I got off yesterday, almost right in my own back yard. Total time from stepping ashore to home was about 15 minutes... WONDERFUL! I love that kind of crew change!
I took this picture yesterday when off... If it looks like 2 boats, it is. We were dragging another boat upriver on our port side to be tied up. It had been decrewed and just had the engineer and mate on it so they came ate with us.
Work is so slack out there that they are tying a lot of boats up and running only the big boats that can push more.
The water is so high on the river right now because of all the rain everyone in the USA is having so conditions are pretty scary right now. High water means swift currents which are pretty dangerous. Last week end we were all the way up, had delivered our north bound tow and had our south bound tow and about ready to leave. Had faced up the boat to our tow, had all the wing wires hooked up and tight when we had a general alarm announcing a collision/allision was fixing to happen. Everyone took off running to get life jackets on and to find out what was happening. I was in the galley with the Captain, engineer and several deck hands and we all took off. I got my life jacket on, was getting the crew roaster off the board when my Captain screamed at me to get in the lounge and SIT down, we were fixing to be hit, all the wing wires were going to be breaking and flying everywhere and we were going to be thrown about inside.... I KNEW 2 of our deckhands were out there on tow and I know anyone being hit with one of those breaking wires could be cut in half in a instant. The sound of those wires breaking was like hearing bombs go off and as they slammed around on the boat and barges they echoes all through the steel of the boat and the boat was being yanked all over as the wires broke. If I had been standing and not expecting it, I would have been thrown around like a rag doll.. PHEW! Want to talk about doing some PRAYING?!!! I could have went hysterical easily but I was to busy praying that the guys on tow would be alright, begging "PLEASE don't let anyone get hurt!". I sat in the lounge praying all alone until things calmed down and I could no longer stand not knowing everyone was alright.
I went into the deck locker that leads outside to the bow of the boat and could see through the window that everyone was fine outside, just busy trying to get a rope from the boat to the tow to hold the tow so we wouldn't loose it. Since we were at the main company fleet, there were plenty of men out there to help our guys get things under control.
In this picture, you can see our mate dragging one of the broken wires out of the way and the rope from the boat to hold the barges in place. (and he is waving for us to take pictures)
What happened was due to the current, another of our company boats was coming up behind us and couldn't stop. He hit us in the back of the boat, a glancing blow on one corner or his barges would have ran right over our boat from the stern forward. Yes, I think we would have sunk FAST!
This picture you see another tug holding the other boats barges in place so he wouldn't loose them and I think that boat furthest away is the one that hit is. Had we not been in the fleet where we were, with all that help right there already, this would have been a major event.
Broken wires all over
To give you a idea of what the wing wires are, in this picture you see them, they are all those wires you see going from the boat outwards to the barges. They are super tight and can pull the boat right up out of the water and are constantly being adjusted as we burn fuel to keep them super tight. Wenches are used to tighten them. I have to admit, it amazes me that these boats can push so many barges, the boat is so small compared to the size of the tows we push!
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Originally Posted by Laura's Babies
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