Here was 7 in the series.
ABC-1 is a harbor supply boat, restocking the larder and spare parts lockers while load shifting happens in port. Click here to see her high and dry a few years back.
BB 163 . . . is a still used antique, up on the Canal that connects the Great Lakes with the sixth boro. Some day, when it’s warmer, I hope to learn much more about these BBs, buoy boats. I’ll do more on BB 163 later. For now, I can’t look at this and NOT see the flag of Colombia or Ecuador.
Gabby has been featured here many times.
Miller Boys is a crew boat.
But really the focus here is the line boats operated by Ken’s Marine.
It might be 5 above zero or 5 below 100 F, these crews are shuttling lines from ship to shore, negotiating with crews on a vessel as well as crews on shore.
Note the ship line handler chief watching the line boat and signaling to his crew to pay out line.
Once the line boat gets to the shoreline, the shore crew takes over. Given the ice I know is on those rocks, this is a job requiring concentration and sure-footedness as well as strength.
Once lines are on, the line boat stands off until they get snugged. Then there are lots more lines to get on.
“All fast” needs to be done quickly and thoroughly. Not long after this vessel was snug, two container ships passed between Medi Osaka on this side and UACC Masafi on the other side, creating tremendous lateral pressure on all vessels, straining the lines.
But all fast is all fast. Bravo, guys.
All Fotos by Will Van Dorp.
tugster: a waterblog 
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February 23, 2014 at 11:30 am
Seth Tane
When I owned and operated a port services company in Charleston, SC back in the 80’s & ‘early ’90’s I was using our 25’ twin outboard towboat as a line boat one night when the winch crew on a bulker inexplicably began retrieving the 2 wire cables and one soft line we had on the towpost (remember to “dip the eyes” so you can get them off in any order). Despite much multi-language unprintable screaming back and forth on our radios it looked like we were going to get hauled out of the water by our rear end until they managed to get the winch stopped just as our stern began to lift … Although SC is a “right to work” state, as the only non-union linehandlers in the port, threats were made when the Military Sealift Command ordered us out for our first job to tie up an inbound tanker. The navy assured us there would be no problems. They were right, when we arrived there were armed seals on the dock and in the water in boats just to make sure. The union president later told me he had no idea where the threats came from but promised no one would be bothering us in the future.