Southbound mile 158

I started this morning at 0500 with a nice hot shower, my morning cup of Community coffee and a quick walk around the tug, inspecting the engine room and the inside for cleanliness. I had asigned the back watch guys a couple of jobs and wanted to make sure they were done properly. I don't usually eat breakfast, but there is always something hot waiting when we wake up. Today it was eggs, grits, bacon and biscuits.
I headed upstairs to the wheelhouse to relieve my pilot. He passed on to me what happened the previous six hours and and headed off to bed. I sat down and got comfy for my six hour watch to begin. We were at mile 278 and had to go to 0 before we are off the Illinois River. I also have a Pilot working on my watch who I'm training in this area, he's still downstairs having his breakfast. I will have a lock to make on this watch and possibly one tonight. If you're not familiar with a lock it's a chamber that stretches from one side of the river to the other. Usually half of the structure is a hydrodam. We push our barges and boat into a chamber, gates are closed behind us and depending on whether we're going north or south, the locks will raise us up or lower us down. We're south bound so we'll lock down. The deck hands go out onto the barges with radios(walkie talkies) and give me distances ahead and to the side. This helps alot since we are so long, it's hard to see the end of our barges. Once we are in the lock chamber all the way, the deck hands secure the barges with 2" lines to the lock walls and the locking procedure begins.
 
The weather is really nasty this morning and has been most of the night, I could hear the rain beating down on the deck and feel the tug rocking from the high winds while I lay in my bunk. It is nice when your asleep but not to good when your trying to drive. We have radar, but if it rains too hard, the radars will pick up the clutter and not be able to produce a good image. It takes about an hour to lock down and we're back under way, making a whopping 5 knots, which is about 6.3 mph. That doesn't sound to fast but it is considering we are three football fields long and the total weight of everything is about 12,000 tons. I end my watch at 1200 in Peru Illinios, a pretty easy day, now to head down stairs to see what's for lunch, and a little nap.

1800- I get up and check out the tug, this is a routine I do every time I come on watch. I grab a snack bar and head upstairs. We are passing through Hennepin Illinois and just took on groceries. Here's how we get our food. I take an inventory of the food we have onboard, thats fresh produce, dairy, meats, can goods, the same things I get when I'm at home. It's just payed for by our company. I see what we need for the next 2 weeks and make a list. Then I email this to a supplier who handles our kind of work. They fill the order and since we are passing right by their place of business, they will load it all up in their boat and deliver it out to us. Pretty cool. When we're in port and not too busy, I'll head up to Sam's Club and do the shopping myself with the help of a couple of crew members. So, we are full up with groceries and moving on down the river. This stretch of river is nice, it has about three pairs of eagles that nest in the area and you usually get to see them, not today. The weather is still bad. I'm letting the Pilot steer now and am settin behind him observing. This is the boring part of my job, unless he screws up and gets out of the channel, I read my book and glance up from time to time and make sure he's on track. I'm reading Louis L'Amour's The Walking Drum, it's about a young pirate/corsair. What else would a Captain read about?

We make it to Peoria Illinois and down to the locks around 2300. Not alot of miles, 120 total for today. We will average this till we get to the Mississippi River then we should go alittle faster. I'm off to my bunk while it's quiet.