Tidewater Barges : (

westender · Joined: 02 Aug 2007 Posts: 1288 Location: Portland / Gorge

The boat throttles it enough so that the barge is going 3.5 mph upstream???

wsmike · Joined: 07 Jun 2003 Posts: 412

anecak · Joined: 30 Jun 2003 Posts: 14

You guys are making me feel a little bit better. I had the exact same experience as WhiteSalmonMike. I'm a local too, and I have always considered it my responsibility to see the barges. I didn't see the westbound one because I was paying attention to the eastbound one. My fault. However, for a barge pilot who is approaching a rare meeting with another barge, right at winsdsurfing ground zero, in the middle of July, on a windy weekend day, to never blast his horn once is wanton. I wish someone would contact Tidewater and tell them about the incident. They don't want to run over a windsurfer any more than we want them to. Maybe they would change or reemphasize their rule for such situations.

dhindahl · Joined: 21 Apr 2001 Posts: 1

One Key to clue you to a second barge is that the barge coming from the west was way out of the usual barge lane. When I saw that guy, I asked myself what he was doing way over toward the Oregon shore, taking a chance on running aground. I looked east and found my answer.

X ray specialists have a riddle which is one of my favorites: "Q: Which is the most commonly missed fracture on X ray? A: The second one.

I guess the same can go for our large river companions.

Dave H

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

pirat · Joined: 02 Jul 2000 Posts: 14

dangerd · Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 9:36 am Post subject:

Late in the evening about a week ago, me and some friends were hanging out at the Hatchery when we noticed a tug pushing two barges goimg down river extremely close to the WA side.
Then we noticed something was definitely wrong.
The barge executed a 360 right in front of of the jibeatorium.
And two make matters worse there was a double side-by-side barge heading up river at swell city.
It seems the down river tug had either lost power or it's front barge had come loose enough that he could'nt maintain steering.
The upriver barge had to go very close to the OR side to avoid the now sideways barge and then had to cut sharp to make the WA side of the red bouy by Well's Island.
A little rescue boat came(from Hood River I guess) to help the barge in trouble. and 45 minutes later it was on it's way again.
It was quite a drama. Thank god, only one sailor was out because it was so late and the wind had pretty mich died.
I guess my point is, the tug captains have a tough job and probably have a lot more to worry about than blowing a horn for a windsurfer who didn't happen to notice him.

advgeek · Joined: 30 Jun 2000 Posts: 83

Did that barge have little windsurfers with X's through them painted on the side like a fighter ace? I was getting ready to get in the water when I saw said barge incident and no the fuel barge did not blow his horn at all and he was moving really fast, while the upstream barge was blasting like crazy. I was several sailors pass in front of the fuel barge way closer than I'd be comfortable with, my guess is they didn't see it.

I had a similar scare a few years ago at Doug's a few years ago where I came in and my dad was yelling at me "didn't you see that barge!" I turned around and the barge was right where I had been just a few minutes before, I hadn't even seen it.

I think rather than counting on the barge captain's to blow their horns, just always look before you cross the barge lane. It just take two turns of the head and then you can relax and have fun in the swell.

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

Barge horns are not car horns. By regulation, duration (long vs short) and number of blasts (one through five) have very specific and legally binding meanings to other vessels within earshot (and within sight when adding lights to the horn blasts, as required). The first vessel to blow is signaling its intent (e.g., I intend to pass you on the right, or left, etc.); the other vessel must respond in a prescribed manner to signal compliance or a counter-intent, in which case a dialog may ensue (e.g., short-long-short blasts may mean "Yer mudder wears combat boots", one ten-second blast may mean "mine's longer'n yours". etc.) The end result must be a mutual agreement to pass or maneuver in a certain pattern.

What I do recall is that the more short (by definition, one second) blasts, the greater the danger. Five short blasts means something like, "I've done everything I can to avoid collision. If you don't do something different, we will collide."

Now imagine this scenario. Two barges approach. One sees us and toots his horn at us. The other barge pilot by law must interpret that specific toot pattern to mean, "I intend to ... whatever." and respond with an agreement pattern, a counter-idea, or a "I cannot comply. Try something else" pattern. Then by the time both pilots realize the other pilot's blasts were at idiots playing in their freeway rather than contractual agreements in accordance with the Inland Waterway sections of maritime law, one barge has taken out the Hood River bridge, the other barge biffed a hero jibe in the Event Site jibeatorium and crushed three Canada geese, three WSers had to abort their Vulcans, and the swell is messed up for 15 long minutes.

Bummer!

A solo barge can play Knick Knack Paddy Whack on his horn with no consequences. But in the presence of another vessel (no, I don't mean turrists on sticks or strings), they must play by their rules, not ours.

Mike \m/

pacspeed · Joined: 14 Sep 2000 Posts: 627

The actual rules:

http://www.boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/boating/colregs.html