Hi Becky. Thanks for your comments. Well, neither of the two. At that time I was not working as Captain but as Surveyor for a Classification Society. I boarded the ship together with the pilot at the meeting point that was located just south of Guiria Port (Paria Gulf). I did the complete trip from Guiria to Caripito Oil Terminal, upstream San Juan River, to have enough time to complete the survey.
Thanks again for your kind comments.
MBregards.
ventuari.

A neat manoeuvre! Thank you. Since you took the picture are you the Master or the pilot?

Hi Becky. Well, I´m not my colleague Capt.Ted but in Caripito port thats the turning basin. All tankers came empty ( min. draft forward ) at almost H.tide. At the turning basin stop eng. and just hard to starb. against the mud and mangroves. With the vessel pivoting on forward with the help of the up current, the aft goes to port. Couple of minutes later (when the tide changes and before the aft. goes to close to the mangroves), eng. aftern until free of the mud and mangroves looking for the center of the river channel. Then dead slow ahead and playing with the rudder to keep the vessel at the center of the channel and just to the loading piers. 180 degres turn in a very narrow river channel.
Waiting Capt. Ted aditional replay to your request, thanks for your comments.
MBregards.
ventuari

Capt Ted any comments on this manoeuvre? This is your neck of the woods n'est- ce pas?