Precarious Cargo

24 Jan

DSC05576On a walk along the waterfront of the Port of Valparaiso, we saw a number of these  tourist boats.  They pull up to the wharf and load up.  The boat waits until all seats are filled then they hand out the life preservers. We watched as this boat launched from the dock. As you can see people are just sitting on chairs on the deck held from sliding into the water by that skinny little railing.  The people in the back row don’t even have that.

Also note the way the boat is riding in the water…just a little too low for comfort and markedly askew.  As they dieseled out to take a tour of the harbor someone on board noticed they were listing precariously and began the process of shifting people from one side of the boat to the other by having them duck under the railing, walk around the deck and duck under the railing again to be re-seated. All this while the boat was underway.

We were mesmerized by the danger inherent in the maneuver.

2 Responses to “Precarious Cargo”

  1. Paul and Jill January 25, 2013 at 12:43 am #

    Mesmerized..I would have enjoyed it too. I am in awe of people who operate like this. They still have some sense of an unsanitised riskiness. And they have beautiful boats.

    • Jill January 25, 2013 at 1:06 am #

      The boats are moored together and the colors are striking. You do see the sailors fiddling with the engines a lot…another bit of unsanitised riskiness?

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