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Travels With Roland (Tug Restless)

01/04/2007 — General Maritime

  

We pick up our story  with Restless tied up to a barge in the river and Roland is about tp settle in for the night.  All of a sudden he is bathed in the spotlight of a tug and a deck hand appears on the bow of the tug and shouts out to him “You can’t remain here, you’ll be crushed!”  Roland explains to him why he is there.  With hand held radio in his possession, he relays this information to the bridge of the tug. After some discussion between the two of them, he yells across: “They’re calling Dispatch about it, we’ll be back later!”  


    Thirty minutes later they get back to me and tell me I have to move on and direct me to an anchorage.  Anchoring  will certainly have the hull doing dangles and jangles throughout the night, created by the various eddies. Anchoring here will also make for  a very long night, as the need for an anchor watch is a must. To depend upon  a Radar Alarm would be a joke under such conditions.       I  resume a slow advance upstream. Without the benefit of the lights from the city of  Cape Girardeau and  the bridge spanning the river  for orientation, I probably would have been aground long ago. Other than to seek out another barge for a mooring, I feel that I have only two other options. Either hold position with power, at a know position such as beneath the bridge, or await a tug and barge headed down stream, and fall in trail. To attempt such a transit on my own, with a 34 volt searchlight of course being akin to holding a candle in the dark      Upstream from the barge which I had been evicted from earlier, are 2 barges anchored in the river near the Missouri shore. Further upstream maybe 800’from these, are several other barges anchored as well. The thought comes to mind, that if I were to get behind the barges anchored in the river, I could moor alongside of a barge which appears to be beached  on the Missouri shore. In so doing, hide from the tug which is been making my life miserable.
     The plan soon comes off without a hitch, and I snug down for the night. Foul weather
gear are hung in the locker. Wet clothes are shed, and I even relax by taking a hot shower. The time now is 12:20 AM. As I survey things one last time from the wheelhouse before retiring to my bunk below, I observe the activity of my friendly tug,  headed up river, and sweeping the bank with his Midnight Sun. I pause to watch further, wondering if my camouflage will be sufficient for him to go by unnoticed. His beam passes by me initially, then swings aft of my position, where it remains for sometime, before being trained directly on me, where it remains. Like a U-Boat caught in the middle of a convoy, I feel targeted.
     This time I hail him by  radio, to convey my intent of having no plans to swing on a hook, at the location he has directed. He informs me that the  barge I am secured to, will probably be moved before morning, and directs me to a small  orange painted barge, which is secured to the shore beneath a high scaffold downstream of the log boom. He cautions me that the barge is littered with cables and steamboat jacks and having few points to secure to. He also stresses, that I be gone by morning.
      Locating and securing to the directed barge is uneventful. The rain has now finally stopped, and the wind has died to a near calm. It is now 1:25 AM and I am done for the night.
     The following sunrise, brings a beautiful morning, with a river that is incredibly littered with debris created from the previous rain.  Coming on deck, I survey the tank barge to which I am moored. It is secured to a scaffolding at the rivers edge which rises above to the top of the bank. Four platforms are connected by stairs, which are strewn  with a collection of branches, logs, and even trees, that make it an impassable  climb.
It is a frightening observation of the power and fluctuation which occurs on the Mississippi River.


Capt Bob |17:01 EST |Comments (0)

 

 

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