In my post “Turning Ships” I described a dance of tug boats, meaning it as something like a minuet around a ship. What the 31 meter tug “Piero Neri” is performing today is more a cancan.
The boat is trying to go toward the 214 meter “Lisbon Express” coming straight into port.
The “Piero Neri” reaches the Vegliaia breakwater, then slowly backtracks behind the “Diga Curvilinea” (Curved Breakwater).
Behind the incoming “Lisbon Express” is clearly visible the island of Gorgona, 37 kilometer away.
On the left of the ship, passing the Vegliaia breakwater, we can see the Meloria islet and its tower. There took place, in 1284, the Battle of Meloria, marking the end of Pisa as a sea power.
The ship reaches the entrance of the port, where three tugboats are waiting for her. The towering structure on the right is the 52 meter tall lighthouse, called “Fanale dei Pisani”.Search labels: tug
29 comments:
Golly that first shot, VP, looks as though the tug is heading down into the watery depths, rear end first.
I am sea-sick just scrolling.
I love your description of the tug doing the cancan. That's it exactly! ( :
A superb series! I thought the tug was being swamped in that first photo! Maybe the captain did, too!?
You could put together quite a collection of Livorno ship photos - maybe have your own exhibition! I'm serious. They are that good!
Bravo! (as opposed to Brava)...
It all looks so dicey to me.
Nice series of photos. Reinforces the reason I never joined the Navy.
Because of the water and waves, it looks like the first two tugs are sinking or taking on water! Oj da!
Amazing shots you took! Waooo!!
I thought the same thing as Julie and Jacob about the first photo. What a relief to read that I wasn't looking at a disaster!
Your seas look kind of rough now. No wonder little Piero Neri has to do the cancan.
I love, love, love these! Cancan indeed but such a beautiful one! Keep them coming they are wonderful!
I thought the boat was sinking in that first photo! Wow. Great waves :)
At 6.15 am of the same day, leaving port, the 87 meter cargo White Sea hit heavily the tetrapods outside the seawall.
The ship was extricated and towed back in port by the efforts of the tug boats and of a brave pilot.
The weather was much worse than in my photos, taken at midday.
"Fortune de mer". Reminds me of my maritime law postgraduate degree. Glad it ended well.
the boats did look like they were dancing. cool. they really do that for real? intentionally? hihi
Absolutely fascinating description and superb photos.
I'm so glad that boat is not sinking - I wouldn't be traveling on such a scary boat - those are brave people who do!
That first one looks as if it's sinking!!! YIKES! quite a sequence here!
I'm pleased the little tug is doing the can-can, for a minute there I thought it was doing the Titanic. Wonderful photos of the sea - you can see it churning and the difference in water colour is very good.
Melbourne Daily Photo
I understand that tugs usually look deceptively small, but this is a beast 31 meter long: two and half buses, just to give the idea...
you have some great photos of tugs here, i love the sky in the last- it is wonderful next to the water and waves.
Gorgeous collection of tugboats.
Great shots - they tell a good story. Would you want to go anywhere near a tanker in seas that choppy?! Hats off to the brave tug captain...
It looks like the boat is sinking in the first photo. The sea still looks rough...
What a great post! Your tugs look quite a bit different, and it's exciting to see them on the tossing sea. Really lovely. We get the Hapag-Lloyd ships, although I don't remember if I've put any on Astoria Daily Photo (yet). So it's fun to see them on your "turf" . . . or water.
I just read the size of the tugs. It's amazing, but I can see why they need to be so big.
Exciting and scary, VP!
Really great action photos. What a story. Glad everything was OK in the end.
Water cancan :) Great series of photos and an exciting story.
This is a great sequence and I loved the cancan performance! :-)
I feel home.
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