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The last 8 weeks of "Tow Talkin’" will appear here. For information on columns beyond 8 weeks old, please contact Kathy Flippo.
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November 30, 2009
The stranger of the week was Kirby’s M/v Athena. She was built in 1975 by LeMay Barge and Supply of Greenville. She’s 100 feet x 32 feet and powered by a pair of GM diesels giving her 1,900 horsepower. She went down with a couple of MT anhydrous ammonia barges.
Steel City’s M/v Mary Lynn has been up and down this past week also. Haven’t seen her in a long time.
Friday was a dud for tow watching. Could have been because I slept
almost all day. Only this, out front were the Artco harbor tugs Trojan and Saratoga.
Sunday, the 29th, was an Artco day. The M/v’s Roberta Tabor and
Cooperative Venture went down, each with 15 loads; and the Cooperative Ambassador went up lite boat. Found the Ingram M/v Ed Renshaw in the fleet below Savanna, Illinois, and across from Sabula, Iowa.
Can’t believe December starts on Tuesday. It is still too hot for me
outside.
So long until next week from the old river rat.
November 16, 2009
We’ve had two lousy tow-watching days this last week. On Sunday, the 8th, there was only the M/v Sarah Hunter going up and the M/v Show-Me-State going down. Tuesday was even worse. The M/v Andrea Leigh was the only tow to be seen when she came down out of Beaver Slough with nine coal MT’s.
Had something strange this Sunday, the 15th. The M/v Ed Renshaw went up with one covered load. Huh? Usually they go up with 15 full coal barges for Lansing, Iowa, and come back down with 15 MT coal barges. Strange.
Also today the Magnolia Marine’s M/v Gene Neal went up. This is another boat that I can recognize without having to look at a signboard. She reminds me of myself. I always wear a hat when I’m out and about, and the Gene Neal looks like she is wearing one too. Of course, I don’t have a square head, and I don’t have a square white hat either.
At last we are getting cooler weather. and it makes me feel more human. It doesn’t do anything for the chronic fatigue, but it sure makes sleeping nicer.
Until next week, so long from the old river rat.
November 2, 2009
Towboats are getting few and far between. Of course I probably am
missing a lot because I sleep practically all day besides all night.
This chronic fatigue is going to do me in yet.
Been raining almost every day so the river is up. It rains almost
every day. The bald eagles are showing up more and more also. Saw five at
one time in the leaning tree over on the head of the little island just
below our house. Up at Lock and Dam 13 there are at least a thousand
mudhens. When they get in a group they literally paint the river black.
The M/v Stephen L. Colby came up on Saturday last week. Haven’t seen it all
year. I remember one high water it spent tied to the cell above
Lock and Dam 13. With the locks flooded out there really wasn’t any
place else for it to go.
Can hardly believe it is November already. I always enjoyed being on
the boat on a trip to St Paul in October so I could look at the
beautiful trees on the river bluffs. This year beautiful trees didn’t
happen. Now nearly all have lost their leaves.
The Artco M/v Cooperative Vanguard came down Sunday afternoon with 15 MT’s.
Looked like a big wall going past our front windows. That Vanguard sure is
a trim and sleek looking towboat, just like the rest of the Cooperative
boats.
So long until next week from the old river rat.
October 19, 2009
On Wednesday last week the only tow I saw was the M/v Tom Frazier going up. The Twilight passenger boat went down. A boring day out front on the river.
On Tuesday last week the M/v Charlie G came back down light boat, topped around and nosed into the sand bar at the foot of Lower Cut on Beaver Island across from the house. I didn’t think there was enough water there to float a towboat! The M/v Luke Burton came up with MT’s and went into the fleet across the way. She’s not a stranger to me but hasn’t been up here in quite awhile.
The stranger of the week came up Thursday with four chem. barges. She was built in 1977 by Hillman Barge and is 120 feet by 34 feet and powered by a pair of Fairbanks Morse diesels giving 3,300 horsepower. She’s had lots of owners and lots of names in her life but now is owned by Florida Marine Transportation, Inc. out of Mandeville, Louisiana.
Took a ride up to Bellevue on Friday and, as we crossed the Savanna/Sabula bridge, lo and behold there was the Corps M/v General Warren and his dredging crew set up working in the big bend just above the bridge. Now they are headed home to Fountain City, Wisconsin.
So long until next week from the old river rat.
October 12, 2009
The reason this hasn’t been updated for awhile is because I have been sleeping. I have chronic fatigue, which is the first symptom of post polio syndrome. I had polio when I was seven but had no after effects from it. But this fatigue is awful! I’m not getting anything done. I don’t know how I can sleep all day and all night, but I sure can.
Was happy to see the Beluga going down the river last week. The Beluga is a large dark green sailboat that normally runs not from the sails but from the motor. I’ve known the boat for several years. The owners live in Stillwater, Minnesota, and spend winters in the Bahamas. While they are traveling they make kitchen knives. I’ve got a paring knife and a beautiful chef’s knife that was made on the boat.
The stranger of the week came up Friday night and that was Marquette’s M/v Charlie G. She is a pretty boat made in 1962 by St. Louis Ship. She had 15 loads in tow. Now (10/12) she is in Pool 10 and is down to three barges.
Fall is here and it isn’t going to be a brilliant fall around here. Trees are for the most part not turning brilliant colors. Many of them are just dropping their leaves and not turning color at all. It snowed Saturday morning! Hooray! It didn’t stick at all but sure was pretty coming down. I am a winter/snow person so it made me happy as a clam.
So long until next week, the old river rat.
September 21, 2009
Sunday was a Cooperative day! Artco had four Coop tows in the neighborhood. The M/vs Cooperative Ambassador and Venture were up in the Murray Island fleet below the railroad bridge. Then the Cooperative Vanguard came up and the Cooperative Mariner went down. That left the Cooperative Enterprise and Spirit to be seen, but they never come up here. They are big lower river boats. Sunday night the Cooperative Ambassador wasn’t in the fleet at Murray Island, but I found her. She was at the 3rd Street ARTCO dock in South Clinton, snuggled up to the outside of the ARTCO M/v Andrea Leigh.
The Inland Marine M/v R. W. Naye and ACL’s M/v Gene Herde are up in the Murray Island fleet also.
Friday wasn’t a good tow-watching day. The only things we saw were the little M/v Wanda Isabelle taking down her three barges of gravel from the pit just below our house down to Davenport. Those barges are so loaded I’m surprised they just don’t dive and sink. Then later that afternoon the passenger boat Twilight went down.
Saturday wasn’t any better. First thing the ARTCO harbor tug brought down four MT coal barges. Then the Alter tow M/v Kathy Ellen came down with one load. And that was that.
Today, Monday, isn’t much better. Ingram’s M/v Roy E. Claverie came down with 15 loads in the morning but nothing else so far.
So long until next week from the old river rat.
September 14, 2009
Have beautiful scenery across from the house over in the fleet. The M/v’s R. W. Naye and Gene Herde are over there. At night with their deck lights reflecting in the river makes them even prettier. I brought the Naye two-five gallon buckets of fresh produce last week. They were sure surprised but very grateful. Both boats are waiting for grain loads.
Tow traffic has been slow this past week because a train derailed on the swing span of a bridge down in the Quad Cities. Must be fixed now because we are getting traffic coming up.
The M/v Lydia E. Campbell came up Sunday afternoon and does she look bad. They’ve chipped her and have her primed with gray. She’ll look good once they get the white paint on her. She was headed north with 15 MT coal barges.
Also on Sunday the ARTCO M/v Roberta Tabor went down, the Ingram M/v Ed Renshaw went down, the Marquette M/v Titletown USA went up, and the ACL M/v Andrew Cannava went up. That’s a LOT more traffic than Saturday. Marquette’s M/v David L. Fields was the only tow all day.
Fall is definitely here, with cooler weather, and the trees are turning fast. Several cornfields have turned brown and are ready for picking, and so have several fields of soy beans. Cooler weather sure suits me!
Until next week from the old river rat.
September 7, 2009
It was a good week for towboats until Saturday. Then there was nothing. Well, there was, but I was as usual sound asleep when they went by.
Inland Marine’s M/v R. W. Naye has been homesteading in the fleet across the way from our house since Sunday, August 30th. Such a beautiful boat!
On Saturday night I did a river program up at the Thomson Causeway Corps of Engineers campground. That was my third one there this summer. Then on Sunday I got roped into doing a Lock and Dam 13 tour for the park ranger.
I thought Sunday was going to be a fizz for tow watching like Saturday, but just before midnight the M/v L. J. Sullivan came down followed by the M/v Lydia Brent.
On Thursday, last week, I made a trip up to Scales Mound, Illinois, to the passenger vessel Twilight’s new office. A 65-mile one-way trip. The captain on the Twilight told me on Wednesday I’d better go up there because they needed books. Well they didn’t. Grrrr. That trip for nothing. It’s a pretty drive though, if you like hills and tight curves.
No strangers up this week. The river is slightly falling. Sandbars out front are my river gauge.
So long until next week from the old river rat.
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