Saturday, July 05, 2008

• Westbound in the Sounds

     Today we are headed back to New Orleans, after picking up barges in Mobile, Theodore, and Pascagoula. Currently, we are due south of Pass Christian, Mississippi, running west in the Mississppi Sounds. Our cargos are cement, DAP, and perlite. Cement you know; DAP is a fertilizer that is heavy on the nitrogen and phosphate, but contains no potash whatsoever. It is good for increasing the alkilinity of soil in the short term, but is acidic in the long run. I am sure that it is mixed with other materials at the receiving end for different purposes. Then we have perlite, which is a silicous rock of a type called volcanic glass. Perlite expands when heated, up to 20 times its previous size. It is an ideal additive to garden soils, as it aerates the soil and retains excess moisture, then slowly releases it for use by the plant. It is also mixed with cement to make a lightweight concrete for coatings and concrete deck plates.

     The weather today is wonderful, as it was last night when we picked up the DAP barges near Pascagoula. It was breezy enough to cool the deckhands as they toiled, but not windy enough to kick up any seas. Now yesterday, in Theodore, it was different story.

     I was pulling an empty barge on the headline, shifting it from our tow to a dock across the channel, a distance of about 1/8 of a mile. A piece of cake normally. Our barges were secured on a shoreline tied to the bank, which was lined with tall pine trees. As I pulled the barge away from the tow, and began taking it north to the fleet, a squall was headed our way from the east. But the darkening sky was hidden from my view by the tree-line, so I was taken by surprise when I got into the channel and was hit by 25 mph winds, which quickly increased to 40 mph. The wind whipped the barge, which had been broadside to the channel, around in front of me, and I was suddenly going sideways towards a dock with several boats and barges tied to it. I gunned the engines, and stopped the slide, but was in danger then of hitting the fleet I was originally trying to reach at a high rate of speed. Did I mention the blinding rain? No? There was a blinding rain through which I could barely see the barges I was about to clobber. Then the wind died down, and I regained a semblance of control, at which time the wind changed direction, and started blowing me away from my objective. I had to turn the boat around and face the opposite way in order to steer the barge into wind until the blow was over, then finally wrestled the 200-foot empty alongside the fleet.

     While the deckhand tied off the barge,  I caught my breath, and contemplated the pleasure one might get from a cigarette at times like this. I had a Life-Saver instead.

   

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