Steering around turn at Togo Island on Lower Mississippi River, not far downstream from Vicksburg,MS. From trip and on M/V Earl Etheridge January 27, 2023
Excellent, excellent video! My old master would tell me there's a fine line between misjudgment and bad judgment. When on the misjudgment side, you can recover from most (maybe not all!) of when things go to the bad. Also saving horsepower saves future real estate! Thanks for all you do to share the art of piloting with us!
Hi Capt that would have to be one of the best videos ive seen on here after 40 years as a Tug captain things dont always go to plan youve got a lot of skills and experience there Capt
@@marktwained If we don't make blunders we don't learn remember an expert is just a drip under pressure, weve all had slight errrs at some stage, its how you corrected it is your skill, we can all get in the shit its just the depth that counts.
This is one helluva interesting video. This would make a great training vid for newbie rivertow pilots. Digital shifts/throttles are nice. I had them on River Breeze. Of course it also had digital engine sync too. They were Glendennings and the best feature of those throttles was the "slow mode" that I switched into departing or coming into the docks. That setting only allowed a small percentage of engine power so you couldn't screw up and go into the dock at full throttle. That boat weighed like 80,000 lbs which is heavy for a recreational boat. At cruising speed on the river, she threw a six foot wake out behind her. The jet ski riders loved following me. Great job as always Capt. Enjoy your time ashore.
We just came down a few days ago with 15 and I backed it. But I'm still learning when and what I can steer or back. So I have a tendency to play it safe and back
You did very good making that decision. Togo will be a flank for me the rest of my career, unless we can jump the dikes. Dudes that brag about steering turns are young or dumb. That shit sounds good at a dive bar, but don’t pay the bills. A pilot that is skilled at flanking, and stays sharp by doing it often, will always make the top money in this industry. Real talk
I enjoyed the video so much the first time that I am watching it for a second time. It is one of your best yet and believe me I have watched a bunch of your videos. As you said it is real, not that the others aren't, but I can detect the urgency in your voice that doesn't manifest itself most of the time. The save in St. Louis harbor was one of the times you got real for sure. It doesn't get any better than that. Keep up the good work.
a real good video here iv been watching them on my smart TV but no way to comment so i commented here on my pc also love the sound and vibration effects of that horsepower in your turn would love some running tours of engine rooms since im a lover of big diesels especially EMDs thanks for sharing captain.
Your Marktwained RU-vid channel name brings back the fondest memories in my 73 years on this earth. Those were the years 1953 to 1956 when I was 3 to 6 years old and living in the land of Twain, Hannibal, Missouri. Those were the most idyllic days of my childhood as Hannibal in the early 1950s had not changed all that much from the what it was in the late 1800s. I will never forget the Saturday morning in 1955 when I heard a real steamboat whistle blowing. We were expecting the (real) Steamboat Avalon to make a port call and take folks out on a day cruise. My dad took us out on that boat and that is one of the fondest memories of my life. There were 2 coincidences from that day. First, the Avalon, which was built in 1912, move to Louisville and became the Belle of Louisville. In 1990, I was a pilot for United Airlines and had a layover in Louisville and got to ride the old Avalon a second time, but 35 years later. I was forced to retire from United in 2015 on my 65th birthday, but got a job flying a corporate jet for a wealthy family. In that capacity, I had a 3 day layover in New Orleans and went for a daylight excursion on the new (1974 new) steamboat Natchez. Prior to boarding, I met the captain who was greeting those waiting to board and asked if I could join him in the pilot house, explaining that I had been a captain for United and my love of rivers and river boats, and he agreed to let me up there. I then told him the names of all the riverboats I had ridden on and when I mentioned the Avalon, he pointed to an elderly gentleman standing about 50 feet way and told me to tell him I had ridden on the Steamboat Avalon. It turns out that that man was a mate on the Avalon the day I went out on it from Hannibal! He later worked his way up to captain. His name was Captain Clarke "Doc" Hawely, and I have his business card in my scrapbook.
Thank you so much for this amazing story. Capt. Hawley recently passed away. I consider myself friends with men that learned under him. You have an unique experience that I’m very glad you shared. That’s neat stuff, sir. Thank you 👍🏻
@@marktwained Thanks Captain Kyle!! That means a lot coming from you. I would love to send you a copy of his business card. The amazing thing to me was that even though he was long retired from piloting a riverboat, he was still there on the levee dock near a steamboat, even as an onlooker. I was SO fortunate to have met him and have exchanged the story of our paths crossing so many years ago.
In this trade, I’ve witnessed more “lack of experience” causes of accidents, than what I think should be acceptable. I see a huge shortage of experience in our industry.
Great video hats off to ya for the save!! I'm mostly on the ohio I'd love to get posted up on the lower. Before I get much older!! I've been following you since I got my pilots licence lover your content!!
enjoyed this one a lot. your annotations are helpful. you know how you were feeling, but your voice and manner did not change that much. you never seemed maybe as rattled as you felt. Thx much.
It makes me anxious to watch it. It is as valuable to me, as any recent footage that I can remember. I’ve learned quite a bit from watching how I handled that morning. I released it with minimal editing, unlike I originally planned. Letting it play without jump cut edits is very important to understand the timing of things. I have already started on companion video explaining the things I saw, and plans for improvements.
1,200 ton per loaded barge is 2,400,000 pounds per barge X 28 barges=67,200,000 total pounds you're pushing and steering there! 67.2 million pounds! Plus, barge weight themselves and boat. Dang! No weigh stations on the river!
Hey cap, here's a way I learned to unload stress that works for me. You can do it sitting down with no mumbo jumbo. Put your hands flat together like you're praying, push them together really hard and keep pushing. take a deep breath, and exhale real slow. When you run out of breath relax. You can feel it sweep across your head and chest.
I worked on the river for 14 years and spent a season off shore in the Gulf. After the army I started decking on a fleet boat up on the Ohio for Dravo by New Cumberland,W.V. I moved back to Wisconsin and started running excursion boats and spent 7 years running a 400 passenger stern wheeler. This relaxing trick worked more than once.
I do powerlifting, and have full time trainer.. and full time therapist that helps me with guided meditation., My body and mind may appear “off” in some videos, as trips wear on me, but I dedicate my full days off on betterment. Thank you for tip, but I’m into advanced meditation techniques that exceed basic physical cue techniques like that. If it works for you, keep it up. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
I didn't know it was an advanced technique. I'm not trying to be a wise guy, it is the only technique that I know. I learned it from my dramatics teacher in high school to help with stage fright. I am 75 years old now and grew up before the age of trainers and meditation. You look like a power lifter, pretty fine. Thank you for the great vids and commentary. 50 years ago when I started on the river all of the old tow boat pilots went through a couple packs of cigs a day, 3 or 4 pots of coffee, 1 or 2 divorces and a fatal heart attack in their 60s. You are taking really good care of yourself and are a careful pilot, the kind I would have liked to work for back in the day.
We camp on the bank of the Tombigbee River and occasionally a tow boat with barges pulls up to the bank and ties off for, sometimes, 12 hours or more. Why are they doing that? I have alot of respect for you captains and really enjoy watching the traffic on the Mississippi River. I enjoy your channel.
Was that 107 foot the depth of the river? Thanks for letting us in the pilot house and for watching you do your job. No one really understands how complex steering a tow boat is, but you have explained it well. So much like flying an airplane! You sometimes have to take a calculated risk and hope you figured right. You got into a bit of a fix, but had the piloting skills to get yourself out of trouble. Well done Captain Kyle!!
Don’t underestimate the boat. It’s the boat that saved him. It had the power to shove out of the race with the bank. His pucker factor was a little higher than he’s letting into in the video. As they say “endless hours interrupted by sheer moments of terror”. Good job Capt.
Hey captain. Was this just north of Barfield ( Armorel Ar)? I was a hand at marine terminal, before it became Kinder Morgan. Wonderful job by the way. I've seen many a things happen around that bend.
You all have to really pay attention, it's almost like things go in slow motion all the way to a crash, LOL 😂 Very good captain, that why you make the big bucks
Love your work and video's Captain, but just curious do you really us mph on the rivers or mean to say knots? I stoped watching TV after finding your channel and a couple others like Dan Gryder probable cause.
Capt Kyle , Going back to your turn I thought ya did great job and would give ya 7 outa 10. Question if you would have missed that turn and clipped the back or bar would ya loose your job
1.5-2 minutes. Not sure exactly. It’s generally set to that, UNLESS.. empties northbound on Upper Mississippi close quarters (bridges, locks). I’ll set it 30 seconds.
Give that boat a little pat on the back for winning the bank race. Yes give yourself one to for not second guessing it. I’m curious what your over the ground speed was when your stern started lifting. I know you said the current was fast (3 to 5 mph? I would consider anything 6 and over to be smoking)and was making about 6 mph coming down on the topside. That means you probably didn’t have much for steerage Good job Capt.
Without looking at video to see if speed was visible, I’m guessing I got her up to about 10, and maybe as fast as 11+.. but those speeds were reached after I let off a bit, but had her straight with current. It’s like the current, I still deal with effects well past point of greatest impact on the vessel. The huge tonnage and the momentums we deal with are what make things interesting. 👍🏻
Don’t know how that would work, as current speeds out towards head can be completely different at stern. The river current varies s much position to position, not sure a constant numbering would work in anything that would be useful.
No. They can’t give me anything I don’t already know, and in this situation, I don’t want them on tow (barges), or even walking around outside of boat. That was unsaid, because crew was not outside.
