Loading in Sandusky, OH

[@chuckg6039]

Hi there Captain. The Manitoulin obviously. Quite a different ship than the Cuyahoga! Both I'm sure you would agree, both wonderful bulk carriers. Yes Sandusky does certainly have a very unique loading dock. 12 hours is quite some time to load. It takes time as they appear to be limited to just one loading arm. It takes some real skill to safely load all that weight. It must be carefully done taking into account water ballast to even the load. Near the end of your video, I noticed the loading arm came back the other way to load a few more holds. I'm sure all by design. What a beautiful sunrise looking over Cedar Point! All the tall rides were nicely silhouetted against the sky. Thanks for the upload. I enjoyed it very much.

[@lcaptaintjl]

Hi @chuckg6039 yes I’m in a different world on this one. Much bigger and the wheelhouse is also 600’ away from what I’m used to. I had a taste of the Manitoulin last year when I was helping out for a couple months. Years ago when I was training as first mate. The man training me said “loading a boat isn’t hard. Cargo in, water out. Cargo out, water in.” There is a bit more to it than that but this man was very good at his job and made it look that easy. I often tell new first mates and aspiring first mates the same thing. We will run up and down the deck 2/3 times to keep the stresses down as we load. Usually the first run is to replace the ballast water. The second run gets you close to the target draft. The last run is fine tuning to get to the target draft. Sandusky can be very scenic with the right lighting.

[@chuckg6039]

Interesting comments about the loading process. From afar, it seems so straight forward, but it's not. Oops. I mentioned the wrong comparison ship. I meant the Cuyahoga. My bad.

[@lcaptaintjl]

@@chuckg6039 I knew what you meant, no harm done.