Brent Myatt's Story
On Wednesday, May 15th, our group had the privilege to be taken out on multiple tours of the Harbour boats where our German host students worked. These tours consisted of experiencing what their daily work schedule consisted of, a tour of the engine room, the bridge, and of course making a round trip of the route in the harbour that they sail on daily.
There were three different boats that we toured, from three different companies, one boat was a passenger ferry, which made several stops along either side of Hamburg Harbour. Another vessel was a large tour boat that toured around many popular places in the Harbour, which came complete with a tour guide, and bar. The last boat we toured was a small tour boat, which toured a large lake, which runs into the Harbour. This lake is full of small sailboats, dinghies, and very large houses along the shoreline.
While we were touring on the Harbour tour boat, all our group had the opportunity to steer the vessel, I am in the picture below steering that vessel. The steering of these types of boats is a bit tricky to get used to at first, since they don’t have a conventional rudder, but have azimuth thrusters, which can direct thrust over 360°. This differs from a normal boat, because it feels like you have to turn the helm right to go left, but once you catch onto it, it’s actually quite simple. This trip was full of highlights, and this is just one of them, I only wish the trip could have been longer so we could have experienced more of this great city.