Anyone for a boat ride?

“Check this out:

Extreme tugboating!”

“Can you imagine being in that tug boat?!

It's important to check out your route before leaving the dock. The fuel tankers are always careful to find out how much mat build up we have before driving under the canopy. There may be enough clearance in the summer but in the winter, it's always best to ask. :o)”

“Sunshine, did you notice the web address on the tug sequence -- ends in fi, Finland. The Finns always like da boats, ya.

Reino says she can relate to the tug captain from her canoeing experiences.”

“If you look at the pictures - the bridge lists vertical clerance in english, and the mesurements are in feet and inches, and the flag on the tug is an American Flag.”

“pekka, Reino sounds like fun! I want to go canoeing with her. :o)”

“Wowsers!!!!!!!!!!”

“THAT'S COOL!!!!”

“Sgt. Rock, sorry I wasn't clear. I didn't mean the pics weren't American, I saw the signs, too. Just that the site address seems to be Finnish. A very water-oriented nation, between a multitude of inland lakes and rivers and the Baltic/Bothnian coast. My wife comes from a line of Gulf of Bothnia coastal fishermen from the village of Ii.

We saw the Mississippi running like that when we drove down to St. Louis a few spring breaks ago.”

“Doh, sorry pekka.”

“I read a report from the pilot of the tug. It was a river in Ohio I think. During high water it was impossible to navigate the barges beneath the lifted span (seen in the photo on the opposite bank). The procedure was to let the barges go, back up the tug, go under the elevated span and collect the barges down stream. The pilot let the back end of the tug get sideways and lost control.

The tug was manufactured in Arkansas with about six feet of concrete in the bilge as ballast. The pilot had to hang on to the wheel for his life as the water poured back out of the wheel house. He almost got pulled out with the wash. He was still shaking years later.”