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It is true a picture is worth a thousand words. We spent a good forty minutes watching the Badger come into Ludington Port and dock. The Captain of this oldie but goodie has to drop anchor so he can pivot this huge ship in order to get the stern to the unloading area for motor vehicles. Big ships are maneuvered by controls they are not steered really. Even with Stella, when docking or leaving a dock never do we use the ships wheel, only the four controls. There are four because we have two engines and at times when you need to pivot the Captain has to know how to coordinate the engines or split their direction to turn Stella. The two other levers are for controlling speed. After I learned how to do this in Presque Isle it becomes a bit addicting rehearsing how to do different pivots in your mind. And I can tell you, when a woman is doing it, the men notice! Many women will drive, there are very few that will take it from the dock or dock a large boat. I am getting comfortable going out, soon to try docking and that will be on a very, very calm day with no wind as that is a huge factor as well...more on that later. But what I found so funny about this picture is the dock hand "pulling" in the Badger? That just looks funny and really he has no power to pull that baby in. It was a chuckle.
Blue skies and calm water,
Tracy
