back eastward
(Hong Kong being the furthest point west this cruise), we
will set sail tomorrow morning and head back out into the
South China Sea and northeast towards Niigata Japan.
Captain
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