Taurus is a pleasure boat, weighing only 20 tons. Illinois River barges weigh 900 tons and it is common to see tugs pushing 15 barges (the tug + the barges are called a "tow"), so with the tug they weigh 1,500 tons and are 1,100 feet long. It’s very common to see and we haven’t figured out whose they are, or what’s in them.
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| One of the tug boats that push the barges |
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| A tug pushing 15 barges (3x5) |
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| The full tow |
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| Several barges stores along the banks of the River. |
Dealing with tows pushing 1,500 tons on a relatively narrow river requires good communications. On the 80 statute mile trip from Peoria to Beardstown, we overtook one tow and passed (coming in opposite directions) seven other tows. In each case we called the tow on the radio to ask on which side he wanted us to pass. Passing on the "One" means Port to Port, and Passing on the "Two" means Starboard to Starboard. Overtaking on the "One" means we overtake on his starboard and on the "Two" means we overtake on his port. Very specialized language and Fred has crib notes so he remembers what to do. We always confirm the instruction back to the tow and then follow the instructions. Doing this on a river curve is the most difficult and we have been on the very edge of the channel and less than 30 feet from the bow of the 1/4 mile long oncoming tow. It's only because we both understood we were passing as agreed that we didn't get into trouble.
On the curves it is not uncommon to see the front end of a tow coming around the curve long before we see the actual tug boat pushing the barges. In order to manage this, all of the tugs and most of the pleasure boats (including us) have AIS (Automatic Identification System) which allows both of us to see each other's names, velocity and other information over 5 miles away. We initially put this on the boat to avoid the ferries in fog on the Long Island Sound, but it is really helpful on the rivers.
It’s interesting to hear the tug captains talking on the radio. Some ask us to pass on one whistle or two whistles. Some are very nice and talkative, others just say “1” or “2”. Commercial river piloting is a skill all to itself.
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| Watch out for that turbulence stirred up by the tug! |
This all sounds very complicated, and more work than I would want to do. I guess you can't just put the cruise control on and go. LOL
ReplyDeleteI agree with you!! I’ll stick with Taurus which does have cruise control. Although we can’t use it much on the rivers. 🤔
DeleteI expect you’re going to continue to see those barge trains all the way south until you get to the Gulf of Mexico. I remember seeing them on the Mississippi river near the Arkansas-Tennessee line when I worked there a couple of years ago.
ReplyDeleteOh joy! 😔 We almost got squeezed out of the channel by a large tow. We were right on the edge as we passed by him. So I am sooo looking forward to more of them. Thanks ‘Bro!
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