Disclaimer: As a boater (on a pretty restricted budget!) who loves to cruise new areas, I am at once fascinated and yet sickened by this practise ... here's what I saw:
So the freighter, which came from Florida, has unloaded several boats here already -- the ones you still see on the deck are staying on for the rest of the voyage, to Singapore, apparently. But see the yacht in the water between the two tugboats? It's going aboard the freighter, and apparently the freighter's cranes weren't able to do the job so this extra barge and crane arrangement had to be brought in from somewhere -- and it's being held in place by the two tugboats. Quite the operation, huh? Here's how it works -- giant slings are lowered into the water by the crane, and then divers go under the boat to secure them. (The yacht, by the way, is about a 70-footer).
The divers get out of the way...
And the crane starts to lift the boat up out of the water...
Then the handlers, on the barge and on the freighter, use ropes to turn the vessel...
... and it gets 'parked' on the deck of the freighter and 'blocked up' for the journey.
All this ... for a mere .... hmm... somewhere around $30,000?
That's a year's income for lots of folks ... which is where the 'sickened' part comes in for me. Yes, I know I have a lifestyle that lots of folks envy, and it *looks* 'rich' -- but we have to make choices every month that will allow us to have the money for that September Gulf Islands cruise that we take -- and it's a 'no-frills' affair when we do go (as you know)!
Anyway, it's entertaining to watch...
2 comments:
It would be very interesting to know to whom those Yatchs belonged. And how they came to have that amount of money to not only buy the yatch but to be able to move it at such great expence.
very interesting .
I have only recently found your blog (I live in Qualicum Beach,)find it very interesting, both the knitting and the photography
Jill
Oh I DREAM of having an income of $30,000.00 a year...that is ALOT of money to me....
Scott has been watching this process with interest too....
Great blog, Marilyn.
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